The Bible of the Poor [Biblia Pauperum]: A Facsimile and Edition of the British Library Blockbook C.9.d.2 ed. by Albert C. Labriola, John W. Smeltz (review)

STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER rampant eclecticism, when "a crescendo of confusion regarding the pig symbol" led to a revival of "the entire spectrum of its contradictory mean­ ings" (p. 305). A scheme so vague is difficult to argue with, and the attempts to refine it, by introducing notions of "resurgence of interest," contradictory tendencies, and temporary "blows to pig prestige" are per­ functory.The significance ofpigsymbolism generally is explainedas having to do with the way in which the pig, more than any other beast, stands for mankind, "with its difficult antinomy of positive and negative charac­ teristics" (p. 322). Though it is difficult to take the book seriously, or explain how one comes to be reviewing it, it is a seriousbook, and a work ofloving dedication,care, andassiduity. The vasttrawl throughclassical, Germanic, Celtic, and other sources ensures that everyone's favorite pigs are here somewhere, from the winged pig of Gullinbursti to Richard Ill's "Blanc Sanglier." Some of them appear inunexpectedcontexts.The boar hunt in Sir Gawain andthe Green Knight, for instance, is apparently an allusion to transmigration initiation rites, in which the boar in some sense represents Gawain himself: such initiates are enabled to "touch base with their piggish lower nature and emerge the wiser" (p. 55). Elsewhere we learn something new about Troilus's dream of the boar embracing Criseyde: "This scene puts the final seal on the failed experiment of the winged pig" (p. 41). Chaucerians will want to buy the book to find out why. The book resembles nothing so much as a gigantic pigsty, and the experience of reading it that of having great barrow loads of information tipped out promiscuously on top of one. Everything one would want in the way ofraw material on the subject is here somewhere (I particularly profited from the pages of factual information about domestic pigs, pp. 95-104), and there is an excellent index and a probably exhaustive bibliography of pig literature. It comes as a slight surprise to find that there are already many books of this kind in existence. DEREK PEARSALL Harvard University ALBERT C. LABRIOLA andJOHN W SMELTZ, eds. and trans. The Bible of the Poor [Biblia Pauperum]: A Facsimile and Edition ofthe British Library Blockbook C.9.d.2. Pittsburgh, Pa.: Duquesne University Press, 1991. Pp. ix, 190. $38.00 cloth; $20.00 paper. As Labriola and Smeltz explain in their preface to this very useful book, the idea of producing a facsimile edition of the Biblia Pauperum grew out of 222 REVIEWS their experience using the work in teaching various courses in medieval and Renaissance Christian literature, art, and theology (p. vii). This edition does not replace the recent scholarly (and much more expensive) one by Avril Henry (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1987), as the authors themselves make clear (pp. vii-viii), but Chaucerians and other teachers ofmedieval and Renaissance literature and art will indeed find this book to be a valuable, and affordable, pedagogicalresource for themselves and their students. Having said this, however, there are several problems with the volume that need to be addressed. On the question ofaudience, the authors write: "As a work intended for the common folk, accessible to their understand­ ing and usefulfortheir religiousinstruction, theBibliaPauperum was not a repository of erudition but a compendium of commonplace interpreta­ tions" (p. viii). Yet how "common" could the "folk" who constituted the putative intended audience ofthe Biblia Pauperum have been ifthey were expected to read and correlate its sometimes recherche biblical Latin texts and corresponding images? Indeed, as Labriola and Smeltz themselves point out: ...the Biblia Pauperum is a brief compendium of harmonies and concordances among biblical texts and a guide to interpretations thereof. By its citation, jux­ taposition, and interpretation of biblical passages, the blockbook epitomizes the technique of medieval commentary compiled in monumental works such as the Glossa Ordinaria of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and the Catena Aurea by St. Thomas Aquinas. Despite its relative brevity, the blockbook provides a frame of reference for understanding biblical allusions in religious writing, including ser­ mons, hymns, penitential literature, and devotional poetry as late as the seven­ teenth century. (Pp. 7-8] This would hardly be...