Denis Renevey: Language, Self and Love. Hermeneutics in the Writings of Richard Rolle and the Commentaries on the Song of Songs.

• Fritz Kemmler

This is both a stimulating and disappointing book. Stimulating in so far as Renevey carefully evaluates the concepts “love”, “language” and “self” in Richard Rolle’s Latin and Middle English writings with reference to exegetical and mystical texts composed by twelfth-century theologians and commentators, in particular Bernard of Clairvaux, Richard of St. Victor and William of St. Thierry. The book is disappointing in so far as some of Renevey’s analyses and evaluations of Rolle’s texts are, in my view, superficial and in a few instances incorrect. In addition, quite a few of the translations of Rolle’s Latin texts quoted to develop, illustrate and support the argument are inadequate and sometimes even fantastic (see below).

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