Lay Readings of the Bible in Early Modern Europe

328 Pages·2019·3.463 MB·English

by  Erminia Ardissino, Elise Boillet

Lay Readings of the Bible in Early Modern Europe
Intersections
INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES IN EARLY MODERN CULTURE
General Editor
Karl A.E. Enenkel (Chair of Medieval and Neo-Latin Literature
Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitat Munster
e-mail: kenen_01@uni_muenster.de)
Editorial Board
W. van Anrooij (University of Leiden)
W. de Boer (Miami University)
Chr. Gottler (University of Bern)
J.L. de Jong (University of Groningen)
W.S. Melion (Emory University)
R. Seidel (Goethe University Frankfurt am Main)
P.J. Smith (University of Leiden)
J. Thompson (Queen’s University Belfast)
A. Traninger (Freie Universität Berlin)
C. Zittel (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice / University of Stuttgart)
C. Zwierlein (Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg)
volume 68 – 2020
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/inte
Lay Readings of the Bible in
Early Modern Europe
Edited by
Erminia Ardissino
Élise Boillet
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: Details of fol. A3r and B2v from Heures de Nostre Dame à l’usage de Rome – Paris,
Pour Guillaume de La Noue: 1588, with permission of the Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, Rés. 357484.
(See also p. 219ff. and Fig. 10.2 in this volume.) Copyright: Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ardissino, Erminia, editor. | Boillet, Élise, editor.
Title: Lay readings of the Bible in early modern Europe / edited by
Erminia Ardissino, Élise Boillet.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2020. | Series: Intersections,
1568-1181 ; vol. 68 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019046472 | ISBN 9789004417427 (hardback) |
ISBN 9789004420601 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Bible—Criticism, interpretation, etc.—Europe—History.
Classification: LCC BS500 .L39 2020 | DDC 220.6094—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019046472
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
ISSN 1568-1181
ISBN 978-90-04-41742-7 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-42060-1 (e-book)
Copyright 2020 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi,
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
List of Illustrations x
Notes on the Editors xI
Notes on the Contributors xiI
Lay Readings of the Bible in Early Modern Europe: Introduction 1
Erminia Ardissino and Élise Boillet
PART 1
The Bible in the European History: a Constant Exposition and an
Essential Reference
1 Fides ex auditu: Hearing and Reading the Bible 21
Gordon Campbell
2 Under the Sign of Jonah: the Bible in Early Modern Europe 33
François Dupuigrenet Desroussilles
3 Some Irreligious Uses of the Bible in the Early Modern Period 49
Jean-Pierre Cavaillé
PART 2
To Read or Not to Read the Bible: Instructions and Prohibitions
about Lay Readings of the Bible in Early Modern Europe
4 The Debate Surrounding Lay Bible Reading in Spain in the Sixteenth
Century 65
Ignacio J. García Pinilla
5 Lay Debates about the Sacrality of the Bible in Sixteenth-Century
Geneva 86
Max Engammare
6 The Bible and the Early Modern Catholic Tradition: from Rome to the
Margins of Europe 113
Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin
vi Contents
PART 3
Lay Readings of the Bible in Early Modern Europe: a Plurality of
Books, Uses, and Interpretations
7 Reading the Gospels in the Life and Passion of Christ in French
(ca. 1400–ca. 1550) 139
Margriet Hoogvliet
8 For Early Modern Printed Biblical Literature in Italian: Lay Authorship
and Readership 170
Élise Boillet
9 Bible Production and Bible Readers in the Age of Confessionalisation:
the Case of the Low Countries 191
Wim François
10 The Other Psalm Singing: Biblical Training in the Catholic Petites Écoles
during the Late Renaissance 217
Xavier Bisaro
PART 4
Lay Readings of the Bible in Early Modern Europe: the Formation
of Social and Professional Identities
11 Francisco Vallés’ De Sacra Philosophia: a Medical Reading of the
Bible 235
Concetta Pennuto
12 The Finger and the Tongue of God: Johannes Kepler, Reformation
Theology, and the New Astronomy 260
Stefano Gattei
13 Women Interpreting Genesis in Early Modern Italy: Arguments
Supporting Gender Equality 276
Erminia Ardissino
Contents vii
PART 5
Afterword
14 Afterword: the Bible and the Laity in Long-Term Perspective 299
Sabrina Corbellini
Index Nominum 307

Acknowledgments
With deep gratitude we would like to thank all the people who contributed to
the publication of Lay Readings of the Bible in Early Modern Europe, and above
all the scholars who generously sought to answer with their expertise the ques-
tion we put before them, on the role that lay readings of the Bible played in the
shaping of European political, social, and cultural modernity.
Nothing would have been possible without the support of LE STUDIUM
Loire Valley Institute for Advanced Studies, who selected our research propos-
al to develop into a full project, “The Laity and the Bible. Religious Reading in
Early Modern Europe”. We are thus especially grateful to the former Director
of Le Studium Nicola Fazzalari, the Scientific Manager Aurélien Montagu,
and the General Secretary Sophie Gabillet, for the enthusiasm with which
they welcomed our project and all the help which they gave us. In its critical
first year, the project was carried out at the Centre d’Études Supérieures de la
Renaissance at the University of Tours, which is why we extend our gratitude
to the former Director Philippe Vendrix for his constant encouragement, the
administrative staff for their kind assistance, and all our colleagues for many
fruitful discussions.
We also owe a particular debt to Sabrina Corbellini who led the European
research project “New Communities of Interpretation. Contexts, Strategies
and Processes of Religious Transformation in Late Medieval and Early Modern
Europe” (Cost Action IS1301, 2013–2017), which gave us the chance to consider
our work with input from a wide panel of specialists in medieval and early
modern Biblical hermeneutics from across Europe.
Last, but not least, we would like to thank the editorial board of the
Intersections series for accepting our publication proposal, especially Prof. John
Thompson for his valuable feedback and advice. We would also like to warmly
thank Gera van Bedaf and Ivo Romein for diligently guiding us through the
production process.
Illustrations
7.1 Guillaume de Digulleville, Le pèlerinage de Jhesucrist (Le Roman des trois
pèlerinages), [Paris], Berthold Rembolt, and Jean Petit, [c. 1517], f. CCv. Paris,
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Rés. YE 213 156
10.1 Heures de Nostre Dame à l’usage de Rome – Paris, Pour Guillaume de La Noue:
1588 (fol. d1r) with permission of the Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, Rés.
357484. Copyright: Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon 220
10.2 Heures de Nostre Dame à l’usage de Rome – Paris, Pour Guillaume de La Noue:
1588 (fol. A3r and B2v) with permission of the Bibliothèque municipale
de Lyon, Rés. 357484. Copyright: Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon 221
10.3 Heures de Nostre Dame à l’usage de Besançon – Lyon, Par Guillaume Rouillé: 1574
(fol. 18r) with permission of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Sammlung
von Handschriften und alten Drucken, 19.Aa.114. Copyright: ÖNB Vienna:
19.Aa.114, fol. 18r 223
11.1 Francisco Vallés. Reproduction of line engraving by M. Allegro after J. Maes.
© Wellcome Library, London 236
11.2 Gynaeciorum sive De mulierum affectibus commentarii (Basel, Conrad Waldkirch:
1586), fol. **2v. © UCM Biblioteca Complutense 248
11.3 Andreas Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica libri septem (Basel, Johannes
Oporinus: 1543), p. 378. © CESR-BVH, Université de Tours 249
11.4 Charles Estienne, De dissectione partium corporis humani libri tres (Paris, Simon
de Colines: 1545), p. 287. © Wellcome Library, London 250