A Dominican friar and regent master at Paris during the mid-thirteenth century, William of Alton was an important representative of university exegesis at a time of remarkable intellectual development. Though he is less well known than his contemporaries Albert the Great, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas, the writings ascribed to him, consisting of biblical commentaries and sermons, are of great interest to the history of biblical interpretation. And yet, they have attracted very little study, in part because they have never been printed and in part because they pose numerous problems of attrib ... More

A Dominican friar and regent master at Paris during the mid-thirteenth century, William of Alton was an important representative of university exegesis at a time of remarkable intellectual development. Though he is less well known than his contemporaries Albert the Great, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas, the writings ascribed to him, consisting of biblical commentaries and sermons, are of great interest to the history of biblical interpretation. And yet, they have attracted very little study, in part because they have never been printed and in part because they pose numerous problems of attribution. This study proposes to move beyond the resulting ambiguity by considering heretofore unexamined sources of information, specifically, by supplementing available external manuscript evidence with the indications of each commentary’s methodology and style. Rather than pretend to make definitive determinations with respect to every commentary’s authorship, this inquiry sets for itself the more modest task of constituting a list of works whose authenticity can be a matter of confidence and thus providing a basis for studying William’s exegesis. The establishment of a sound bibliography brings into view a broad picture of his work, which falls squarely within the genre of university exegesis. Even by the standards of his time, William was particularly attentive to the author’s intention. To discern it, he made use of an extensive range of procedures for textual, linguistic, and rhetorical analysis. At the same time, he remained attentive to the spiritual senses and to the demands of assimilating the diverse elements of the exegetical and theological tradition of which he was a part.