The central focus of this book concerns vernacular Bibles in various
regions of (late) medieval and early modern Europe, as well as the
religious and cultural circumstances in which these books found their
origin. The contributions represent a cross-section of several research
traditions that show an interest in vernacular Bibles. The volume
includes articles that demonstrate how vernacular Bibles were liable to
censorship measures, viz. Francesca Tasca’s contribution on Peter Valdès
of Lyons, and Gigliola Fragnito’s on post-Tridentine Catholic Europe.
Other essays, in contrast, inspired by a social-historical approach,
emphasize that laypeople in the late Middle Ages and Early Modern Era
found ways to read the Bible and other religious works ‘anyway’ and that
they were hardly hindered by bans instituted by ecclesiastical or
secular governments. Two authors who take this position are Andrew C.
Gow and Margriet Hoogvliet, who also question the paradigm that the
Protestant Reformation was the first to open the Bible to the laity.
Suzan A. Folkerts brings this intuition into practice by studying
printers’ choices as well as provenance data in books containing the
Epistle and Gospel readings from Mass published between 1450 and 1550 in
the Netherlands. This volume not only contains contributions focusing
upon Western European vernacular Bibles but also pays attention to the
Bible in Romania ( Emanual Conţac, Eugen and Lucia-Gabriela Munteanu)
and Scandinavia (Jonatan Pettersson). In this regard, attention is paid
to the (pre)confessional character and literary choices that are
constitutive for the text. The confessional Era and its implications in
the political field are central to Elizabeth Hodgson’s study of ‘David’s
Psalms’ in Reformation England and France/Switzerland. The
‘post-confessional’ eighteenth century Enlightenment Bible – rooted in
the Catholic tradition – by Isaac-Joseph Berruyer is the object of an
essay by Daniel J. Watkins. Finally, Kees Schepers devotes a study to 33
drawings made by the Brussels canon regular Gielis vander Hecken.