Nicholas of Lyra

Nicolas de Lyra

Nicholas of Lyra (French: Nicolas de Lyre; c. 1270 – October 1349), or Nicolaus Lyranus, a Franciscan teacher, was among the most influential practitioners of biblical exegesis in the Middle Ages. Little is known about his youth, aside from the fact of his birth, around 1270, in Lyre, Normandy.

Biography

Rumors from the fifteenth century that Nicholas was born into a religiously-Jewish family have been dismissed by some modern scholars. For example, Deanna Copeland Klepper cites that "as his fifteenth-century critic, Bishop Paul of Burgos (a converted Jew himself) noted, Nicolas’s knowledge of Hebrew and rabbinic interpretation was too limited to reflect a Jewish upbringing."

In 1291, he entered the Franciscan order in the convent of Verneuil-sur-Avre. He was a doctor at the Sorbonne by 1309 and ten years later was appointed the head of all Franciscans in France. His major work, Postillae perpetuae in universam S. Scripturam, was the first printed commentary on the Bible. Printed in Rome in 1471, it was later available in Venice, Basel, and elsewhere. In it, each page of biblical text was printed in the upper center of the page and embedded in a surrounding commentary (illustration, right). His Postilla super totam Bibliam was published by Johannes Mentelin of Strasbourg in 1472.

Nicolas of Lyra's approach to explicating Scripture was firmly based on the literal sense, which for him is the foundation of all mystical or allegorical or anagogical expositions. He deplored the tortured and elaborated readings being given to Scripture in his time. The textual basis was so important that he urged that errors be corrected with reference to Hebrew texts, an early glimmer of techniques of textual criticism, though Nicholas recognized the authoritative value of the Church's Tradition:

I protest that I do not intend to assert or determine anything that has not been manifestly determined by Sacred Scripture or by the authority of the Church... Wherefore I submit all I have said or shall say to the correction of Holy Mother Church and of all learned men... (Second Prologue to Postillae).

Nicholas utilized all sources available to him, fully mastered Hebrew and drew copiously from Rashi and other rabbinic commentaries, the Pugio Fidei of Raymond Martini and of course the commentaries of Thomas Aquinas. His lucid and concise exposition, his soundly-based observations made Postillae the most-consulted manual of exegesis until the 16th century. Martin Luther depended upon it. He used his commentaries extensively in his own work on the book of Genesis, "Lectures on Genesis". He also highly praised his works in the Table Talk. When E. A. Gosselin compiled a listing of the printed editions of works by Nicolaus de Lyra, it ran to 27 pages (in Traditio 26 (1970), pp 399–426).

He was born in the village of La Vieille-Lyre, Normandy, hence his name. Like others in the 14th century, he was occupied by the possibility of the conversion of the Jews, to whom he dedicated hortatory addresses. He wrote Pulcherrimae quaestiones Iudaicam perfidiam in catholicam fide improbantes, which was one of the sources Martin Luther used in his On the Jews and Their Lies.

Translations

• Les Postilles et Expositions des Évangiles (in French), translated by Pierre Desrey, Paris: Pierre et Guillaume Le Rouge, 1492
• Apocalypse Commentary, translated by P Krey, Kalamazoo, MI, 1997
• The Postilia of Nicholas of Lyra on the Song of Songs, translated by JG Kiecker, Milwaukee, MI, 1998

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Nicholas of Lyra — (Doctor planus et utilis)

Exegete, b. at Lyra in Normandy, 1270; d. at Paris, 1340. The report that he was of Jewish descent dates only from the fifteenth century. He took the Franciscan habit at Verneuil, studied theology, received the doctor's degree in Paris and was appointed professor at the Sorbonne. In the famous controversy on the Beatific Vision he took sides with the professors against John XXII. He labored very successfully, both in preaching and writing, for the conversion of the Jews. He is the author of numerous theological works, some of which are yet unpublished. It was to exegesis that Nicholas of Lyra devoted his best years. In the second prologue to his monumental work, "Postillae perpetuae in universam S. Scripturam", after stating that the literal sense of Sacred Scripture is the foundation of all mystical expositions, and that it alone has demonstrative force, as St. Augustine teaches, he deplores the state of Biblical studies in his time. The literal sense, he avers, is much obscured, owing partly to the carelessness of the copyists, partly to the unskillfulness of some of the correctors, and partly also to our own translation (the Vulgate), which not infrequently departs from the original Hebrew. He holds with St. Jerome that the text must be corrected from the Hebrew codices, except of course the prophecies concerning the Divinity of Christ. Another reason for this obscurity, Nicholas goes on to say, is the attachment of scholars to the method of interpretation handed down by others who, though they have said many things well, have yet touched but sparingly on the literal sense, and have so multiplied the mystical senses as nearly to intercept and choke it. Moreover, the text has been distorted by a multiplicity of arbitrary divisions and concordances. Hereupon he declares his intention of insisting, in the present work, upon the literal sense and of interspersing only a few mystical interpretations. Nicholas utilized all available sources, fully mastered the Hebrew and drew copiously from the valuable commentaries of the Jewish exegetes, especially of the celebrated Talmudist Rashi. The "Pugio Fidei" of Raymond Martini and the commentaries of St. Thomas Aquinas were laid under contribution. His exposition is lucid and concise; his observations are judicious and sound, and always original. The "Postillae" soon became the favourite manual of exegesis. It was the first Biblical commentary printed. The solid learning of Nicholas commanded the respect of both Jews and Christians.

