Form and Function in the Late Medieval Bible

Thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Latin Bibles survive in hundreds of manuscripts, one of the most popular books of the Middle Ages. Their innovative layout and organization established the norm for Bibles for centuries to come. This volume is the first study of these Bibles as a cohesive group. Multi- and inter-disciplinary analyses in art history, liturgy, exegesis, preaching and manuscript studies, reveal the nature and evolution of layout and addenda. They follow these Bibles as they were used by monks and friars, preachers and merchants. By addressing Latin Bibles alongside their French, Italian and English counterparts, this book challenges the Latin-vernacular dichotomy to show links, as well as discrepancies, between lay and clerical audiences and their books.

Contributors include Peter Stallybrass, Diane Reilly, Paul Saenger, Richard Gameson, Chiara Ruzzier, Giovanna Murano, Cornelia Linde, Lucie Doležalová, Laura Light, Eyal Poleg, Sabina Magrini, Sabrina Corbellini, Margriet Hoogvliet, Guy Lobrichon, Elizabeth Solopova, and Matti Peikola.

Eyal Poleg, Ph.D. (2008) in History, University of London, is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh. He is fascinated by the medieval (and early modern) Bible, and has recently published Understanding the Bible in Medieval England (Manchester 2013)

Laura Light, C.Phil. (1981) in History, UCLA, is a cataloguer for Les Enluminures (Paris, Chicago, New York). She has published extensively on the thirteenth-century Bible, and compiled the Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Volume 1 (Binghamton 1995).