Halporn, 'Bible in the Latin West', Bryn Mawr Medieval Review 9505
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/bmmr/bmmr-9505-halporn-bible
@@@@95.5.6, Gibson, The Bible in the Latin West
Margaret T. Gibson. The Bible in the Latin West. The Medieval
Book, I. Notre Dame, IN: U of Notre Dame P, 1993. ISBN 0-268-00693- 8.
$26.95.
Reviewed by James W. Halporn, Indiana University/Harvard University
This volume, by the late Margaret T. Gibson, Senior Research Fellow
(St. Peter's, Oxford), inaugurates a series concerned with the codicology
of medieval texts. Gibson defines codicology as a consideration of the
reasons for and process of changes in the physical appearance of
manuscripts and early printed books over the course of a period from late
antiquity to the sixteenth century. She suggests that provenance and the
study of illustration also fall within the field of codicology.
Her survey of the Bible in the Latin West (though she speaks in her
preface of the Latin Bible tout court, she includes in her discussions
examples of vernacular texts in English and German as well) is both
fascinating and idiosyncratic. It is clear, as we shall see later, that
this volume did not receive the final editing that one is sure that Gibson
would have wanted. In this respect, the American editors of this series
have not served Gibson well. As a result, both in the descriptions of the
plates, the choice of examples, and the entries in the brief glossary, we
are often in the dark about the reasons that lay behind her decisions.
There are some errors and corrections that I have listed at the end of
this review. The greatest omission is that Gibson does not offer a major
transcription of any of the plates. This would have been a great help in
elucidating the structure of these texts and their presentation.
She takes as her beginning what she calls "the great senatorial
libraries of the later fourth century [from which] none of these books has
survived." Presumably she means that no Bibles have survived from Italy of
this early period, but surely items like the Vercelli Gospels (Vercelli,
Bib. cap. S.N., fourth century; CLA IV.467) which Lowe believed was
written in Italy deserved to be mentioned. Admittedly, it is an Old Latin
version, and Gibson decided to stick to what she terms "the 'straight'
text of the Vulgate." As she herself indicates, Jerome's version did not
come into general use until the sixth century at the earliest, but it is
misleading to state that no earlier Bibles have survived.
The study begins with an important introduction, in which Gibson
first discusses clearly and briefly the origins of Jerome's undertaking in
translating the Old Testament, having at his disposal the Septuagint, the
Hebrew, and what she calls the Vetus Latina Old Testament. There
is, of course, no such Bible as the last, since the Old Latin existed in
versions, not in a canonical and set text (see Augustine, De doct.
christ. 2.16: "Qui enim scripturas ex hebraea in graecam verterunt,
numerari possunt, latini autem interpretes nullo modo," cited by Gibson,
p. 2, fn. 11). She quickly disentangles the problems of the New
Testament, stating that Jerome translated from the Greek only the Gospels,
using as his model for the rest some earlier Latin versions, and
adumbrates the problems that arose from the prior use of these texts in
liturgy. More importantly, looking at Jerome's prefaces, directed to what
she calls "the Christian intelligentsia," she emphasizes the important
fact that Jerome was as much an editor of his texts as a translator and
adapter.
Gibson then divides her study into seven major sections (a division
that is mirrored in the organization of the plates): A. Late Antiquity,
B. The Carolingians, C. Vernacular Bibles, D. Monastic Bibles, E. The
University Text, F. The New Literacy, G. The Bible in Print. The first
section moves from the period of Justinian (mid fifth century) to Bede and
Cuthbert (end of the seventh century). In dealing with pre-Carolingian
MSS, Gibson either refers to them only by CLA number, without giving the
relevant volume as well, or omits the CLA number, which can cause some
problems for the reader who wants to check out the entries. She made an
odd choice for her earliest plate in this group, a MS she calls the "Tours
Pentateuch," which is generally known as the "Ashburnham Pentateuch."[[1]]
This book, according to many authorities may not even have been written in
a senatorial setting in Italy (Gibson herself mentions North Africa or
Spain as possible origins; Lowe does offer North Italy or Illyria as
likely locations; Nordenfalk and Weitzmann also offer Spain or North
Africa as possibilities).[[2]] Gibson seems to have chosen the Ashburnham
Pentateuch, as she indicates in her discussion of the Theodulf Bible
(plate 6) because Theodulf, she suggests, may have brought the this late
antique book to the Loire valley and adds that a comparison of the texts
of the Pentateuch with that of Theodulf might be useful for a general
study of his sources. A more suitable example here would be London, BL
Harley 1775, a sixth century Italian codex containing the Gospels[[3]], a
much more likely choice for the Italy of Justinian's time. The
palaeography and contents of this plate are given short shrift: the
latter is tucked away in the third paragraph of the description, and that
the codex is written in uncial is never mentioned at all. Indeed, the only
mention of a specific point in the text fails to inform the reader that it
appears in the first of the two columns (in her general description of the
physical characteristics of the codex, Gibson neglects this important fact
as well, offering no measurement of the individual columns).
