How to Correct the Sacra Scriptura? Textual Criticism of the Bible between the Twelfth and Fifteenth Century. By CORNELIA LINDE.

Abstract

This is an important book. It addresses a number of frequently raised questions which have been awaiting an attempt at a coordinated answer. In Part I Dr Linde begins by looking at the basic vocabulary. What does vulgata mean in the Middle Ages, or septuaginta or Hebraica veritas or Graeca veritas? Part II examines the Vulgate and the lingering use of the Vetus Latina until the ninth century. Medieval respect for Jerome sharpened only with the fourteenth century. The medieval ‘editions’ of the Bible in which attempts were made to restore corrupted text are explored. In some cases, these efforts had puzzlingly little influence. The work of Isidore in this area has not survived and that of Cassiodorus seems to have faded from medieval notice. Alcuin’s attempt was more influential, partly because he could command the assistance of the scribes at St Martin’s Tours—where he was abbot—in making copies. Yet he seems to have gone about the work without any clear plan, making corrections of obvious scribal errors but not ‘emending’ in the sense attempted by Theodulf of Orleans. Theodulf considered variant readings. The ‘Paris Bible’ of the twelfth–thirteenth century was the product of a quite different milieu, and met a need in a university context (and probably with university approval) for finding-aids such as what became the modern chapter divisions and study-aids such as a glossary. It remains unclear which basic text was used for the Paris Bible.