Peter of John Olivi On the Acts of the Apostles ed. by David Flood, O.F.M.

Abstract

154 BOOK REVIEWS The Science ofConjecture is a masterly work, beautifully written, and based on encyclopaedic research, all references to which have been carefully annotated. It is simply a tour de force that is unlikely to be surpassed for many a year. BARRY MILLER University OfNew England Armidale, New South Wales, Australia Peter ofJohn Olivi On the Acts ofthe Apostles. Edited by DAVID FLOOD, O.F.M. St. Bonaventure, N.Y.: Franciscan Institute Publications, 2001. Pp. xxvi + 516 +ii. $50.00 (paper). ISBN 1-57659-174-3. In this the most recent volume of the editorial work of David Flood, O.F.M., we have an excellent critical edition of the commentary by Peter John Olivi on the Acts of the Apostles. Produced, as Flood observes (viii), somewhere in southern France and, in all probability, towards the end of Olivi's life (1248-98), the Lectura super Actus Apostolorum is the record of lectures delivered to younger friars. Although it draws heavily upon the traditional medieval sources for an Acts commentary, such as the Expositio Actuum Apostolorum and the Retractatio in ActusApostolorum ofvenerable Bede and Rabanus Maurus's Super Actus Apostolorum, the Lectura evinces its Franciscan origin in, among other points, the explanations of the paupertas humilis of the early apostolic community. This poverty, as Olivi is anxious to point out, excluded not simply individual claims to ownership, but even ownership on the part of the community (88-92) The work is divided into two major sections: the first part comprises t~e proemium and the commentary on chapter 1 ofActs; the second is composed of four subsections, each one of which is named according to one of the seasons of the year and treats its share of the remaining 27 chapters as part of the light metaphor that Olivi draws from the Canticle of Canticles (6:10): "Who is that woman going forth like the rising ofthe dawn, beautiful as the moon, choice like the sun, and terrible to behold, like an army arrayed for battle?" But, in spite of his typically medieval interest in numerology, Olivi also shows considerable sensitivity to historical detail and accuracy, even taking the effort to study the texts of the Jewish historian Josephus found in Bede and elsewhere. A noteworthy passage in this substantial commentary is the one bearing upon chapter 17 of Acts, wherein St. Paul attempts to convince the Athenian philosophers that they should accept his teaching about Christ crucified and raised from the dead. Here Olivi, speaking to a group ofyounger and less urbane friars who may not have done much reading in philosophical texts, recounts a brief history of ancient philosophy, using as his primary source Augustine's De BOOK REVIEWS 155 civitate Dei, while, interestingly enough, not drawing upon the richest source at his disposal for presenting the history of earlier classical philosophy, Aristotle's Metaphysica. Perhaps Olivi's intention was to keep the overview of the subject as clear as possible for the simple and humble friars (simplices [336]) to whom he was then lecturing. The edition is based upon the five known manuscripts along with quoted excerpts taken from the sermons of Bernardino of Siena. As Flood shows in his introduction, four of the five manuscripts fall into two groups that present texts of good quality. When the two groups are not in agreement, the reading of the majority of the witnesses is usually sound; in the cases when there are no majority readings, Flood maintains that the reading of the Naples manuscript (Bibliotheca Nazionale, cod. vii AA 45) is usually the best available choice because of its tendency to preserve typically Olivian expressions. Overall, the quality of the text is superb, the punctuation helpful, and the sources clearly documented, evidencing the remarkable scholarship ofthe editor, who has spent years reading and studying the writings of the Occitan master. In addition to the introduction and the text, the volume containsannotationes et auctoritates or the apparatus fontium, an index of manuscripts cited, an English summary of the commentary, an extremely handy listing of doubts and quaestiones raised by Olivi in the midst of his fundamentally literal commentary, an index of unusual Latin words found in the text...