Mind of the Church

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Library / The Art of Expounding Scripture

Folio 187–189

Peroration; Which Expositors to Choose; the Titles of the Whole Art

Peroration

These things concerning the Methods of explaining the sacred letters — written out by no one before us — we have, after our fashion, comprehended in this third book of the Holy Library. In which, if you should perhaps find any formulas of explanation set forth superfluously, or explained with superfluous words, or at greater length than you would have wished, in demonstrations and examples — know, friendly reader, that we have expended this kind of labor not only for the learned and practiced, but also for the unlearned, and especially for beginners [tyros], to whom very many things in this kind would be unknown and utterly unheard of, which to you, perhaps, and to others like you, have long since been clearer than the noonday light. Therefore take in good part whatever has been sweated out by us in this matter; and embrace with willing mind at least this our attempt, if not the thing itself, receiving with a cheerful brow the following judgment, which — as the final colophon [coronis] of this book — we append for you concerning the catholic expositors of the divine volumes.

Which Expositors of Divine Scripture the Students of Sacred Letters Ought to Choose Above the Rest, and to Provide for Themselves

The Judgment of Friar Sixtus of Siena

When once I was reading the Parerga Iuris [Legal Byways], written by Andrea Alciato, the prince of the jurisconsults of our age, among other things I found his Judgment concerning the greatest interpreters of the civil laws — that is, concerning the usefulness which each one could obtain from the principal expositors of the laws. This he had pronounced in these verses, approved by the assent of all the learned:

In law, compared with the rest, the first place Bartolus will hold. For his frequent [use in] cases, the forensic [practitioner] upholds Baldus. By no means to be neglected, most of all by beginners, is the exposition of Castrensis [Paulus de Castro]. The Clashing-Rocks [Symplegades] of opinions the more safely wilt thou overcome, with Alexander [Tartagni] for [thy] guide. For [good] order, and by the name of light [clarity], Jason [de Mayno] is to be consulted by those in haste. But if anyone add other interpreters to these, he more truly burdens than honors [them].

Let it be permitted me too — whatever sort I myself may be — by the example of this most illustrious man to pass judgment on the chief interpreters of the divine laws and of the Holy Scriptures: not upon their doctrine (for this I, a manikin of the lowest class, ought not to dare), but upon the fruit which each one can gather, the greater, from their writings. All these things having been weighed with what diligence we could, we think it can rightly be done in this manner:

History, drawn from the Hebrew and Greek fountains, thou shalt learn, with Jerome for [thy] guide. Allegories, and the Anagogical [sense], will unlock Origen [and] Ambrose. Senses fit for the forming of morals will expound Chrysostom [and] Gregory. In doubtful matters, and in places sunk in deep darkness, Aurelius [Augustine] will bring light. But the brief and easy exposition of the Lyran [Nicholas of Lyra] is not to be scorned by the beginner.

## The Titles of the Whole Art of Expounding the Sacred Volumes, Explained in the Holy [Third] Book

The art of expounding the sacred volumes has three parts — the Definitive, the Inventive, and the Dispositive. Of which:

## The Twenty-Four Methods of Exposition

  1. Translation (Translatio): Tetrapla; Hexapla; Octapla.
  2. Stigmatic (Stigmatica).
  3. Syllabic (Syllabica).
  4. Partition (Partitio): Dividing; Collecting.
  5. Epitome (Epitome).
  6. Ecloge / Excerpt (Egloge):
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Sixtus of Siena, O.P., “Peroration; Which Expositors to Choose; the Titles of the Whole Art,” in The Art of Expounding Scripture, English translation, Mind of the Church, https://mindofthechurch.com/works/bibliotheca-sancta-iii/029-peroration-which-expositors-to-choose-the-titles-of-the-whol/.

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