SOURCE: Zier, Mark A. “Peter Lombard and the Glossa ordinaria on the Bible.” In A Distinct Voice: Medieval Studies in Honor of Leonard E. Boyle, O.P., edited by Jacqueline Brown and William P. Stoneman, pp. 629-41. South Bend, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997.

In the following essay, Zier examines Lombard's use of the Glossa ordinaria in composing the Sentences.

Every student of medieval theology knows the importance of Peter Lombard to the history of that field: the Libri quatuor Sententiarum served as an official textbook in theology for hundreds of years. What is less well known and less well documented is the Lombard's impact on the study of the Bible and on the development of the Glossa ordinaria.

One of the first of Beryl Smalley's publications¹ considered the possibilities of the Lombard's biblical commentaries, in particular on Isaiah; and toward the end of her career, she...