The Voice of My Beloved: The Song of Songs in Western Medieval Christianity

E. Ann Matter

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press 1990

The Voice of My Beloved

The Song of Songs in Western Medieval Christianity

E. Ann Matter

In the series The Middle Ages Series

https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812200560

Overview
Contents

About this book

The Song of Songs, eight chapters of love lyrics found in the collection of wisdom literature attributed to Solomon, is the most enigmatic book of the Bible. For thousands of years Jews and Christians alike have preserved it in the canon of scripture and used it in liturgy. Exegetes saw it as a central text for allegorical interpretations, and so the Song of Songs has exerted an enormous influence on spirituality and mysticism in the Western tradition.

In the Voice of My Beloved, E. Ann Matter focuses on the most fertile moment of Song of Songs interpretation: the Middle Ages. At least eighty Latin commentaries on the text survive from the period. In tracing the evolution of these commentaries, Matter reveals them to be a vehicle for expressing changing medieval ideas about the church, the relationship between body and soul, and human and divine love. She shows that the commentaries constitute a well-defined genre of medieval Latin literature. And in discussing the exegesis of the Song of Songs, she takes into account the modern exegesis of the book and feminist critiques of the theology embodied in the text.

Reviews

"[Matter] offers an original translation of Canticles from the Vulgate Latin that is very fine. And her focus allows her to illuminate the existence of a "shadow" Origen in the commentary tradition, the very idea of which I find fascinating."—Studies in the Age of Chaucer

"The author has provided us with a valuable resource for understanding the long and varied history of the interpretation of the Song of Songs."—Manuscripta

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
The Vulgate Text of the Song of Songs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xv
Chapter One. Introduction to the Genre Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter Two. Hidden Origins: The Legacy of Alexandria Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	20
Chapter Three. The Key to the Code: Allegory and the Song of Songs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
Chapter Four. The Song of Songs as the Changing Portrait of the Church Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	86
Chapter Five. The Marriage of the Soul Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
Chapter Six. The Woman Who is the All: The Virgin Mary and the Song of Songs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
Chapter Seven. The Genre as Trope: The Song of Songs in Vernacular Literature Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	178
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Appendix: Latin Commentary on the Song of Songs to 1200 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Index of Biblical References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Index of Manuscripts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	214
Index of Modern Scholars Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	216
General Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 268
Illustrations
- Other: 7 illus.
Keywords: Religion; Medieval and Renaissance Studies; Religious Studies

eBook

Published: August 3, 2010
ISBN: 9780812200560