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Workshop Summaries
Scripture for the Eyes":
Bible Prints as History and
Exegesis
Walter S. Melion, Emory University
The seminar opened by examining
mnemonic and illustrative prints
taken from the following sources,
with a view to understanding their
hermeneutic functions: Doen
Pieterszoon's Gospel of
Matthew (1522), Willem van
Branteghem's Dat leven ons
Heeren (1537), the De Keyser
Bibles of 1530 and 1534, the
Peetersen Bible of 1541, and the De
Laet Bible of 1556. Many of these
biblical prints would seem to
adhere to the literal text of
scripture, purporting to describe
historical places, people, and
events as they originally appeared.
Shorn of allegorical devices, such
imagery corresponds to the
philological method of biblicists
such as Erasmus, who called upon
scholars to rediscover the true
word of Christ by directly
consulting scriptural sources
(de verbo ad verbum), rather
than relying on exegetical
tradition and the fourfold method
of figurative interpretation
(sensum de sensu exprimere).
But in fact, prints were used to
point up certain features of the
text: they may clearly illustrate
one passage, yet appear next to
another, thus inviting us to read
these verses comparatively; or
alternatively, they may be repeated
to connect scriptural places,
linking verses, chapters, or books.
Having studied instances of these
exegetical techniques, the seminar
then focused on the title-page and
frontispiece from Volume I and
selected illustrations from Volume
VIII of Benito Arias Montano's
Biblia Regia, which consists of
parallel translations of the
Bible-Latin, Greek, Syriac, and
Aramaic-in six volumes, accompanied
by scholarly apparatus in three
volumes, illustrated with maps of
ancient Israel, Chanaan, and
Jerusalem, detailed panoramic views
of the tabernacle precinct amidst
the twelve tribes, architectural
plans and elevations of the
Solomonic temple, and a costume
study of the high priest's
liturgical vestments. Whereas the
title-page interprets pictorial
exegesis as the foundation of the
unio christiana, the fronstispiece
offers an explicatio of the
figurative images utilized by God
in Pentateuch. Finally, the seminar
briefly discussed several openings
from Benito Arias Montano's
Humanae salutis monumenta,
one of the earliest scriptural
emblem books; Montano meditates on
the function of images as a lens
through which God's scriptural
meanings may be discerned.
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