Abstract
The Historia scholastica of Peter Comestor (d. 1178) was for centuries the main work of reference for the study in the Latin West of Biblical history, just as Peter Lombard’s Four Books of Sentences were for the study of systematic theology and the Decretum of Gratian of Bologna for the study of canon law. Hundreds of manuscript copies of each of these manuals survive, and the Historia scholastica was conspicuous for the attention it gave to the details of the historical events narrated in the Bible, to such matters as places, names, and dates. The work does not offer moral or spiritual interpretation of the Bible. Some examples of Peter’s presentation of biblical chronology are presented in this essay.
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