Texts and Studies in High Medieval Scholastic Thought – serie

Through a partial critical edition and study of Peter Comestor's lectures, this volume recontextualizes the biblical exegesis of the twelfth-century Latin cathedral schools within the frameworks of the study of ars grammatica, underscoring the importance of the master-disciple relationship in forming medieval exegetical schools of thought. This study critically examines the Latin biblical lectures of Peter Comestor, a twelfth-century scholar based in Paris, focusing on his commentary on the Gospel of Luke and its glossing tradition. The study positions Comestor's lectures among Latin biblical commentaries produced in the cathedral schools of Laon and Paris, a vital intellectual movement shaped by well-known figures such as Anselm of Laon and Peter Lombard, and which provided the foundations for the University of Paris.Recent scholarship has sought to bridge the gap between biblical commentaries and systematic theological treatises by highlighting the shared didactic methodologies between the medieval study of the liberal arts and sacred scripture. This study of Comestor's Luke lectures expands these efforts, underscoring the role of classical philology and liberal arts pedagogy in shaping medieval theological thought.The volume highlights how the cathedral school scholars of northern France approached Christian theology as a work of textual criticism, exploring a wide range of subjects—from geometry to canon law—through biblical interpretation. By tracing these intellectual traditions, the study uncovers the pedagogical practices that informed the understanding of Christian biblical exegesis in the Latin Middle Ages, particularly in the period leading up to the establishment of Europe's first universities and theology faculties.

Scholarly academics, cloistered monks, and high-ranking prelates once found abundantly fertile material for theological reflection in the Exodus descriptions of Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant. Where traditional scholarly accounts of the rise of scholasticism tend to focus almost entirely on the incorporation of Aristotelian thought and the legacy of Peter Lombard’s sententiae, attention to these works illuminates some of the deeply biblical roots of scholastic patterns of thought. The Tabernacle often appealed to these early interpreters because it provided a valuable source for exploring the structural patterns embedded in creation.The first part of this book examines the works of four major twelfth-century figures on this popular interpretive theme. Richard of St. Victor, Stephen Langton, Peter of Poitiers, and Adam of Dryburgh each share the conviction that the details of the Tabernacle’s material structure reflect the structures of immaterial truths. The second part of the book shows the rich inheritance of this tradition, as received by Saint Bonaventure and Saint Thomas Aquinas.In the twelfth-century, the image of the Tabernacle, composed of diverse parts arranged in a coherent whole, provides a divinely-given source for theological method and a model for attempts to systematize and integrate various forms of knowledge. At times, the Tabernacle structure suggests for these interpreters certain correspondences with Aristotelian insights, while elsewhere, the edifice undergirds attempts to offer a rigorous counterbalance to perceived philosophical excesses. In both cases, the Tabernacle is taken as a biblical locus for working through methodological questions prompted by the increasing availability of Aristotle’s corpus. These biblical interpreters bequeathed to the thirteenth-century magistri a structural framework and a confidence that disparate forms of human knowing all fit together.