Stephen:
This is a very knotty question, and I don't know if there really is
an adequate answer. Smalley's suggested translation was meant only
as a provisional method, until modern scholarship had worked out the
difference between postilla, expositio, commenatarius, explanatio,
etc., in commentary literature (has anyone taken up this task?). It
seems to me that the term postilla takes the place of the terms
'glossa' and 'glossatura' after 1230. But, that does not solve your
translation problem.
If, however, the word is more attached to sermon literature (which
in scholastic literature is often mixed in with classroom and
magisterial commentary literature), you might be on your way to
designating the difference. I just don't if there is enough evidence
to make such a hard distinction.
Hence, I am more inclined to render terms like this as simply
"exposition." It is equivalent to how we use the words 'essay',
'article' and 'paper' to describe the same thing: the production of
academic literature. There are clear distinctions between these
three terms, but we still use them as synonyms.
Smalley discusses the term in _Study of the Bible_, p. 270 (but see
her addenda on pp. 395-396). Another useful discussion (but will
probably only muddy the problem for you) is N. Haring, "Commentary
and Hermeneutics," in _Renaissance and Reneweal in the 12th Century_
Ed. RL Benson and G Constable (Cambridge MA, 1982), pp. 173-200, esp.
174-180.
Cheers
Jim
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James R. Ginther
Dept. of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
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"Excellencior enim est scriptura in mente viva quam in
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