Biblical Commentary and Translation in Later Medieval England

Drawing extensively on unpublished manuscript sources this study uncovers the culture of experimentation that surrounded biblical exegesis in fourteenth-century England. In an area ripe for revision Andrew Kraebel challenges the accepted theory (inherited from Reformation writers) that medieval English Bible translations represent a proto-Protestant rejection of scholastic modes of interpretation. Instead he argues that early translators were themselves part of a larger scholastic interpretive tradition and that they tried to make that tradition available to a broader audience. Translation was thus one among many ways that English exegetes experimented with the possibilities of commentary. With a wide scope the book focuses on works by writers from the heretic John Wyclif to the hermit Richard Rolle alongside a host of lesser-known authors including Henry Cossey and Nicholas Trevet and many anonymous texts. The study provides new insight into the ingenuity of medieval interpreters willing to develop new literary-critical methods and embrace intellectual risks.