Darwin-L Message Log 6:32 (February 1994)

Academic Discussion on the History and Theory of the Historical Sciences

This is one message from the Archives of Darwin-L (1993–1997), a professional discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.

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<6:32>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu  Mon Feb  7 22:16:59 1994

Date: Mon, 07 Feb 1994 23:20:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Hexaemeral bibliography (fwd from MEDTEXTL)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

The "hexaemeral" literature is the literature of the first six days
of the creation as described in Genesis.  Much early work in scriptural
geology grew out of the hexaemeral tradition (see Rudwick's wonderful new
book _Scenes From Deep Time_ which reprints early illustrations for each
day), so I thought this bibliography which just appeared on MEDTEXTL might
be of interest to some Darwin-L members.  Most of this material would have
certainly been hard for me to find unless someone had pointed me to it.

Bob O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)

--Begin forwarded message---------------

Date: Sun, 6 Feb 1994 20:13:59 -0600
From: "Charles D. Wright" <cdwright@UX1.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
Subject: Genesis and the Hexaemeral tradition

It seems like we haven't had a fresh medtextl bibliography for weeks.
(What's the matter with you, Avril?)  Here's one I prepared for a seminar
on the Junius Manuscript a couple of years ago.  I've added a few
late-breaking items, but this comes with the usual disclaimer that it is no
more than a starter bibliography.  I have emphasized works that contain
substantial bibliographies of secondary literature and lists of primary
texts (so for the most part I don't bother to list primary texts here), and
monographs or articles that deal comprehensively with particular Genesis
topics (up to but not beyond Noah).  The references for vernacular texts are
obviously highly selective, but the secondary guides I list should lead one
to all the major and many of the minor relevant texts.  As usual, you'll
have to supply your own umlauts and accents.

I would appreciate any corrections or additions medtextlers may have,
especially major reference works or general surveys of special topics.

Charlie Wright

Genesis and the Hexaemeral Tradition in the Middle Ages

Annual Bibliography

One of the best ways to locate recent work on Genesis in the medieval
tradition is through Medioevo Latino (11 vols. to date).  Look under the
heading "Fortleben: Biblia Sacra: Pentateuchus."  Also try the serial
bibliographies in Bibliographica Patristica and Bulletin signaletique:
Histoire et sciences de religions.

General Reference Works and Surveys

Hans Martin v. Erffa, Ikonologie der Genesis: Die christlichen Bildthemen
aus dem Alten Testament und ihre Quellen (Munich, 1989).  Coverage through
the Tower of Babel, with exhaustive bibliography.

F. E. Robbins, The Hexaemeral Literature: A Study of the Greek and Latin
Commentaries on Genesis (Chicago, 1912).

J. M. Evans, Paradise Lost and the Genesis Tradition (Oxford, 1968). Covers
Latin biblical epics, Jewish and Christian commentaries and paraphrases,
medieval vernacular treatments, drama. *Lists Genesis commentaries and
poetic paraphrases, pp. 295-7.*  Supplementary bibliography geared towards
medieval traditions is given by M. Benskin and Brian Murdoch, "The Literary
Tradition of Genesis," Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 76 (1975), 389-403.

R. E. McNally, The Bible in the Early Middle Ages (Westminster, MD, 1959).
*Lists biblical commentaries composed between 650 and 1000, pp. 89-94
(General Commentaries on the Bible) and 95-6 (Commentaries on the Old
Testament, Genesis).*

Johannes Zahlten, Creatio Mundi: Darstellungen der sechs Schopfungstage und
naturwissenschaftliches Weltbild im Mittelalter, Stuttgarter Beitrage zur
Geschichte und Politik 13 (Stuttgart, 1979).  *Includes extensive
bibliography and an alphabetical list of commentaries on Genesis, pp.
284-97.*

Gunar Freibergs, "The Medieval Latin Hexameron from Bede to Grosseteste,"
unpubl. Ph.D. diss., University of Southern California, 1981.  [not seen]
Michael W. Twomey, "Medieval Encyclopedias," in R. E. Kaske, Medieval
Literary Imagery (Toronto, 1986), Appendix, pp. 182-215.  Covers medieval
"scientific" treatises, which are often organized according to hexaemeral
topics.

J. F. Kelly, "A Catalogue of Early Medieval Hiberno-Latin Biblical
Commentaries (I)," Traditio 44 (1988), 537-71.  Includes references to
several unpublished Hiberno-Latin commentaries on Genesis.

