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About the Authors
David M. Foley
David M. Foley holds a PhD in Medieval Studies from the University of Toronto. His research is focused on the critical editing and translation of medieval Latin texts, with a special interest in the biblical teaching of twelfth-century Parisian masters. His recent publications include Peter Comestor’s Lectures on the Glossed Gospel of John (CUA Press, 2024) and translations of William of Tocco’s The Life of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelus Press, 2023) and Pope Innocent III’s The Mysteries of the Mass (Angelus Press, 2023). Foley currently resides in Calgary, Canada, where he teaches Latin at a classical academy.
Zachary Thomas
Zachary Thomas is a PhD candidate in Medieval Studies at Cornell University, studying the Latin literature and commentary traditions of the Middle Ages. He has made several editions and translations, including Hildebert of Lavardin’s Verses on the Mystery of the Mass (JML, 2025), Honorius Augustodunensis’s Jewel of the Soul (DOML, 2023), and Radulph of Rivo’s On the Observance of Canons (Brepols, 2025). His thesis explores the mystagogical heritage of the Latin West.
What People Are Saying
“For centuries, the Glossa ordinaria was Western Christendom’s indispensable resource for biblical study and preaching. This team translation of the Gloss on John by David Foley and Zachary Thomas, coupled with their fine introduction, will help contemporary readers rediscover the immense richness of the Latin exegetical tradition and the medieval Church’s contemplation of a Gospel that (as Master Anselm said) ‘surpasses all the pages of divine Scripture.’”
Anthony Giambrone, O.P.
École Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jérusalem
“How to present the Glossa ordinaria in translation has been a persistent problem for teachers of medieval theology. The problem is now solved. This beautiful volume, produced like its medieval models, allows English readers to step back in time and experience the Glossa firsthand, as if they were a medieval student or scholar. The expert introductions, excellent translation, and the modified text of the Rusch edition make this volume valuable not just for students and teachers but even for general scholars. There is perhaps no better team to produce such a volume and no better volume for students to begin their understanding of the Sacred Page in the Middle Ages.”
Joshua C. Benson
Catholic University of America
“More than a translation effort, as valuable as that is, this volume constitutes an impressive work of historical scholarship. Foley and Thomas are to be commended for having plumbed the depths of the Gloss tradition, drawing upon four separate manuscripts dated to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, to correct and significantly enhance the printed 1481 Rusch edition of the Glossa ordinaria. Students and scholars alike will encounter, in many cases for the first time, a range of glosses which further reflect the richness of medieval biblical interpretation.”
Ian Christopher Levy
Providence College
“The Glossa ordinaria was the default toward which every medieval biblical commentary converged or from which it diverged. Its value for the historian is obvious. For today’s reader of Scripture, the Glossa’s value lies partially in its opposition to every contemporary default: It moves without blinking between historical, theological, and allegorical interpretation, relentlessly unites Scripture and tradition even in its format, and resists any attempt at ‘browsing’. It is not the work of a famous individual we can claim as proto-modern or ahead of his time but, like Chartres Cathedral, is entirely anonymous and is a quintessential work of its time. Nothing is more medieval than the Glossa ordinaria. We need works like these to save us from chronological provincialism. This English translation is beautifully laid out in fidelity to the original and meticulously documented so as to be useful to scholar and layman alike.”
Jeremy Holmes
Wyoming Catholic College
“When teaching an Introduction to Medieval Theology course to graduate students in past semesters, I have often lamented the lack of ready access for them to the Glossa ordinaria, the mammoth textbook that conveyed to medieval university students the books of the Bible as they had been interpreted, line by line, by patristic authorities. The format of the Glossa placed the biblical passage at the center of the page, surrounded by a host of witnesses to its meanings. Elegantly preserving this format, the present volume provides the biblical text and its accompanying glosses in David M. Foley and Zachary Thomas’s English translation. The ambitious multivolume series inaugurated by Emmaus Academic has the potential to transform the teaching of medieval theology, granting students access to this highly influential tradition of biblical exposition.”
Ann W. Astell
University of Notre Dame
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