An Introduction to the Medieval Bible by Frans van Liere (review)

Abstract

MedievalAn Introduction to Medieval Bible. By Frans van Liere. (New York: Cambridge University Press. 2014. Pp. xvi, 320. $28.99 paperback. ISBN 978-0-52168460-6.)It is a brave man who would attempt to introduce so vast and sprawling a topic as medieval Bible in a single volume of modest size. Frans van Liere's courage has produced a useful outline of Bible in medieval West, aimed primarily at undergraduates but also at scholars and students who want to rediscover rich tradition of medieval biblical interpretation as something still relevant to our understanding of Bible today (p. xii). After a general introduction (chapter 1), he tackles nature of medieval Bibles as books (chapter 2), their content, including apocrypha and pseudepigrapha (chapter 3), and transmission of texts (chapter 4). focus then shifts to different ways in which texts were read and understood, with an introduction to multiple senses of scripture in medieval exegesis (chapter 5) and an overview of main commentary traditions (chapter 6). next chapter sketches history of vernacular versions (chapter 7), whereas final two tackle The Bible in Worship and Preaching (chapter 8) and Bible in medieval art, including theater (chapter 9). There are three useful appendices (tabulating canons of Hebrew, early medieval, late medieval, and modern bibles; setting out different names used for various biblical books; and presenting a schematic genealogy of Old Testament translations, p. 271); a chronological handlist of principal medieval commentators would have been a worthwhile fourth. There is a reasonable Subject and Author index, an index of biblical references (surely irrelevant in an introductory volume), and an Index of Manuscripts Cited. last can only be described as lamentable; it fails to include many of manuscripts that are discussed, even very famous ones (one will look in vain for entries for Codex Argenteus, Books of and Kells, Dagulf Psalter, Old English Hexateuch, Heliand, Paris Psalter, Tres Riches Heures, Utrecht Psalter, and York Gospels, among others), whereas references for those that do happen to be included may be incomplete-Codex Veronensis, for example, is reported for page 91 but not for pages 181-82, Lindisfarne Gospels for pages 107 and 189 but not 187.The strengths of volume are its conceptual structure-a sensible way to introduce many aspects of topic to nonspecialists-and its general clarity: each chapter effectively conveys key issues for its complicated field. Thus someone who reads whole work will indeed grasp essentials of an enormous, indeed boundless, subject. This is a major achievement, for which author deserves warm congratulations.The weaknesses of volume are its many errors of detail. For instance, on page 8 we read that Benedict Biscop Rome no less [mc] than five times (he actually visited it six times); on page 9 that the new bibles did not look at all like any of books commonly produced in England at time such as Book of Durrow (Durrow is not an English manuscript, and elaborately decorated gospelbooks of its sort were exception, not rule); and that 500 sheep were needed to produce parchment for Codex Amiatinus alone (in fact, calves were used). …