A. Williams, The Common Expositor (Chapel Hill, 1948).  On Hexaemeral
commentaries in the Renaissance.

P. Agaesee and A. Solignac, trans, Oeuvres de saint Augustin: La Genese au
sens litteral, in Bibliotheque Augustinienne 48-9.  Has exceptionally full
explanatory notes on a wide variety of topics.

J. O'Toole, The Philosophy of Creation in the Writings of Saint Augustine
(Washington, D.C., 1944).

Special Topics

Chronography

W. Adler, Time Immemorial: Archaic History and its Sources in Christian
Chronography, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 26 (Washington, D.C., 1989).
Hildegard Tristram, Sex aetates mundi: die Weltzeitalter bei den
Angelsachsen und den Iren (Heidelberg, 1985).

De natura rerum

See in general Zahlten, Creatio Mundi (above).  Isidore's Etymologiae and
De natura rerum were extremely influential.  For the backgrounds, see J.
Fontaine, Isidore de Seville et la culture classique dans l'Espagne
wisigothique, 2 vols., Etudes Augustiniennes (Paris, 1959). For cosmology
and geography there's always P. Duhem, Le system du monde, 5 vols. (Paris,
1913-17), and J. K. Wright, The Geographical Lore of the Time of the
Crusades (New York, 1925).

In Principio

In Principio: Interpretations de premiers versets de la Genese, Etudes
Augustiniennes (Paris, 1973).  Essays by various hands, many dealing with
patristic interpretations.

Lucifer and the Fallen Angels

P. E. Dustoor, "Legends of Lucifer in Early English and in Milton," Anglia
54 (1930), 213-68.

Geoffrey Burton Russell, Lucifer:  The Devil in the Middle Ages (Ithaca,
NY, 1977).

Neil Forsyth, The Old Enemy:  Satan and the Combat Myth (Princeton, 1987)
Bernard J. Bamberger, Fallen Angels (Philadelphia, 1952).  Focus is on
Rabbinic traditions.

Leo Jung, Fallen Angels in Jewish, Christian and Mohammedan Literature
(Philadelphia, 1926)

Paradise

Arturo Graf, "Il mito del paradiso terrestre," in his Miti, Leggende e
Superstizioni del Medio Evo, vol. 1 (Torino, 1892).

H. R. Patch, The Other World According to Descriptions in Medieval
Literature (Cambridge, MA, 1950).

Reinhold R. Grimm, Paradisus Coelestis Paradisus Terrestris:  Zur
Auslegungsgeschichte des Paradieses im Abendland bis um 1200, Medium Aevum
33 (Munich, 1977).

Mary Irma Corcoran, Milton's Paradise with Reference to the Hexameral
Background (Washington, DC, 1945).  Lists commentaries on Genesis and other
relevant primary sources, pp. 138-43.

A. B. Giamatti, The Earthly Paradise and the Renaissance Epic (Princeton,
1966).

Adam and Eve

Brian Murdoch, The Fall of Man in the Early Middle High German Biblical
Epic (Goppingen, 1972).

Brian Murdoch, The Recapitulated Fall (Amsterdam, 1974).
Lutz Rorich, Adam und Eva:  Das erste Menschenpaar in Volkskunst und
Volksdichtung (Stuttgart, 1968).

M. E. Stone, A History of the Literature of Adam and Eve (Atlanta, 1992).
[not seen]

The Serpent

H. A. Kelly, "The Metamorphosis of the Eden Serpent during the Middle Ages
and Renaissance," Viator 2 (1971), 301-32.

Cain and Abel

V. Aptowitzer, Kain und Abel in der Agada den Apokryphen, der
hellenistischen, christlichen und muhammedanischen Literatur (Vienna and
Leipzig, 1922).

O. F. Emerson, "Legends of Cain, Especially in Old and Middle English,"
PMLA 21 (1906), 831-929.

Ruth Mellinkoff, The Mark of Cain (Berkeley, CA, 1981).

Ruth Mellinkoff, "Cain's Monstrous Progeny in Beowulf," Anglo-Saxon England
8 (1979), 143-62; 9 (1981), 183-97.

Ricardo J. Quinones, The Changes of Cain:  Violence and the Lost Brother in
Cain and Abel Literature (Princeton, 1991).

Anna Ulrich, Kain und Abel in der Kunst:  Untersuchungen zur Ikonographie
und Auslegungsgeschichte (Bamberg, 1981).

Seth

Esther Quinn, The Quest of Seth for the Oil of Life (Chicago, 1973).

