Frans van Liere's English translation of Andrew of Saint Victor's Commentary on Isaiah (Corpus Christianorum in Translation, 43) constitutes an important addition to his critical edition of this text (Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaeualis, 53C). It also unlocks this interesting text for a wider audience.
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Andrew of Saint Victor’s commentary on Isaiah caused controversy almost as soon as it was written and is now accessible in English for the first time.
Andrew of Saint Victor was one of the most prominent biblical scholars of the twelfth century. He was a regular canon of the Parisian abbey of St Victor, founded in 1108, which in the twelfth century had developed into a prestigious center of spiritual learning, closely connected to the nascent university in Paris. Because of his frequent use of Jewish exegetical materials, Andrew's commentaries are a rich source for the history both of biblical hermeneutics and of inter-religious dialogue during the Middle Ages. His Isaiah commentary caused outrage among medieval Christian scholars because it eschewed traditional christological interpretations, and instead offered a reading "according to the Hebrew."
This translation makes this work accessible in English for the first time. The source text of this volume was published in 2021 by Frans van Liere (Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaeualis, 53C). References to the corresponding pages of the Corpus Christianorum edition are provided in the margins of this translation.
Frans van Liere (PhD, Groningen, 1995) is professor of medieval history at Calvin University and the 2022/23 Corcoran visiting professor of Christian-Jewish relations at Boston College. He has published extensively on history of the medieval Bible and twelfth-century intellectual history. He is editor, co-editor, and translator of several Bible commentaries by Andrew of Saint Victor, for the Corpus Christianorum series, and co-editor of three volumes for Victorine texts in Translation (2012, 2014, and 2021). He is currently working on a monograph on Christian Hebraism, and the critical edition of Andrew’s commentary on Jeremiah.