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'Gilbertus Universalis' Reevaluated and The ‘GILBERTUS UNIVERSALIS’ REEVALUATED AND THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE GLOSS ON GENESIS Alice HUTTON ShARP Abstract In a two-part article published in Recherches de Théologie Ancienne et Médiévale in 1935 and 1936, Beryl Smalley broke new ground in the field of medieval biblical studies by demonstrating the origin of the Ordinary Gloss on the Bible in the twelfth-century schools, with the principal work carried out by Gilbert the Universal (bishop of London from 1128-1134) and Anselm of Laon (d. 1117). This article looks at her argument for Gilbert the Universal’s authorship of the Gloss on the book of Genesis in the light of more recent textual scholarship, showing that further evidence is needed to demonstrate the nature of Gilbert’s involvement with the Gloss on Genesis and raising questions about the promi- nence given to the identification of authors in medieval intellectual history. It is often claimed that the books now referred to as the Ordinary Gloss on much of the Old Testament — including the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Kings, the Major and Minor Prophets, and Lamenta- tions — were composed by one Gilbert “the Universal,” a canon of Auxerre and the Bishop of London from 1128 to1134.1 This would be a substantial achievement and give Gilbert credit for influencing a vast proportion of the late medieval interpretation of the historical and prophetic books of the Bible. Gilbert’s role in the development of the Gloss on the Bible was promoted by Beryl Smalley, one of the first 1 B. SMALLEY, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, 3rd ed., Notre Dame 1982, pp. 60-61; C. F. R. DE HAMEL, Glossed Books of the Bible and the origins of the Paris book- trade, Woodbridge, 1984, p. 2; E. A. MATTER, “The Church Fathers and the Glossa ordinaria,” in: I. BACKhUs (ed.), The Reception of the Church Fathers in the West: From the Carolingians to the Maurists, Leiden 1997, p. 86; L. SMITh, The Glossa Ordinaria: The Making of a Medieval Bible Commentary, Leiden 2009, pp. 28-31. Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie médiévales 83(2), 225-243. doi: 10.2143/RTPM.83.2.3194382 © 2016 by Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie médiévales. All rights reserved. 99267_RTPM_2016-2_01_Sharp.indd 225 10/02/17 06:59 226 a. Hutton Sharp historians to research medieval biblical scholarship. In a two-part article published in Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale in 1935 and 1936, Smalley called attention to the frequent attribution of the Gloss on Lamentations to Gilbert in the manuscripts, and argued that his hand could also be seen in the Gloss on the Pentateuch and the Major and Minor Prophets.2 This theory was later expanded by René Was- selynk to include Joshua, Judges, and Kings.3 The past eighty years have seen substantial changes in our under- standing of the early history and development of the Gloss, before it acquired the title “Ordinary.” It is time to reopen the question of some of the attributions put forth in the early twentieth century. Recent work, for example, has argued that Anselm of Laon (d. 117) composed continuous, rather than gloss-format, commentaries that were only later copied as glosses by his students. In addition, several books of the Gloss are now known to have circulated in multiple forms and versions.4 This includes the twelfth-century version of the Gloss on the book of Genesis, now known to have developed in two stages — an earlier (“primitive”) and later (“reworked”) text.5 As will be shown below, in her treatment of the books of the Pentateuch Smalley’s argument for Gilbert’s authorship of the Gloss on Genesis is particu- larly weak, as it is fully dependent on a later external source. Reading this source in the light of the multiple versions of the Gloss on Genesis 2 B. SMALLEY, “Gilbertus Universalis Bishop of London (1128-1134) and the Problem of the ‘Glossa Ordinaria’,” in: Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 7 (1935) pp. 235-262; B. SMALLEY, “Gilbertus Universalis Bishop of London (1128-1134) and the Problem of the ‘Glossa Ordinaria’,” in: Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 8 (1936), pp. 24-64. 3 R. WAssELYNCK, “L’influence de l’exégèse de St. Grégoire le Grand sur les commen- taires bibliques médiévaux (VIIe-XIIe s.),” in: Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale 32 (1965), pp. 157-204. 4 On the discovery of continuous commentaries associated with Anselm of Laon, see A. ANDRÉE, “Anselm of Laon Unveiled: The Glosae super Iohannem and the Origins of the Glossa Ordinaria on the Bible,” in Mediaeval Studies 73 (2011), pp. 217-240. On books of the Gloss surviving in different versions, see the introduction to GILbERTUs UNIVERsALIs, Glossa ordinaria in Lamentationes Ieremie Prophete: Prothemata et Liber I, ed. A. ANDRÉE, Stockholm 2005, p. 92; G. LObRIChON, “Une nouveauté: les gloses de la Bible,” in: P. RIChÉ – G. LObRIChON (eds.), Le Moyen Âge et la Bible, Paris 1984, p. 109; A. ANDRÉE, “Le Pater (Matth. 