Peter of John Olivi On the Bible: Principia quinque in Sacram Scripturam: Postilla in Isaiam et In I ad Corinthios ed. by Gedeon Gál, O.F.M., and David Flood, O.F.M. (review)

492 BOOK REVIEWS easy. Those doing research in the area of fourteenth-century ecclesiastical history and the history of ideas should acquaint themselves with the chronicle and the volume should be purchased by every library attempting to acquire primary-source documentation for medieval history. The Catholic University ofAmerica Washington, D.C. TIMOTHY B. NOONE Peter ofJohn Olivi On the Bible: Principia quinque in Sacram Scripturam: Postilla in lsaiam et In lad Corinthios. Edited by GEDEON GAL, O.F.M., and DAVID FLOOD, O.F.M. St. Bonaventure, N.Y.: Franciscan Institute Publications, 1997. Pp. vi+ 431 $68.00 (paper). ISBN 1-57659-128-X. Far too often, historians of medieval philosophy and theology confine their investigations to commentaries on Peter the Lombard's Sentences, systematic treatises on theological topics, commentaries on the Aristotelian corpus, and disputed or quodlibetal questions arising from the teaching of theology within the medieval universities. Rarely do such historians step outside these genres to examine the ideas that the authors they study had on the Bible, despite the fact that teaching the biblical text was what occupied at least half of the time of medieval theologians. Although the failure on the part of modem scholars to study the broader content of medieval theology is regrettable, it does find some excuse in the paucity of medieval commentaries available in modem, critical editions. The present volume admirably seeks to fill part of that lacuna by providing a fine edition of some of Peter John Olivi's comments on the Bible. The editors review the details of Olivi's life as well as some elementary features of medieval biblical exegesis in the general introduction to the volume. They note that his approach to the Bible is characterized by his concern for the role of the Franciscan movement within the unfolding of salvation history. Indeed, this concern becomes apparent in the texts of Olivi, whose fascination with the seven seals of the Apocalypse is remarkable; nearly every one of commentaries edited in the volume makes some use of apocalyptic figures as a hermeneutic device for understanding the structure of the Bible and the flow of history that the Bible helps uncover. The first part of the volume consists of five principia on the Bible, while the second part contains Olivi's commentary on Isaiah and his unfinished commentary on Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. In addition, there are BOOK REVIEWS 493 two appendices: one comprising a question on obedience from Olivi's treatise on evangelical perfection and the other two sermons on the life of St. Francis. Noteworthy among the five inaugural lectures on the Bible or principia are the first and second. In the first principium, Olivi defends the legitimacy of study against some standard objections advanced against it within the Franciscan order. To the charge that study gives rise to pride and the discussion of pointless questions, Olivi replies that a proper attitude toward study will always bear in mind the relationship between learning and the acquisition of the virtues (25-29). Connected to the right attitude towards study is a sensitivity towards the hierarchy ofauctoritates; Olivi contends that the proper order should be, in a descending order of priority: the Bible itself, the Fathers, the theologians, and the philosophers. To study the last should be the duty only ofthe most acute minds, whose function is to purify philosophical texts of their errors and to bring out their underlying truths. The second principium illustrates Olivi's ability to adapt his considerable philosophical learning to the task of commenting on the Bible. Taking one of his favorite biblical passages, the seven seals of Apocalypse 5:1, Olivi aligns the seven seals with the seven transcendental properties of being: unity/plurality; conformity/disconformity; actuality/potentiality; generality/specificity; substance/accident; absolute/relative; and, mostimportantly, esse secundum rem and esse secundum apprehensionem. The last is the mode of being most consonant with the Scriptures themselves since the meaning ofScripture is revealed in the different levels of apprehension and appearance (50-61). In the second part of the volume, we find Olivi's fascinating commentary on Isaiah. Though much of the text focuses on a thorough explication of the different senses...