The role of interpretive studies in medieval Latin philology

Abstract

Interpretation and philology have a long, rich, and complicated relationship. In one sense philology takes interpretation as its point of departure, while in another philology aims ultimately at facilitating or achieving interpretation. Since in discussing literary criticism and theory the practice is sometimes followed of conveying the most serious thoughts in nouns derived from Greek, the circularity of the relationship between interpretation and philology could be reduced to the following statement: interpretation figures in both the etiology and the teleology of philology. Even if we put aside the question of philology, interpretation by itself is an impressively far-reaching enterprise. It is associated intimately with such extensive and varied practices as hermeneutics and exegesis, glosses and commentary, and translation