Bede

The purpose of this notice is to inform readers about commentaries on the Book of Revelation from the Middle Ages that have been published recently.

Two Apocalypse commentaries attributed to Alcuin of York (d. 804) were recently translated by Sarah Van Der Pas and published in the Consolamini Commentary Series at Consolamini Publications in West Monroe, Louisiana.

A new critical edition and English translation of Scholia in Apocalypsin, once attributed to Origen, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2013. Its title is An Ancient Commentary on the Book of Revelation by P. Tzamalikos.

A new translation by Faith Wallis of Bede’s eighth-century Commentary on Revelation was published by Liverpool University Press in 2013 in the Translated Texts for Historians series, Volume 58. It contains a great introduction and extensive notes.

The first portion of Beatus of Liebana’s eighth-century Commentary on the Apocalypse is available in English translation by Maureen O’Brien. It is for sale in electronic form on amazon.

A Gloss on the Apocalypse found in a tenth-century manuscript at Cambridge was edited recently by Roger Gryson in Corpus Christianorum. The commentary may be from an earlier century. Dr. Colin McAllister of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs is preparing an English translation of it.

The Glossa Ordinaria on the Apocalypse was recently translated into English by Sarah Van Der Pas. Its title is Consolamini Commentary Series: The Glossa Ordinaria on Revelation. An English Translation. It was published in 2015 by Consolamini Publications in West Monroe, Louisianna.

Catherine A. Scine wrote a very informative doctoral dissertation that discusses in much detail commentaries on the Apocalypse from the thirteenth century, including those of Peter of Tarentaise and Hugh of Saint Cher. Hugh wrote two commentaries, with the incipits Aser pinguis and Vidid Jacob respectively. The dissertation is entitled “Early Dominicans on the Apocalypse: A Reading of the 1260s Apocalypse Commentary of Peter of Tarentaise,” and is available from Proquest.

Finally, a Latin edition of Peter John Olivi’s Lectura super Apocalypsim from the year 1298 is now available from Franciscan Institute Publications. This edition by Warren Lewis was previously only available in a hard-to-locate typewritten European doctoral dissertation from the 1970s, and is a great edition to scholarship on the subject.

I hope in these volumes you find refreshment, delight, and insight.

Frank

Below are some announcements of ancient commentaries on the Apocalypse in English translation that either have been published recently or are scheduled to appear soon.

Nerses of Lambron. Commentary on the Revelation of Saint John. Translation of the Armenian Text, Notes, and Introduction by Robert W. Thomson (Leuven: Peeters, 2007). Nerses, archbishop of Tarsus, wrote this commentary in 1180 AD in the Armenian language. It is an adaptation of the Apocalypse commentary on Andrew of Caesarea from the seventh century. Thomson’s translated text is excellent reading. A full review of it by me appears in the May 2011 issue of Kerux journal. Click here to read my review of Nerses of Lambron-Commentary on the Revelation of St. John.)

An English translation of the aforementioned Greek commentary on Revelation composed by Andrew of Caesarea in Cappadocia, from 609-614 AD, appeared in Part 2 of the 2008 doctoral dissertation of Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou at the Universite Laval in Quebec entitled “Andrew of Caesarea and the Apocalypse in the Ancient Church of the East.” It is available for free download at www.revelation-resources.com. Constantinou’s translation of the commentary is scheduled to appear soon in the Fathers of the Church series from Catholic University of America Press. Another English translation of Andrew’s commentary completed by Dr. William Weinrich is scheduled for publication in InterVarsity’s new series Ancient Christian Texts.

The Turin fragments of Tyconius of Carthage’s lost Apocalypse commentary are translated in an excellent dissertation completed in 2010 by David Charles Robinson at the University of St. Michael’s College in Toronto entitled “The Mystic Rules of Scripture: Tyconius of Carthage’s Keys and Windows to the Apocalypse.”

An English translation of the massive Commentary on the Apocalypse of Peter John Olivi, composed in 1297, is scheduled for release this summer by Franciscan Institute Publications.

The Apocalypse commentaries of Victorinus, Apringius, Caesarius of Arles, and Bede, translated by William Weinrich, are projected for publication in a volume of the Ancient Christian Texts series by InterVarsity.

Bede’s Apocalypse commentary from the early middle ages was translated into English by Edward Marshall in the 1800s in England and for years it was difficult to obtain in the States because so few libraries carried it. But it has now been reprinted in paperback and is available for purchase at www.fledby.com or www.whitcoulls.co.nz. The commentary is also available in electronic version on line at www.apocalyptic-theories.com and at the medieval sourcebook webpage at www.fordham.edu. Besides the aforementioned translation of Bede’s Apocalypse commentary by Weinrich, a new translation by Faith Wallis of McGill University is scheduled to appear in the Translated Texts for Historians series published by Liverpool University Press.

Two other items not related to Apocalypse commentaries, but that may be of interest to our readers:

Steven Cartwright’s English translation of Peter Abelard’s Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans is scheduled for release this April in the Mediaeval Continuation Series of Fathers of the Church from Catholic University of America Press. Abelard wrote the commentary in the mid 1130s.

Probably the most comprehensive book on Gottschalk of Orbais in English is the 2009 dissertation of Matthew Bryan Gillis entitled “Gottschalk of Orbais: A Study of Power and Spirituality in a Ninth-Century Life.” I read it last summer. It was one of those books you never want to be over. Gottschalk’s views on predestination sparked a heated controversy in Europe in the mid-ninth century. Most American doctoral dissertations can be purchased from proquest.com.

I would encourage institutional libraries, those who wish to learn more about how the Scriptures have been interpreted throughout Christian history, those interested in the Book of Revelation, and those who work with medieval texts, to add the aforementioned titles to their stacks as they become available.

Have a great day.
Frank

New Books and Commentaries on Revelation from the Middle Ages

More Ancient Apocalypse Commentaries in Translation