Making the Bible French: The "Bible historiale" and the Medieval Lay Reader by Jeanette L. Patterson

Abstract

Reviewed by: Making the Bible French: The "Bible historiale" and the Medieval Lay Reader by Jeanette L. Patterson Erika E. Hess Patterson, Jeanette L. Making the Bible French: The "Bible historiale" and the Medieval Lay Reader. UP of Toronto, 2022. ISBN 978-1-4875-0888-3. Pp. 249. First written in 1295, with a prologue added in 1297, Guyart des Moulins's Bible historiale would be revised and modified innumerable times over the following centuries to address the changing culture of the times and the interests of medieval lay readers. Through his translation into vernacular French of the historical books of the Latin Vulgate Bible, along with chapters from Peter Comestor's Historia scholastica, Guyart created a Bible for French medieval lay readers and clergy illiterate in Latin. It would become "the most widely disseminated and most influential French-language Bible translation for over two hundred years" (4) as well as one of the "most widely owned books of any kind in French throughout the later Middle Ages" (28). In Making the Bible French, Jeanette Patterson emphasizes that Guyart did not simply translate the Latin Bible into French and create a static book. Rather, he foregrounded his role as author-translator to engage in dialogue with his readers, as he also invited readers to supplement the book with their own religious experiences and stories, and invited scribes to modify the work as well. The result, Patterson notes, is a "dynamic text" that is "sensitive to the variability of readers and of the cultural contexts in which they read" (160). Guyart's translation included glosses to assist medieval readers in the interpretation of biblical historical events, incidents supplying information on non-biblical historical events, prologues, translator notes, illustrations, and diagrams. Later scribes made additional changes, for example, combining other translations of the Bible with Guyart's histoires, adding new translations of prologues, or additional glosses from a Bible moralisée (160-61). The "modular structure" of the Bible historiale allowed it to be easily adapted to changing times (13). In her study, Patterson first examines Guyart's translation project, focusing on how the "interventions of its first-person translator work to construct the subject-position of the reader as a function of the text" that also opens "a space for actual readers to inhabit" (11). In chapters 2 and 3, Patterson studies the way in which the French Bible reflects and incorporates medieval literary norms, including courtly romance. In the final chapters (4 and 5), Patterson considers the "dynamic tension" at play as the narrator invites readers to "interrogate the text" and "complete the narratives in their own imaginations" while also, at other times, discouraging "readers' questions and active interpretation" (161). Patterson connects this concern for the risks of "reading and misreading" to themes frequently found in later medieval literature (161). Throughout her work, Patterson demonstrates that making a French Bible that would be "intelligible" and "enjoyable" for its readers required "not only translating its language, but also enacting a cultural translation" (162). Guyart's translation and its later variations [End Page 215] provide invaluable insights into the changing political, social, and cultural perspectives and preferences of its readers. This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of medieval history, religion, and literature. [End Page 216] Erika E. Hess Northern Arizona University Copyright © 2023 American Association of Teachers of French