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THE EXEGETICAL WORLD THAT PAVED THE WAY FOR THE GLOSSA ORDINARIA: A STUDY OF MANUSCRIPTS, GLOSSES, AND COMMENTARIES ON MATTHEW IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2023

ATRIA A. LARSON  and
CLAYTON KILLION
ATRIA A. LARSON*
Affiliation:
St. Louis University
CLAYTON KILLION
Affiliation:
St. Louis University
*
atria.larson@slu.edu clayton.killion@slu.edu
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Abstract

Recent scholarship has shown a revived interest in twelfth-century biblical commentaries and exegesis, particularly in and around Laon. In this essay, we argue that a certain kind of exegetical world was being forged in twelfth-century Laon which prepared the way for the widespread success of the Glossa ordinaria, both as a book form and as a bearer of certain theological ideas and exegetical techniques. Based on our examination of the manuscript evidence, two main versions of the Matthew Gloss are discernible in that century. This discovery makes it possible for scholars to reconstruct a primitive version of the Gloss which existed prior to the one used by Comestor and others, should such an edition be deemed useful. By examining the relationship between pre-Glossa ordinaria glossed manuscripts of Matthew and various stand-alone commentaries like Cum post ascensionem, our work clarifies existing understandings of how the Matthew Gloss originated and developed. Although the Gloss initially drew from patristic and Carolingian sources and contemporary masters, the mise-en-page of the gloss-form invited continued modification, with later scribes adding or subtracting material and interweaving their own insights with received tradition. As masters, students, and scribes glossed manuscripts of Matthew from Laon near and far, they left a lasting impact on how Latin Christendom read, studied, discussed, preached from, copied, and wrote in their Bibles.

Keywords

Glossa ordinariamedieval exegesisglossesGospel of Matthewschool of Laonbiblical commentaries
Type
Research Article
Information
Traditio , Volume 78 , 2023 , pp. 175 - 213
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fordham University

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Footnotes

Many of the manuscripts discussed in this article are available online at the websites of their host institutions. A few have been digitized through funding from the President's Research Fund at Saint Louis University.

References

1 Andrée, Alexander, “Sacra pagina: Theology and the Bible from the School of Laon to the School of Paris,” in A Companion to the Twelfth-Century Schools, ed. Giraud, C. (Leiden, 2020), 272–313Google Scholar, esp. 273 and n. 4 on the approach and legacy of the formidable Martin Grabmann's two-volume Die Geschichte der scholastischen Methode (Freiburg im Briesgau, 1909-12).

2 Leclercq, Jean, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God: A Study in Monastic Culture, trans. Misrahi, Catharine (New York, 1961)Google Scholar; and Smalley, Beryl, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, 3rd edition (Notre Dame, IN, 1978)Google Scholar. Smalley's work had six chapters, proceeding chronologically, but with special attention to the twelfth century (covered across four chapters of the six) and with one chapter devoted specifically to Andrew of St. Victor. Also to be cited as a study of Scripture in the Catholic tradition, broader than the medieval period, is Lubac, Henri de, Scripture in the Tradition, trans. O'Neill, Luke (New York, 2000)Google Scholar.

3 Patricia Stirnemann, “Où ont été fabriqués les libres de la glose ordinaire dans la première moitié du XIIe siècle?” in Le XIIe siècle: Mutations et renouveau en France dans la première moitié du XIIe siècle, ed. F. Gasparri (Paris, 1994), 257–301; Patricia Stirnemann, “Gilbert de la Porrée et les livres glosés à Laon, à Chartres et à Paris,” in Monde medieval et société chartraine: Actes du colloque (Paris, 1997), 83–96; and Christopher F. R. de Hamel, Glossed Books of the Bible and the Origins of the Paris Booktrade (Woodbridge, 1984).

4 Among other works, see Franklin T. Harkins, Reading and the Work of Restoration: History and Scripture in the Theology of Hugh of St Victor (Toronto, 2009); Interpretation of Scripture: Theory, ed. Franklin T. Harkins and Frans van Liere (Turnhout, 2012); Interpretation of Scripture: Practice, ed. Franklin T. Harkins and Frans van Liere (Turnhout, 2015); and Frans van Liere, “Biblical Exegesis Through the Twelfth Century,” in The Practice of the Bible in the Middle Ages: Production, Reception, and Performance in Western Christianity, ed. Susan Boynton and Diane J. Reilly (New York, 2011), 157–78. On the place and usage of the Bible in the medieval world more generally, see Frans van Liere, An Introduction to the Medieval Bible (Cambridge, 2014); and Ian Christopher Levy, Introducing Medieval Biblical Interpretation: The Senses of Scripture in Premodern Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI, 2018).

