Interpretatio Mystica et Moralis Progenitorum Domini Iesu Christi (review)

In the Early Middle Ages scholars read the Fathers primarily as exegetes, which partly explains why some authors became well-known and widely used while others did not. The Irish writer Aileran the Wise (Aileranus Sapiens), who died in 665, composed an Interpretatio Mystica et Moralis Progenitorum Domini Christi, a topic of great interest to the Fathers and which Aileran’s authority guaranteed would be popular with subsequent Hiberno-Latin writers.

In this volume Aidan Breen offers a critical edition of Aileran’s text, an English translation, a survey of Aileran’s life and work, the manuscript tradition, literary and linguistic considerations, and a source analysis. Significantly, about one-fourth of the book deals with patristic sources.

The Stellenregister is impressive: Ambrose, Ambrosiaster, Aponius, Augustine, Cassiodorus, Eucherius, Gregory the Great, Jerome, Hilary of Poitiers, Pelagius, and Rufinus. Several Greek writers were known in translation, such as John Chysostom and Origen. Breen’s thorough and painstaking analysis demonstrates the range of patristic fontes available to the Early Medieval Irish, while his critical edition allows scholars to see how the Fathers were utilized. Not surprisingly, Jerome’s Liber Interpretationis Hebraicum Nominum was the most important text, but Aileran preferred detailed analyses of the names and thus went well beyond Jerome. Breen’s analysis of the biblical text demonstrates that Aileran relied almost exclusively upon the Vulgate, and his few Vetus Latina readings had patristic support.

Because of Aileran’s importance and his early date, he influenced later Medieval exegetes. Breen’s critical edition of the Interpretatio has filled a serious gap in the study of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Scholars are in his debt.