A. F. J. Klijn, Seth in Jewish, Christian and Gnostic Literature,
Supplements to Novum Testamentum 46 (Leiden, 1977).

Noah

J. P. Lewis, A Study of the Interpretation of Noah and the Flood (Leiden,
1968).

F. Lee Utley, "Noah, His Wife, and the Devil," in Studies in Biblical and
Jewish Folklore, ed. R. Patai, F. Lee Utley, and D. Noy (Bloomington, IN,
1960), pp. 59-91

Don Cameron Allen, The Legend of Noah:  Renaissance Rationalism in Art,
Science, and Letters (Urbana, IL, 1963).

A. Dundes, The Flood Myth (Berkeley, CA, 1988).

Tower of Babel

A. Borst, Der Turmbau von Babel, 4 vols. (Stuttgart, 1957).

Rabbinic literature

L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, 6 vols. (Philadelphia)

L. Ginzberg, Die Haggada bei den Kirchenvatern und in der apokryphischen
Litteratur (Berlin, 1900)

M. Grunbaum, Neue Beitrage zur semitischen Sagenkunde (Leiden, 1893)

Biblical Folklore

Oskar Dahnhardt, Natursagen, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1907-12).

J. G. Frazer, Folk-Lore of the Old Testament (London, 1918).  Excerpted
from The Golden Bough.

Some Medieval Vernacular Texts on Genesis

Old English:

The major OE poems on Genesis are: Genesis A: A New Edition, ed. A. N.
Doane (Madison, WI, 1978).  The Saxon Genesis [Genesis B and the Old Saxon
Genesis], ed. A. N. Doane (Madison, WI, 1991).  For lists of passages from OE
poems dealing with the Fall of Satan and Fall of Adam, see C. Abbetmeyer, Old
English Poetical Motives derived from the Doctrine of Sin (New York, 1903).
For prose texts, see S. Greenfield and F. C. Robinson, A Bibliography of
Publications on Old English Literature to 1972 (Toronto, 1980).

Middle English:

Two major biblical paraphrases include: The Story of Genesis and Exodus,
ed. R. Morris, EETS os 7 (London, 1865); and Cursor Mundi, vol. 1 ed. R.
Morris, EETS os 57 (London, 1874).  For others, see J. Burke Severs, A
Manual of Writings in Middle English 1050-1500, vol. 2 (Hamden, CT, 1970):
L. Muir, "Translations and Paraphrases of the Bible, and Commentaries"; C.
D'Evelyn and F. A. Foster, "Saints' Legends" (for Adam and Eve).  See also
J. Dean, "The World Grown Old and Genesis in Middle English Historical
Writings," Speculum 57 (1982), 548-68.

Old and Middle Irish:

R. A. S. Macalister, Lebor Gabala Erenn, vol. 1, Irish Texts Society 34
(Dublin, 1938).

D. Greene and F. Kelly, The Old Irish Adam and Eve Story from Saltair na
Rann, vol. 1: Text and Translation; vol. 2:  Commentary, by Brian Murdoch
(Dublin, 1976).  See also Murdoch, "From the Flood to the Tower of Babel:
Some Notes on Saltair na Rann XIII-XXIV," Eriu 40 (1989), 69-82.

W. Stokes, "The Evernew Tongue," Eriu 2 (1905), 96-162.

M. Carney, "The Works of the Sixth Day," Eriu 21 (1969), 148-66.

D. Wasserstein, "The Creation of Adam and Apocrypha in Early Ireland,"
Proc. of the Royal Irish Academy 88C (1988), 1-17.

For others, see M. McNamara, The Apocrypha in the Irish Church (Dublin, 1975).

Cornish:

The major works are the Cornish Ordinalia and "The Creacion of the World.
On these see now B. Murdoch, Cornish Literature (Cambridge, 1993).

Old and Middle High German:

The major paraphrases are the Wien-Milstatter Genesis and Die Vorauer
Bucher Moses.  For these and other medieval German texts on Genesis, see
the works by Murdoch listed above under "Adam and Eve"; see also Murdoch's
"Genesis and Pseudo-Genesis in Late Mediaeval German Poetry," Medium Aevum
45 (1976), 70-78.

Old Norse:

See Ian Kirby, Biblical Quotation in Old Icelandic-Norwegian Religious
Literature, 2 vols. (Reykavik, 1980) and Bible Translation in Old Norse
(Geneve, 1986).

Old French:

Le Mystere d'Adam, ed. P. Aebischer (Geneve-Paris, 1964).

E. C. Quinn, The Penitence of Adam: A Study of the Andrius Manuscript
(University, Miss., 1980).

R. Grimm, Schopfung und Sundenfall in der altfranzosischen Genesisdichtung
des Evrat (Frankfurt a.M., 1976).

--End forwarded message-----------------

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