Luther owes much to Nicholas of Lyra, but how widely the principles of Nicholas differed essentially from Luther's views is best seen from Nicholas's own words. "I protest that I do not intend to assert or determine anything that has not been manifestly determined by Sacred Scripture or by the authority of the Church.... Wherefore I submit all I have said or shall say to the correction of Holy Mother Church and of all learned men... "(Prol. secund. in Postillas., ed. 1498). Nicholas taught no new doctrine. The early Fathers and the great schoolmen had repeatedly laid down the same sound exegetical principles, but, owing to adverse tendencies of the times, their efforts had partly failed. Nicholas carried out these principles effectively, and in this lies his chief merit - one which ranks him among the foremost exegetes of all times.

WADDING, Annales (Rome, 1733), V, 264 7; VI, 237 9; IDEM, Scriptores (Rome, 1906), s. v., SBARALEA, Supplementum (Rome 1806), s. v.; FABRICIUS, Bibl. lat. et inf. latinitatis V (Hamburg, 1736), 114 sqq.; HAIN, Repertorium. bibl. (Paris, 1826-38), s. v.; COPINGER, Supplement to Hain's Repert. bibl. (London, 1895-1902), s. v.; DENIFLE AND CHATELAIN, Chartul. Universit. Paris, II (Paris, 1891), passim; FERET, La faculte de theol. de Paris et ses docteurs les plus celebres, III (Paris, 1894-96), 331-9; SIMON, Hist. crit. des commentaires d. V. T. (Rotterdam, 1683); IDEM, Hist. crit. des princip. commentateurs d. N. T. (Rotterdam, 1693); BERGER, Quam notitiam linguae hebr. habuerunt Christiani med. aevi in Gallia (Nancy, 1893); CORNELY, Hist. et crit. Introd. in utr. Test. libros sacros, I (Paris, 1885), 660-2; GIGOT, Gen. Introd. to the study of the Scriptures (New York), 444 sq.; NEUMANN, Influence de Rachi et d'autres commentateurs juifs sur les postilles de Lyra in Revue des etudes juives, XXVI (1893), 172 sqq.; XXVII (1893), 230 sqq.; MASCHKOWSKI, Raschis Einfluss auf N. v. L. in d. Ausleg. d. Exodus in Zeitschr. f. alttestam. Wissenschaft, XI (1891), 268 sqq.; LABROSSE, Biogr. et aeuvres de N. v. L. in Etues franciscaines XVI (1906), 383 sqq.; XVII (1907), 489 sqq., 593 sqq.; XIX (1908), 41 sqq., 153 sqq., 368 sqq.; BIHL, Hat N. v. L. in Erfurt dosierti in Zeitschr. d. Vereins f. thuring. Gesch. u. Altertum., XXVI (1908), 329 sqq.; see also a paper on Nicholas of Lyra by MARCHAL in Annuaire de.l'universite cath. de Louvain (1910), 432 sq.

Thomas Plassmann.

Bibliography

• Philippe Bobichon, « Nicolas de Lyre dans la littérature hébraïque et juive: XIVe-XVIIe siècles » in: G. Dahan (dir.): Nicolas de Lyre, franciscain du XIVe siècle exégète et théologien, Études Augustiniennes. Série « Moyen Âge et Temps modernes, 48, Paris, 2011, pp. 281-312 online
• Philip D. W. Krey and Lesley Smith, editors, Nicholas of Lyra: The Senses of Scripture (fifteen essays by various authors: the first modern study)
• Klaus Reinhardt, "Das Werk des Nikolaus von Lyra im mittelalterlichen Spanien", Traditio 43 (1987): 321–358.

External links

• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Nicholas of Lyra". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Nicolaus of Lyra". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 662–663.
• Luther and Lyra on the Song of Solomon: Were They Singing the Same Tune? by James G. Kiecker
• Lewis E 43 Biblical commentary at OPenn
• 6 Postilla super psalterium (Commentary on the Psalms at OPenn)