The Courtly and Commercial Art of the Wycliffite Bible by Kathleen E. Kennedy (review)

In this brief, but ambitious study, Kathleen Kennedy examines the art of the Wycliffite Bible, surveying its manuscripts to present something of a guide to the manner and means of its production, while elaborating on the details of the books' decoration. Kennedy argues that despite Archbishop Arundel's 1407 constitutions banning unauthorised vernacular bibles, the Wycliffite Bible was not illegal, was in fact a medieval bestseller, and should be understood as a normal and legitimate feature of the textual landscape in late medieval England.

Of the 250 extant Wycliffite Bibles, 40 per cent are illuminated. Traipsing through the specialist world of full bar borders, partial bar borders, foliate initials, champs, roundels, colours, squiggles, cilia, historiations, and myriad other aspects of the illuminated book culture of the later Middle Ages, Kennedy argues that the Wycliffite Bible provides an example of almost every aspect of medieval religious book culture. She points out that the only Bible copied in England after 1415 was the Wycliffite Bible, and she challenges the long-held idea that there was no concord between Lollards and art.

The production, dissemination, and popularity of the Wycliffite Bible present interesting possibilities around the idea of multiple readings of texts across a complex confessional landscape. The fact that this Bible, long associated with the heretic John Wyclif, continued to be copied, frequently illuminated, and sometimes illustrated over the span of the fifteenth century, before and after Arundel's ban, makes ignoring it impossible. Still, I remain unpersuaded that the Wycliffite Bible was a household book.

Kennedy argues that binary categories are unhelpful and that taxonomies like heresy and orthodoxy obfuscate rather than illuminate. After all, Lollards and Catholics had shared concerns and the veneration of images was as fraught for Roman Christians as it was for English Lollards. Kennedy is therefore comfortable in placing the Wycliffite Bible in orthodox hands while arguing that book production and literary uses are more salient than heresy.

Kennedy usefully combines the disciplines of history and literary scholarship, engages with digital images, and provides fifty-eight figures to augment the text. It is unfortunate, however, that the images have not been reproduced in colour, as they seem so essential to much of her argument, and that the volume lacks either a clear conclusion or a comprehensive index.