5 On Rupert's exegesis, see recently Rachel Fulton Brown, “How to Read the Gospels: A Tale of Two Commentators,” Quaderni di storia religiosa medievale 25 (2022): 175–204, and literature cited there; Wanda Zemler-Cizewski, “Two Views on the Equality of Man and Woman: A Comparison of Peter Abelard and Rupert of Deutz on the Creation of Eve,” Archa verbi 13 (2016): 156–79; and Abigail Ann Young, “Rupert of Deutz, John, and Moses: The Figure of Moses in the Fourth Gospel through a Twelfth-Century Lens,” in “Principio erat Verbum”: Philosophy and Theology in the Commentaries on the Gospel of John (II–XIV Centuries), ed. Fabrizio Amerini (Münster, 2014), 129–41.

6 Cédric Giraud, Per verba magistri: Anselme de Laon et son école au XIIe siècle (Turnhout, 2010).

7 Lesley Smith, The Glossa ordinaria: The Making of a Medieval Bible Commentary (Leiden, 2009). See the review essay of Smith's book and also Giraud's Per verba magistri in Alexander Andrée, “Laon Revisited: Master Anselm and the Creation of a Theological School in the Twelfth Century,” The Journal of Medieval Latin 22 (2012): 257–81.

8 Andrée, “Sacra pagina”; Alexander Andrée, “Peter Comestor's Lectures on the Glossa ‘ordinaria’ on the Gospel of John: The Bible and Theology in the Twelfth-Century Classroom,” Traditio 71 (2016), 203–35; and Mark J. Clark, The Making of the Historia scholastica, 1150–1200 (Toronto, 2015).

9 A good example of recent scholarship on Peter Lombard's Sentences, with attention to lectures on the Bible, may be found in Mark J. Clark, “An Early Version of Peter Lombard's Lectures on the Sentences,” Traditio 74 (2019): 223–47.

10 Atria A. Larson, “Glosses from Laon on the Gospel of Matthew Before the Glossa ordinaria: The Formation of a Transregional Exegetical Community in the Mid-Twelfth Century,” Quaderni di storia religiosa medievale 25 (2022): 237–62.

11 Larson, “Glosses from Laon.” See Table A, below, for a full list of the manuscripts, which includes one more manuscript than was studied for that article.

12 Annotation itself was, of course, nothing new in the medieval period; glossing was part of medieval intellectual and book culture. See Frans A. van Liere, “Glosses,” in Handbook of Medieval Studies: Terms—Methods—Trends, ed. Albrecht Classen (Berlin, 2010), 1785–90. Other texts in the same period, such as the Decretum Gratiani, began early on to receive glossing attention. See Atria A. Larson, “Nota: What the Scribes of Sankt Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek 673 Found Noteworthy in Gratian's Decretum,” in Creating and Sharing Legal Knowledge in the Twelfth Century: Sankt Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek 673 and Its Context, ed. Stephan Dusil and Andreas Thier (Leiden, 2022), 143–66. The point is that in the mid-twelfth century, for many reasons beyond the scope of this essay, certain glosses and forms of glossing on biblical texts increased substantially and became entrenched in an unprecedented way in medieval education, book production, and libraries such that a glossed Bible, in somewhat standardized form, was a common production by the thirteenth century, as it never had been before.

13 The most recent overview of the four commentaries is found in Alexander Andrée, “Unlocking the sacra pagina: Editing the Biblical Gloss with the Help of Its Medieval Users,” in Sicut dicit: Editing Ancient and Medieval Commentaries on Authoritative Texts, ed. Shari Boodts, Pieter De Leemans, and Stefan Schorn (Turnhout, 2019), 127–61.

14 Adrian Ballentyne, “A Reassessment of the Exposition of the Gospel According to St Matthew in Manuscript Alençon 26,” Recherches de théologie et philosophie ancienne et médiévale 56 (1989): 19–57, at 28–32.