For her second plate, Gibson chose Oxford, Bodleian Laud Graec. 35
(CLA 2.251), the bilingual "Laudian Acts," rather than the usual choice,
the Codex Bezae (Cambridge CUL Nn.II.41, CLA 2.140), because of the
connection of this codex with Bede. Neither the Latin hand (what Lowe
calls "b-uncial") nor the contents of the illustrated plate (Acts 9:24-27)
are mentioned in the description.
Her discussion turns next to Cassiodorus, and offers a useful
summary of his work, though it is unclear how she can interpret
Inst. 1.11.3 (p. 36 Mynors) to mean that Cassiodorus specified that
the Bible is "normally in nine volumes." What Cassiodorus actually says is
"but now that we have collected the sacred documents, as given with the
Lord's help in nine codices with the introductory writers and with almost
all Latin commentators, let us see (with the Lord's aid) how holy law has
been divided in three different ways by the different Fathers."
Bede follows next, and this brings up the coming of Cassiodorus'
pandect (the "codex grandior") to England, which led to Ceolfrid's
decision to make three copies of a pandect (not copies of the "codex
grandior," as Gibson implies, because the copies are Vulgate Bibles, while
Cassiodorus' pandect was an Old Latin translation ("in quo septuaginta
interpretum translatio veteris Testamenti...continetur Inst. 1.14.2
(p. 40.8-9 Mynors). The surprise in the plates is that Gibson has chosen
to offer not a page from the Amiatinus, already available in E.A. Lowe,
English Uncial, Oxford, 1960, pls. VIII and IX and elsewhere or
from London BL Add. 37777 + Add. 45025 (CLA 2.177), plate in Lowe, op.
cit., pl. X, but rather the so called "Bankes Leaf" (London BL Loan 81,
discovered in 1982 at Kingston Lacey, Dorset[[4]], which may be a witness
to the third pandect, a facsimile of which was only available up to this
time in a British Museum exhibition catalogue of 1991.
Gibson has offered in plate 4 a combination of two MSS: the
Lindisfarne (CLA 2.187) and Stonyhurst (CLA 2.260) Gospels on the same
page, so that one can see how the same text appears in a large liturgical
book in Insular half-uncial and in a small book intended for personal use
(Gibson unfortunately refers to it as a "minuscule pocket gospelbook,"
which could cause some confusion, since the hand is in the form of uncial
such as is found in the capitula of the Amiatinus). She presents a
careful summary of the fates of both manuscripts from the time of Cuthbert
at the end of the seventh century to the sixteenth century, although she
neglects to mention how the Lindisfarne Gospels came to Sir Robert Cotton
in the seventeenth century.
Section B, the Carolingians, surveys Fulda, largely because it is an
English foundation (the book is carefully oriented to English MSS and
English contributions to medieval Biblical studies). It turns then to the
use of canon tables (much earlier in fact than the Carolingian period),
Theodulf of Orleans, Alcuin, and Rabanus Maurus. Since Gibson gives no
dates for these scholars, and the order in which they are presented might
lead a reader to believe that Theodulf was older than Alcuin; even worse,
that the twelfth century codex (plate 8) of the Biblical commentary of
Rabanus was contemporary with him.