6,9-13 et Luc 11, 2-4) dans l’exégèse de l’école de Laon: la Glossa ordi- naria et autres commentaires,” in: F. SIRI (ed.), Le Pater noster au XIIe siècle. Lectures et usages, Turnhout 2015, pp. 46-48. 5 P. BUC, L’ambiguïté du livre. Prince, pouvoir, et peuple dans les commentaires de la Bible au Moyen Âge, Paris 1994, pp. 72-74. 99267_RTPM_2016-2_01_Sharp.indd 226 10/02/17 06:59 ‘GILBERTUS UNIVERSALIS’ 227 brings Smalley’s attribution into question and offers an opportunity to question the prominence given to the identification of authors in medi- eval intellectual history. Medieval authors, we are frequently reminded, were not authors. Rather, they were compilers of opinions handed down from prior auctores whose authority was conferred by widespread recognition and antiquity. Medieval innovations were limited to the inclusion or exclu- sion of specific texts, the adoption of a new source or the rejection of another, or a new manner of framing and organizing the sourced mate- rial. Nowhere is this more evident than in biblical commentaries. The above, of course, is caricature. While medieval writers worked within the constraints of their era, including limited resources for the production of books, concerns about orthodoxy, and an inherent trust in the value of written sources, they were not mindless plagiarists; if they were, historians would be less interested in determining who wrote which commentary. Medieval exegetes wrote to preserve and explain what their sources taught. The Gloss on the Bible — simultaneously derivative and magiste- rial — is a common example of this trend. Few medieval texts were as frequently cited, emended, and re-worked as the collection of com- mentaries that grew out of the biblical theology taught in the twelfth- century Cathedral schools. Having first developed from classroom lectures as a selection of individual commentaries, the Gloss, distin- guished by the copying of explanatory passages both in the margins and between the lines of the scriptural text, eventually came to encompass every book of the Bible. By the fourteenth century, the commentaries it comprised were described as “ordinaria” as a sign of its widespread use and status.6 The twelfth-century Gloss was a teaching aid, a resource for prescholastic theologians, and a source for foundational works of twelfth-century theology such as the Sentences of Peter Lombard (d. 1160) and the Historia Scholastica of Peter Comestor (d. 1178). Used as a source, the Gloss remained influential throughout the Scho- lastic era.7 6 On the date of the use of “ordinaria,” see B. SMALLEY, “Gilbertus Universalis Bishop of London,” in: RTAM 8, 1936, p. 25 n. 8. 7 See M. ZIER, “Peter Lombard and the Glossa ordinaria on the Bible,” in: J. BROwN – W. P. STONEMAN (eds.), A Distinct Voice. Medieval Studies in Honor of Leonard E. Boyle, OP, Notre Dame 1997, 629-641. M. CLARK, “Glossing Genesis 1.2 in the Twelfth Century, or 99267_RTPM_2016-2_01_Sharp.indd 227 10/02/17 06:59 228 a. Hutton Sharp For these reasons, the authorship of the Gloss has been of significant interest to historians of medieval theology and intellectual culture. For many years it was thought to be a Carolingian collection compiled by Walafrid Strabo (d. 849); this attribution is preserved in the Patrologia Latina.8 Peter Lombard was the prime suspect in the early twentieth century, thanks to his use of the Gloss in the Sentences and his role in expanding the Gloss on the Psalms. Another theory made Strabo the author of the marginal glosses, and Anselm of Laon the author of those copied interlinearly.9 These theories were put to rest by Beryl Smalley, who demonstrated that Anselm’s cathedral school at Laon, known to be the center of production for a number of important works of pre-scho- lastic theology, was also the point of origin for both the marginal and interlinear Gloss. She focused, in particular, on Anselm’s role in the com- position of the Gloss on Psalms and on the Pauline Epistles, both foun- dational works of medieval biblical theology which would have been among the most important texts taught in the classroom — and by extension, among the earliest to require extensive commentary.10 Although Anselm is now generally accepted as both the magister whose teaching inspired the first books of the Gloss and as the source of several of its commentaries — including those on the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John — Smalley’s own argument did not begin with Anselm.11 Rather, she worked back to her argument for Anselm’s How Andrew of St. Victor and Peter Comestor dealt with the Intersection of nova and vetera in the Biblical Glossa ordinaria,” in: Sacris erudiri 46 (2007), pp.
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