15 Heinrich Weisweiler, “Paschasius Radbertus als Vermittler des Gedankengutes des karolingischen Renaissance in den Matthaeuskommentaren des Kreises um Anselm von Laon,” Scholastik 35 (1960): 363–402 and 503–36, at 529. Throughout the essay, Weisweiler refers to the text not by the incipit Nomen libri, but rather as the Abbreviation, that is, the abbreviation of Radbertus's commentary. Other manuscripts of this text (= Stegmüller, Nr. 9947) include: Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 14455, fols. 93v–100r (thirteenth cent., from St. Emmeran; ends at Mt 6:1); Paris, BnF, lat. 14805; and Tours, Bibliothèque municipale, M 117 (twelfth cent., belonging to Cormery; this manuscript is our Ts [see below]). The Paris manuscript was previously treated in Bernard Merlette, “Écoles et bibliothèques à Laon du déclin de l'Antiquité au développement de l'université,” in Actes du 95e Congrès national des Sociétés savants, Reims, 1970, Tome I: Enseignement et vie intellectuelle (IXe-XVIe siècle) (Paris, 1975), 31–53. Andrée has identified it in a total of fifteen manuscripts in “Sacra pagina” (n. 1 above), 279 n. 22.

16 Beryl Smalley, “Some Gospel Commentaries of the Early Twelfth Century,” in The Gospels in the Schools, c.1100-c.1280 (London, 1985), 1–36, at 14; and Weisweiler, “Paschasius Radbertus als Vermittler,” 532–33.

17 Weisweiler, “Paschasius Radbertus als Vermittler,” 366–86; Alexander Andrée, “Le Pater (Matth. 6, 9–13 et Luc. 11, 2–4) dans l'exégèse de l’école de Laon: La Glossa ordinaria et autres commentaires,” in Le Pater noster en XIIe siècle: Lectures et usages, ed. F. Siri (Turnhout, 2015), 29–74, at 42–46; Andrée, “Unlocking the sacra pagina” (n. 13 above), 141–42; and Giraud, Per verba magistri (n. 6 above), 93.

18 Odon Lottin, “La doctrine d'Anselme sur les dons du Saint-Esprit et son influence,” Recherches de théologie et philosophie ancienne et médiévale 24 (1957): 267–95, with transcription on 283–85.

19 Giraud, Per verba magistri (n. 6 above), 95.

20 Andrée, “Unlocking the sacra pagina” (n. 13 above), 141–42.

21 Known to Smalley: Paris, Arsenal, lat. 87 (St Victor, thirteenth cent.; incomplete); and Oxford, St John's College, 111. Announced in Larson, “Glosses from Laon” (n. 9 above): Cambridge, Pembroke College, 70, fols. 71r–127v (our Cm). Announced here for the first time in the literature are two further manuscripts: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 520, fols. 1–62v (Germany?, twelfth cent.; rough, rapid script); London, British Library, Harley, 3250, fols. 1r–193r (England; second half of twelfth cent.; careful bookhand with decorated initials; noteworthy because patristic and medieval sources are identified in margins in red ink in contemporary hand).

22 Weisweiler, “Paschasius Radbertus als Vermittler,” 386–400 and 534.

23 Andrée, “Le Pater,” 33–39; Andrée, “Unlocking the sacra pagina” (n. 13 above), 140–42; Giraud, Per verba magistri (n. 6 above), 93–95; and Ballentyne, “A Reassessment” (n. 14 above), 19–57.

24 Andrée, “Le Pater,” 50 (although the section of Pater noster in the glosses came more directly out of Augustine); and Andrée, “Sacra pagina” (n. 1 above), 287.

25 Smalley focused her attention on the other three commentaries. Weisweiler did not include it in his study. Andrée mentioned it in “Le Pater” (n. 16 above), but did not discuss the text. Its digitization at gallica.bnf.fr makes the text more accessible for future study.

26 Merlette, “Écoles et bibliothèques à Laon” (n. 15 above), 45.

27 Andrée, “Unlocking the sacra pagina” (n. 13 above), 139–40; and Andrée, “Le Pater” (n. 17 above), 42–46. See also Giraud, Per verba magistri (n. 6 above), 93–95.

28 Weisweiler, “Paschasius Radbertus als Vermittler” (n. 15 above), 386 and 507; and Damian Van den Eynde, “Autour des ‘Enarrationes in Evangelium S. Matthaei’ attribuées à Geoffroi Babion,” Recherches de théologie et philosophie ancienne et médiévale 26 (1959): 50–84, at 62.

