I have some information on the popularity of these commentaries on the Song
of Songs and of others at Cambridge in the Elizabethan and late Tudor
periods: see dashes in your message below: At 08:14 AM 10/19/00 EDT, you
wrote:
>I am not sure how widely you want to set your net when it comes to
>translations of The Song of Songs available to Spenser. Would it be useful
>also to look at any commentaries which might also have been part of the mix?
>In a way these too offer "translations." At least 5 partial or complete
>commentaries on the Song appear in STC2 between 1575 and 1592, on my count.
>
>Jude Smith A Misticall Device 1575 STC2 22805--no evidence of availabilty
>Bartimaeus Andrewes Certaine Verie Worthie...Sermons Upon the Fifth
Chapiter
>of the Song 1583 STC2 565 -- _Books in Cambridge inventories_ tells us
that a man named Mote who died in 1592 owned a copy; Leedham-Green lists it
as STC 585 or 585a--
>Thomas Wilcox An Exposition Uppon the Booke of Canticles 1585 STC2
25622--BCI says Mote also owned this one--
>Thomas Beza Sermons Upon the Three First Chapters of the Canticles 1587
> STC2 2025--BCI says copies which seem to be in Latin were owned by an
anonymous who died in 1588/89 and by Andrew Perne d. 1589, = Adams #922--
>Hieronymus Zanchius An Excellent Treatise, Of the Spiritual Mariage Between
>Christ and the Church 1592 STC2 26119.5--Cant find this, but the Latin
original must be in his Latin _Opera_which according to BCI was owned by
someone, I forgot to record his name, in early 1600s = B.Library 689.ee.10
>
>I am not saying Spenser actually turned to any of these--from this it
looks as though the 4 were owned by people at Cambridge who died on campus
(that's why the "Inventories" were drawn up)and/or by a Cambridge
library,-- though it is easy to
>think that any one interested in reading the Bible would also have some
>interest in looking into relevant commentary as well and this might also
play
>a role in shaping the reading. I have no idea whether these commentaries
were
>accessible to Spenser before or during the time he was working on any
>particular poem.
>
--In addition BCI tells us that a Latin Commentary on Song,_Nanius in
Cantica_ = Adams #1566-76 was owned by two Cambridge men who died in
harness, in 1569 one Parkinson and in 1589 Andrew Perne; The same Perne
also owned another commentary on the Hebrew Text, _Rabbini in Cantica_ =
Adams #1222. There are 3 MS commentaries on Cant. in Pembroke College
Library but 2 of them certainly were and one of them probably was acquired
in 1599 after Spenser's time. Come to our panel at the Spenser Conference
in Cambridge July 2001 to learn more about these research tools. Hope this
helps.
>Arthur Upham
>Ph D McGill 1996
>"Chastity, The Reformation Context, and Spenser's Faerie Queene, Book 3"
>
>Program Developer, Grant Writer
>United Refugee Services of WI
>Madison, WI
>
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