Summaries, Divisions and Rubrics of the Latin Bible

By (author) De Bruyne Donatien Introduction by Pierre-Maurice Bogaert Introduction by Thomas O'Loughlin

Book cover: Summaries, Divisions and Rubrics of the Latin Bible

Extent: 602 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Biblical Studies

Series: Studia Traditionis Theologiae

Series volume number: 18

Language: English, Latin

Hardback (Published)

(May 2015)

ISBN: 9782503555331

Price: $113.00

In stock

The key to the most fundamental exegesis of the Scriptures in the Middle Ages.


Dom Donation De Bruyne’s work of a century ago has been all but unobtainable since it was first published quasi-anonymously just before the outbreak of the Great War. Originally conceived as an instrumentum laboris to the great Benedictine project to produce a critical edition of the Vulgate, it now has a new life as a unique collection of the division systems that were used with the biblical books before the twelfth century. These constitute a primary interpretation of the text, anterior to, and more pervasive in influence than any work of formal biblical exegesis. This collection makes available the raw material for a new chapter in the study of the Latin bible and the study of its reception in the later patristic and medieval periods. Moreover, it may usher in a new chapter in the history of biblical exegesis.

Donatien De Bruyne (1871-1935), a monk of the abbey of Maredsous (Belgium), worked from 1907 onward as a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Vulgate. Visiting the European libraries he collected a great amount of material for the critical edition of the Vulgate, with a special attention to the Old Latin and also to ‘parabiblical’ texts such as summaries, divisions, and prefaces, a care uncommon at that time. His expertise in Latin palaeography and patristics was broadly recognised.

  • By (author) De Bruyne Donatien
  • Introduction by Pierre-Maurice Bogaert
  • Introduction by Thomas O’Loughlin