29 Two manuscripts attribute the work to Anselm and five to Geoffrey. It was printed under the title Enarrationes in Evangelium S. Matthaei in PL 162, cols.1227–1500. The literature often refers to this work as the Enarrationes.

30 The texts are reproduced in Smalley, “Some Gospel Commentaries” (n. 16 above), 5. The two texts, taken from London, British Library, Laud. Misc. 291, are: “Marcum pene intactum, quia pedissecus est Mathei; etiam pro difficultate eum reliquerunt antique, nec legit eum magister Anselmus nec magister Radulfus frater eius.” and “De hoc habes glosam Rabani. Non tamen habes hanc glosam intitulatam cuius auctoris sit, et ideo incertum est unde magister Radulfus, frater magistri Anselmi, qui glosaturam ordinavit, eam assumpsit.”

31 Andrée, “Unlocking the sacra pagina” (n. 13 above), 131 and 134–43.

32 Merlette, “Écoles et bibliothèques à Laon” (n. 15 above), 46.

33 Stirnemann, “Où ont été fabriqués” (n. 3 above); and Stirnemann, “Gilbert de la Porrée et les livres glosés” (n. 3 above).

34 Andrée, “Editing the Gloss (later Glossa ordinaria) on the Gospel of John: A Structural Approach,” in The Arts of Editing Medieval Greek and Latin: A Casebook, ed. E. Göransson et al. (Toronto, 2016), 2–21.

35 Andrée, “Peter Comestor's Lectures” (n. 8 above), 203–35; and Andrée, “Unlocking the Sacra pagina” (n. 13 above). See also Clark, The Making of the Historia scholastica (n. 8 above).

36 Andrée, “Unlocking the Sacra pagina” (n. 13 above), 141–42.

37 Adolf Rusch, Biblia latina cum glossa ordinaria. Facsimile reprint of the editio princeps: Adolph Rusch of Strassburg 1480/81, with introductions by Karlfried Froehlich and Margaret T. Gibson, 4 vols. (Turnhout, 1992).

38 Manuscripts marked with an asterisk(*) have been studied by Andrée. See especially his “Unlocking the sacra pagina” (n. 13 above). Manuscripts marked with ^ are digitized online.

39 This manuscript was not included in the study published in Larson, “Glosses from Laon” (n. 10 above), but we have since collated all glosses on Matthew 5 from it.

40 Stirnemann, “Où ont été fabriqués” (n. 3 above), 261; and Larson, “Glosses from Laon” (n. 10 above), 246.

41 Andrée, “Le Pater” (n. 17 above), 46.

42 De Hamel, Glossed Books of the Bible (n. 3 above), 5–7.

43 Editions of these patristic and Carolingian texts are as follows: Aurelius Augustinus, De sermone domini in monte libros duos, ed. Almut Mutzenbecher, CCSL 35 (Turnhout, 1967); Ieronimus Presbyter, Commentariorum in Matheum libri IV, ed. D. Hurst and M. Adriaen, CCSL 77 (Turnhout, 1969); Paschasius Radbertus, Expositio in Matheo libri XII (I–IV), ed. Bede Paulus CCCM 56 (Turnhout, 1984); And Rabanus Maurus, Expositio in Matthaeum, ed. B. Löfstedt, CCCM 174 (Turnhout, 2000).

44 Andrée made this claim in “Sacra pagina” (n. 1 above), 287. Our research confirms that this is in fact the case.

45 Smalley, “Some Gospel Commentaries” (n. 16 above), 15.

46 Andrée, “Le Pater” (n. 17 above), 38–39 and 48; and Andrée, “Sacra pagina” (n. 1 above), 287.

47 Larson, Lenherr, and Wei have highlighted Gratian's usage of the Gloss, and early forms of the glosses, in central Italy in his Decretum. See Larson, Atria A., “The Influence of the School of Laon on Gratian: The Usage of the Glossa ordinaria and Anselmian Sententie in De penitentia (Decretum C.33 q.3),” Mediaeval Studies 72 (2010): 197–244Google Scholar; Lenherr, Titus, “Die ‘Glossa ordinaria’ zur Bibel als Quelle von Gratians Dekret: Ein (neuer) Anfang,” Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law 24 (2000): 97–129Google Scholar; and Wei, John C., Gratian the Theologian (Washington, D.C., 2016), 60–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For Germany, see Tischler, M. M., “Die glossierten Bibeln des Bamberger Doms im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert,” Archa Verbi 1 (2004): 91–118Google Scholar.