It is refreshing to find an accessible work which revises popular assumptions concerning medieval Europe and surprising that it is still needed in a world of post-revisionism. Frans van Liere challenges those who ignore the merits of medieval exegesis in favour of Protestant hermeneutics from the sixteenth century onwards, or even those who wish to ignore biblical interpretation altogether. He sets out to correct such myths as the idea that medieval clergy monopolised the Bible at the expense of the laity and that medieval biblical scholarship had little to offer.
Motivated by the need for a new textbook for undergraduate course work, van Liere's book should appeal to scholars and students who wish to engage with the rich tradition of medieval biblical development and interpretation. The scope of the work is limited to the Latin Bible in the West and necessarily, therefore, ignores Greek and Hebrew traditions, as well as Byzantium, the Slavic world and the Eastern Mediterranean. Medieval is defined, for the purposes of this study, as the period from Jerome's Latin translation, around 405, to the first printed version in 1455, although van Liere goes beyond these limits, notably discussing the Vulgate after the Reformation.
The work is well structured and easy to follow with four main areas of examination: the Bible as a book; its transmission; its interpretation; and its diffusion. These areas are further divided into nine chapters, each with resources for further study. In addition, there are three interesting appendices: a ‘Comparative Canon Chart’; ‘Names for Biblical Books’; and ‘A Schematic Genealogy of Testament Translation’.
Van Liere's work has much to teach, or remind us, about the importance of the medieval world on our reception and understanding of the Bible today. For instance, until the late-medieval period, the Bible was not compiled into one volume, but was a library of many Latin manuscripts. Indeed, the biblical canon remained unsettled even into the Reformation, where two versions existed – one with the Apocrypha and one without. Therefore, there was evolution of the canon where the text was in flux and where interpretation could be allegorical, typological or spiritual and not just literal or historical. Moreover, the vernacular Bible was not just a Protestant phenomenon: the biblical texts could be understood and interpreted by ordinary lay people, not just through written texts, but also through readings in public worship and private devotion, sermons and mystery plays. Indeed, visual art could be a kind of didactic exegesis.
There are unfortunate typographical errors in van Liere's text and some places where idiomatic English is obscured. If a second edition is envisaged at some point, then a thorough proof read and correction is recommended. There is also a frustration, in such a short work, that some areas of history receive relatively superficial treatment. Wycliffe, for instance, receives barely four pages.
However, there are great strengths to this book: it deals not only with the familiar landmarks of Jerome and the Vulgate but the lesser known characters, texts and traditions, such as the Codex Amiatinus, the Pseudepigrapha, Theodulf of Orleans, Alcuin of Tours, Haimo of Auxerre, the Derash and Peshat Jewish traditions of interpretation, Isidore of Seville and Bede. Moreover, the author, who has already published a book on Andrew of St Victor, alerts us to the importance of the Abbey of St Victor in the story of medieval biblical scholarship. The book also has a refreshing lack of denominational bias, which is important in providing a scholarly, historical and theological adjustment to existing scholarship and received assumptions. Van Liere encourages us to acknowledge that the meaning of biblical text is always embedded in a tradition of interpretation, of which the medieval period is a vital part and must not be ignored.
