For centuries, biblical prologues served as gateways to the themes and problems of the Latin Bible. The present study of the overlooked Benedictine Prologue illuminates textual influences, intellectual exchange, and doctrinal confrontations as they unfolded at the time of the appearance of the Vulgate Bible.
For centuries, biblical prologues introduced readers to the themes and problems of the Latin Bible. Paul's profile has undoubtedly been shaped by this genre: Paul the new Moses, Paul the theologian, Paul the arbitrator between Jews and gentiles. Despite fine critical editions, the texts and historical situations of these prologues still lack scholarly attention. The present monograph examines one such introduction known as the Benedictine Prologue, acknowledged for its relationship to the Muratorian Fragment but excluded from all indices of biblical paratexts. Prompted by a new manuscript discovery, Jeremy C. Thompson and Clare K. Rothschild treat the prologue in its own right with a new edition and commentary covering all known sources and analogues. Ultimately, they propose to ground this rare text in the book practices, theological polemics, and intellectual exchange between Greek and Latin writers of the early fifth century and beyond.
Table of contents:
1 Introduction
1.1 Introducing the Corpus Paulinum: A Historical Sketch of the Earliest Latin Prologues
Part I. Text and Manuscripts
2 The Montecassino CodicesFigure 1: Montecassino, Archivio dell'Abbazia, 552, p. 56. The Benedictine Prologue - 2.1 Historiography on the Benedictine Prologue: Harnack, Batiffol, Amelli, Brown - 2.2 The Codicological History of the Montecassino Bible Group
3 A New Witness: Codicology and Context of the Manfred Bible
Figure 2: Vatican, B.A.V., Vat. lat. 36, fol. 522v. Dedication scene - 3.1 Related Bibles in the Manfred and Conradin Groups - 3.2 The Creation of the Manfred Bible - 3.3 Codexin Comparison with the Montecassino Codices
4 A New Collation of the Benedictine Prologue
Figure 3: Vatican, B.A.V., Vat. lat. 36, fol. 442r. The Benedictine Prologue - Figure 4: Vatican, B.A.V., Vat. lat. 36, fol. 442v. The Benedictine Prologue - 4.1 Text - 4.2 Translation - 4.3 Variants in the Five Witnesses to the Benedictine Prologue: Preliminary Remarks - 4.4 Variants in BP II in Relation to its Parallel Transmission in S 651/659 - 4.5 Variants in BP I-VI across the Prologue's Codices - 4.6 Summary
5 The Benedictine Prologue and the Muratorian Fragment: Texts Compared
Figure 5: Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, I 101 sup., fol. 10v. The Muratorian Fragment - Figure 6: Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, I 101 sup., fol. 11r. The Muratorian Fragment - 5.1 Variants in BP I and III-V Compared to the Muratorian Fragment as Preserved by - 5.2 Critical Principles for Evaluating Variants
Part II. Sources and Implications
6 Heber, Abraham, and the Hebrew of the Hebrews: BP VI
7Omnis textus uel numerus epistolarum
: S 651 §3 and BP II
Figure 7: Vatican, B.A.V., Vat. lat. 36, fol. 435v. Prologue S 651 - Figure 8: Vatican, B.A.V., Vat. lat. 36, fol. 436r. Prologue S 651 - 7.1 The Content, Language, and Themes of S 651 §3 - 7.2 The Manuscript Transmission of S 651 §3
8 Prologue S 659
9 Latin Euthaliana I: S 651 §3
10 Latin Euthaliana II: S 651 §1
10.1 The Strife between Jews and Gentiles in Euthalian and Latin Traditions - 10.2 Concluding Remarks on the Presence of Euthaliana in S 651
11 Conclusion
