During the Middle Ages the act of reading was experienced intensively in the monastic exercise of lectio divina 'the prayerful scrutiny of passages of Scripture, savored in meditation, memorized, recited, and rediscovered in the reader's own religious life. The rich literary tradition that arose from this culture includes theoretical writings from the Conferences of John Cassian (fifth century) through the twelfth-century treatises of Hugh of St. Victor and the Carthusian Guigo II; it also includes compilations, literary meditations, and scriptural commentary, notably on the Song of Songs. This study brings medievalist research together with modern theoretical reflections on the act of reading in a consolidation of historical scholarship, spirituality, and literary criticism.

Table of Contents:
Contents List of Abbreviations   ix Preface   xi      Lectio Divina   xi      In the Monastery   xiii      Reading and Exegesis   xv      Reading beyond Reading   xix Chapter One: Scholarly Contexts: Ressourcement and Research   1      Ressourcement   1      Jean Leclercq   4      Henri de Lubac   11      Research and Practice   23      Implications for Literary Theory   27 Chapter Two: The Interpretation of the Scriptures   38      Letter and Spirit   38      Origen’s On First Principles   43      Saint Augustine   50      Saint Gregory the Great   57 Chapter Three: Reading and Meditation   72      Classical Education   72      The Conversion of Reading   76      Cassian’s Conferences   81      Reading in the Monastery   88  Chapter Four: Reading into Writing   104      Chapters on Reading   107      Liturgy and Private Prayer   120      Carolingian Libelli Precum   125 Chapter Five: The Extension of Meditation   133      John of Fécamp’s Confessio theologica   133      Saint Anselm of Canterbury’s Orationes sive meditationes 145 Chapter Six: Reading the Song of Songs   156      Origen’s Commentary on the Song of Songs   158      Origen’s Homilies on the Song of Songs   163      Gregory’s Exposition on the Song of Songs  170      Bernard of Clairvaux’s Sermons on the Song of Songs   175      Bernard’s Reading Project   180      Allegorical Analysis   184      The Voice of the Bride   192 Chapter Seven: The Twelfth-Century Integration   203      Meditatio and Meditationes   204      Hugh of Saint-Victor   212      Guigo II  224 Chapter Eight: The Book of Experience   231 Select Bibliography   234 Index   243