The first plate of this group shows a canon table. Gibson offers a
useful description of how these tables operate using as her example a
modest MS (London BL Harley 2795, a French MS of the first third of the
ninth century).
Plate 6 shows a page from a Theodulf Bible (London BL Add. 24142 of
the same period as the previous MS, also from France). The manuscript is
incorrectly described: it lacks Hosea 6:8-Malachi and in the New
Testament, Acts and Apocalypse. The page shown contains some of the
"tituli" to III Reges and the text offers III Reg. 1:1-37. Although
Gibson seems to suggest that Theodulf used the Cassiodorian word "breves"
for the "tituli" that precede the historical books, clearly on the plate
we can read in a capital script "Expl(iciu)nt Tituli." The discussion of
the system of reference in the Epistles of Paul would have been useful had
the plate exhibited a text from one of them, but here it seems out of
place, as does the mention of Fulda Landesbibliothek Bonifatianus 1. Much
more to the point would have been a discussion of the use of small uncial
(i.e. capital) letters in the text to separate sentences, and some
observations about the careful punctuation as well. The size and
organization of the codex suggests that it was a volume useful for study.
Plate 7, London BL Harley 2805, from the early years of the ninth
century, is a fine example of part of a two volume pandect, containing
much of the Old Testament. Written in a careful Carolingian script, it
would have been useful as a reference Bible in a monastery. Gibson
suggests that it might have been produced for a community that possessed
only one Bible. What is especially interesting about the page reproduced
(fol. 30) is that it clearly shows a careful repair made to the second
column in the eleventh century. Later marginalia and other additions show
that the book was still in use in the fifteenth century, some six hundred
years after its production.
Plate 8, the commentary on Joshua of Rabanus (London BL Add. 38697)
comes from the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny in Auxerre. Gibson, who did
major work on medieval Biblical commentaries[[5]], presents a clear
summary of the current locations of the Pontigny MSS of this commentary,
and tells us something of the value and importance of Rabanus'
undertaking. Some discussion of the special Cistercian script would have
been welcome.
The third section deals with vernacular Bibles, interlinear scholia,
and Christian epic. The point that early societies in the barbarian West
had oral traditions which could adopt the epic qualities of the Bible,
leads Gibson to cite a passage from Caedmon. It remains a mystery why she
offers us the text in Old English, since the original text is of no
relevance to her argument. The plates to this section include a page
(plate 9) from Otfrid of Weissenburg, Evangelienbuch, written in
German verse set out with central diaeresis and with the even lines
indented two letters (like Latin elegiacs), with Latin headings to the
sections and a Latin argument to the passages in the left margin. The
same kind of Carolingian script is used both for the Latin and German.
Stress marks which are a feature of the German suggest that the text was
intended for recitation. Plate 10 offers the Old English translation of
Deuteronomy 32:34-47 in the eleventh century illustrated Anglo Saxon
Hexateuch (London BL Cotton Claudius B.IV). Plate 11 is of a Psalter with
Latin and Old English texts in an unusual format, for the book is both
tall and narrow. The picture shows Psalms 2:1-3:4 with the Latin in the
place of honor (to the left of the Old English). In addition to Latin
Psalm headings preceded by longer Old English summaries, there are small
outline illustrations inserted at the proper points of the text. The last
plate of this group (12) offers the Canticum Canticorum with the German
commentary of Williram of Ebersberg. The page shows the opening of the
book, with decorated initials for each of the three columns: to the left
a commentary on the text in Latin leonine hexameters, to the right a
German translation and commentary.
