Studies in the Reception of the Historia Scholastica of Peter Comestor

<p>The <em>Historia Scholastica </em>(circa 1170) mingles biblical narrative Jewish legends and commentary and was a popular source of biblical material for authors until the Reformation. Maria Sherwood-Smith gives an introduction to the sources and transmission of the Latin work before investigating its reception in detail in two thirteenth-century German works the <em>Schwarzwälder Predigten</em> and the <em>Weltchronik </em>of Rudolf von Ems. Briefer analyses of Jacob van Maerlant's <em>Scholastica </em>and the <em>Historiebijbel </em><em>van 1360 </em>provide further context. Looking in this way at the different functions the work fulfils for later authors one discerns a growing awareness of the distinction between it and the text of the Bible. It is suggested that this enhances the <em>Historia Scholastica's </em>reputation as a safeguard of orthodoxy.</p>