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| Title page of 1765 edition of the Bibliorum sacrorum, Volumen IV, taken by Brandon W. Hawk (owner) |
For many students
and scholars, access to the digital is often a prime gateway to approaching premodern
topics, and digital resources are a growing demand. One subject that benefits
from the integration of digital images is the history of the Bible in Western
culture. Indeed, approaching the subject of the Bible is enriched by the
digital in allowing not only access to images but also integrated ways of conveying
the relevance of the subject matter for contemporary study.
The importance of
the digital for the study of the Bible is demonstrated by the accompanying
image set, made up of
eighteen images on the subject. Of foremost concern in this image set is
interdisciplinarity, as the subject encompasses disciplines of religion, art,
history, and literature, to name just a few. Encompassing these concerns, this
image group is generally arranged both chronologically and thematically, in
order to facilitate two perspectives simultaneously. On the one hand, the group
is structured upon the history of the book, both the Bible specifically and the
topic more generally, from the earliest forms (scrolls and papyri) and
manuscripts (e.g. the Dead Sea Scrolls and Codex Sinaiticus) into the early
modern period (printed forms and translations). On the other hand, the group is
structured to trace important themes such as biblical textuality (critical
editing), illustration (manuscript decorations), scholarship (glossing), printing
(from Gutenberg onward), and modern translation (e.g. Coverdale and Tyndale
Bibles). Significantly, this image group also emphasizes how we now consider all
of these topics alongside current digital media that make these images
available.
One productive way of viewing the history of the Bible is
through the same type of interactivity, even hyper-visuality, that we continue
to face in the digital age. For example, the integration of multiple modes of
reading is depicted in many of these images, especially in the integration of multiple
texts, illustrations, and glosses. Intersections of the biblical and digital
are brought together most powerfully in late medieval glossed pages,
represented in this image group by Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Lat. 9,
folios 16r and 16v [see a similar substitute, with discussion, here]. The layouts of these pages are deeply hyper-visual: they
contain numerous layers of the text, decorated initials, and the proliferation
of glosses.* It is further valuable to consider issues surrounding the fact that
we gaze upon these pages virtually, mediated by electronic screens, rather than
experiencing their materiality.
It is clear that the digital opens up relevant approaches
to the Bible in our own society. How we respond to all of these themes is
telling, as we wrestle with notions of transcendence from two perspectives--in
both cultural venerations of the Bible as well as the transcendence of the
digital in our own lives.
** I recently (since first writing this essay) read a good study by Lesley Smith, The Glossa Ordinaria: The Making of a Medieval Bible Commentary (Leiden: Brill, 2009), which deals with some of these same themes; I have also ordered (through ILL) another recent book that approaches these same issues, David A. Salomon, An Introduction to the Glossa Ordinaria as Medieval Hypertext (Cardiff: U of Wales P, 2012).
2 comments:
May I also suggest a previous book by Lesley Smith, Masters of the Sacred Page: Manuscripts of Theology in the Latin West to 1274 (Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 2001)? The book explores the evolution of medieval theological approaches as seen through the manuscripts produced--the bulk is an examination of individual plates and what they reveal about theological methods and contents.
Yes, Smith's Masters of the Page is also a good one. I recently looked through it, but I want to spend more time with it. There are some excellent images in there. I have to admit, though, that I was a little disappointed by the accompanying exposition--I had expected more general discussion (perhaps a chapter or two of prefatory material before the plates) of the issues surrounding early medieval theology and contexts for the manuscripts and their texts, because there aren't many extended discussions of this topic anyway. I also hoped for more images from the early medieval period, since the twelfth century is clearly the focus of the book. Nonetheless, it is a good recommendation.
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