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2 - Renaissance exegesis

from READING AND INTERPRETATION: AN EMERGING DISCOURSE OF POETICS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Michel Jeanneret
Edited by
Glyn P. Norton
Glyn P. Norton
Affiliation:
Williams College, Massachusetts
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Summary

Debates on hermeneutics play a prominent role in Renaissance intellectual life. How should one read in order to grasp the full meaning and value of a text? What issues should the commentary address? Whether applied to the Bible or to ancient poetry, these questions arise constantly. Two very different methods are at work. One considers that old texts are still relevant and alive; interpretation, in this case, stresses examples worth imitating or hidden meanings that will affect readers' morals or beliefs. The other is more historically minded and attempts to understand a work according to its cultural context, as a witness to a lost civilization. Let us consider these two methods – allegorical and philological – in turn.

Among the Fathers of the Church there arises a principle that will command biblical exegesis throughout the Middle Ages: the Scriptures have several simultaneous meanings. Each episode or statement is normally endowed with four stratified senses: the literal or historical meaning, its connection with the teaching of Christ, its moral value and finally its spiritual or eschatological dimension. The designations of these four steps can vary and their order can change, but two rules remain firm: (a) the hidden senses are superior to the obvious story; (b) this grid imposes a compulsory method on the commentary.

In the Middle Ages this ‘quadruple interpretation’, with its mechanical procedures, was applied early on to pagan literature and, more particularly, to ancient myths. The most spectacular illustration is the systematic unfolding of Ovid's Metamorphoses according to the fourfold method. In its different versions, Latin or French (from the early fourteenth century till around 1530), the Ovide moralisé aims thus at making ancient mythology appear compatible with Christian truth: Phaëton represents Lucifer and his revolt against God; Diana is a figure of the Trinity, and so on.

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The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism , pp. 36 - 43
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1999

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