Section D, on monastic Bibles, considers the revival in the eleventh
century of the large pandect Bible in two volumes, but focuses on the
developments in glossed Bibles, the Glossa Ordinaria in nine or ten
volumes, and the attempts at a study of the literal meaning of Scripture,
as in the Postillae litterales of Nicholas of Lyra. Plate 13
offers a page of the magnificent Stavelot Bible (London BL Add. 28106/7)
of 1097, written, painted, and bound by Goderann and Ernesto, monks of
Stavelot. The text shown is the opening of the Gospel of Luke (1:1-29) in
a careful late Carolingian script, preceded by a capitular list in a
smaller minuscule. The explicit to the capitula are in capitalis, the
incipit of the Gospel proper in square capitals, and the opening words of
the Gospel (Quoniam quidem) in uncial, a hierarchy of scripts known since
the time of the early Carolingian Bibles of Alcuin (though in them the
prefatory material is written in half-uncial).[[6]] Plate 14 (Oxford
Bodleian Auct. D.1.13) offers the opening of the Pauline Epistles (Romans
1:1-9) with the Glossa ordinaria, an extraordinary product of
mid-twelfth century scriptorium, including a large historiated initial P
with scenes from the life of St. Paul, and marginal and interlinear
glosses. Gibson's discussion is not entirely clear, especially in her
treatment of the interlinear gloss. The marginal gloss shows the
abbreviation of the commentator St. Ambrose as A(M)BR, not as AMBR as she
indicates. But it is helpful that she mentions the use of paraph marks
with various numbers of horizontal strokes which serve to identify the
commentator. Plate 15 is from Oxford Bodleian Bodley 251 of the last
quarter of the fourteenth century, showing the commentary of Nicholas of
Lyra on Ruth 1:6ff. Especially noteworthy here is that the Biblical
lemmata are embedded in the text of the commentary which necessitates
using underlining in red ink to separate them from the commentary itself.
Plate 16 is a printed book (Pagianinus de Pagninis, Venice 1495),
exhibiting the Biblical text of much the same passage of Ruth as in the
previous plate (actually Ruth 1:11-2:5), this time surrounded by the
Glossa ordinaria and the commentary of Nicholas. This book
maintains many of the conventions of the manuscripts, and is a fine
example of the art of typography in the incunable period.[[7]]
Section E deals with the use of books in the teaching and lecturing
on the Bible in the late medieval university. Peter Lombard, the
Dominican and Franciscan friars, the Paris Bibles, and a bilingual
Hebrew-Latin MS of the Old Testament are treated here. The plates offer
Peter Lombard Magna Glosatura on the Pauline Epistles (Oxford
Bodleian Bodley 725 of the end of the twelfth century), Stephen Langton's
Commentary on Ruth (Oxford Bodleian Rawl. C.427 of the last quarter of
the thirteenth century), a Paris Bible of the thirteenth century
(Princeton UL Scheide 7), and a mid-twelfth century Hebrew-Latin Psalter
(Leiden Bibl. der Rijksuniv. Scaliger Hebr. 8). Gibson notes that the
illumination used here to separate the Hebrew Psalms is entirely Western
in style, and may at some point help in locating the scriptorium in which
it was written. This Psalter contains in the inside margin a line-by-line
Latin translation, while the outer margin contains a yet unidentified
spiritual commentary, though neither translation or commentary continues
to the end of the Psalms.
Section F, entitled "The New Literacy," considers Bibles in French
and English, the more common Books of Hours, and a block book Apocalypse
from Germany. The Book of Hours is a fairly simple one (Notre Dame UL 4
of the third quarter of the fifteenth century), and set out here are
folios 135v-137 showing Ps. 31:1-5 with an illustration of the penitent
David praying to God.[[8]] Gibson's discussion of the fifteenth century
block book is exemplary, and raises several important and as yet
unanswered questions about the audience and intention of these texts and
illustrations.
The final section, G, deals with the printed book, beginning with a
Gutenberg Bible (1453/55, a copy in the Bodleian, Oxford Bodl. Arch.
B.b.11, vol. II), exhibiting the text of Luke 1:1 with prefatory material.
As Gibson indicates there are still questions to be answered about the
place of this text and layout in the late medieval period. This is
followed by three sixteenth century books (which seems to stretch the
medieval period further than many would accept): John Colet's printing of
Erasmus' translation of Luke and John, parallel to the Vulgate, the
Complutensian Polyglot in a copy from Princeton (Princeton UL Sheide
8.2.9), containing the Old Testament (shown here is Exodus 31:14-32:4) in
its columns from left to right the Septuagint text with an interlinear
Latin translation, the Vulgate, the Hebrew, and Hebrew roots; below the
Aramaic version with a Latin translation and the Aramaic roots in the
margin. Gibson rightly describes this as a "typographical tour de
force." The final plate shows a page from Luther's translation of the
New Testament from the Greek, published in 1522.
The book concludes with a glossary of terms, some odd in a work of
this sort (e.g., a definition of Adoptionism), some careless (e.g. the
definition of ductus refers us to that of James John in another volume,
which is so brief that she could have quoted it directly), some vague
(e.g. Hexapla, and Rustic Capitals), and one incorrect (Jerome's earliest
revision of the Psalter was not the Romanum, but the Gallicanum).
There are several indices (names and persons, manuscripts by name and by
location, printed book locations).
My negative observations and comments above should not be taken to
detract the immense value and usefulness of this study. The major regret
is that Gibson decided that the scripts and all that is related to them
belonged to the separate discipline of palaeography and did not constitute
part of the physical description of the books. Nevertheless, she went
beyond the mere physical characteristics of the books to discuss their
vicissitudes, which is a most welcome addition. There is much to be
learned by contemplation and reading of these plates carefully, and in
tracking down the excellent references that Gibson gives for her
introductory discussions.[[9]]
Notes
[[1]]. Why she has chosen this name is unclear. At first glance, one
might assume that she wants to connect this MS with the work of Alcuin on
the Bible, yet she cites B. Fischer, who specifically denies that Alcuin
used the volume in preparation of his Bible (Lateinische
Bibelhandschriften im fruhen Mittelalter, Freiburg, 1985, 355).
Or perhaps she does not want to memorialize in the name its unsavory
origins. She does mention how Ashburnham purchased the book from the
notorious thief, Libri, who had stolen it from Tours, and how Delisle had
it returned to France. She sets this return to 1885: both Lowe (CLA
5.693b) and Hall (A Companion to Classical Texts, Oxford, 1913,
324) set the date as 1888.
[[2]]. K. Weitzmann, Late Antique and Early Christian Book
Illumination, NY 1977, 23-24, 118 and 121; A. Grabar and C.
Nordenfalk, Early Medieval Painting, Lausanne, 1957, 101ff.
[[3]]. See CLA 2.197 and Michelle P. Brown, A Guide to Western
Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600, Toronto, 1990, 24 with
plate 5.
[[4]]. B. Bischoff and V. Brown, "Addenda to Codices Latini
Antiquiores," Medieval Studies 47 (1985): 351f.
[[5]]. Preface, "The Glossed Bible," to the reprint of the Glossa
ordinaria, Turnhout, 1992, VII-XI, inter alia.
[[6]]. See F. Steffens, Lateinische Palaographie, Berlin
1929, pls. 46 and 47 [Zurich C1].
[[7]]. It would have been helpful had Gibson indicated in footnote 3 that
the text "Videns e(rgo) Noemi" appears in column 1, line 27 of the
Biblical text.
[[8]. This illustration is common as an introduction to the penitential
psalms. For other examples see J.J.G. Alexander, Medieval Illuminators
and their Methods of Work, New Haven, 1992, 130-131 and pls. 222-223.
[[9]]. It is to be hoped is that future volumes in this series will take
into account the ideas and methodology suggested by such essays as that of
J.F. Gumbert, "'Typography' in the Manuscript Book," Journal of the
Printing Historical Society 22 (1993): 5-28.
Some addenda and corrigenda:
The reference to Fischer, Lateinische Bibelhandschriften on
page ix should be corrected. It is not Vetus Latina 11, but Vetus Latina.
Aus der Geschichte der lateinischen Bibel, 11, that is, to the supplement
volume.
In her preface Gibson seems to indicate that the stages in the
history of the book ("habent sua fata libelli") will end up with the book
in the Bodleian. Obviously at some point she drew her examples entirely
from this library. The final volume includes items from British,
American, and Continental libraries.
In the transcription give for plate 12, there are several minor
errors: In line 17 f.t., for "OLEVM" read "OLEUM." In the next-to- last
line of the German transcription read "gemisket" for "gemischet"; in the
last line, for "machst" read "machost." There are also some errors in the
renderings of the diacritics.
Plate 14: Gibson in her discussion refers to J.J.G. Alexander,
The Decorated Letter, NY 1978, but neither the scribes nor this MS
are mentioned in that book.