Foreword to 1998 Edition vi
FOREWORD TO 1998 EDITION
This new printing of Bruno Scott James's translation of the letters of Bernard of Clairvaux brings one of the most lively collections of letters ever created to new generations of readers, whose predecessors were astonished and delighted when it was first published in 1953. Then it gained very warm praise for its fluency and faithful presentation of what one scholar has called that 'compound of charm and threat which St Bernard made peculiarly his own'. The translation remains unchanged, but three features of James's book which irritated earlier readers, the dislocation between the numbering he gave the letters and that found in scholarly editions, the rarity with which he dated letters, and the brevity of his index to their subject matter, have been altered beyond recognition. Two tables now make it easy to move from this translation to the scholarly edition by Leclercq and Rochais, or in the opposite direction, and the former list gives dates for each letter derived from the recent and very fully annotated Italian translation, with a warning sign where they differ from Leclercq and Rochais. The newly created index of subjects is much larger than the old one. So this is now a supremely usable book, made even more valuable through Beverly
Kienzle's introduction and guide to recent work on Bernard. Every new reader will take time to get used to the way Bernard wrote, in particular to the way that he could 'fully expound every subject in the words of the prophets and apostles', as John of Salisbury, an acute contemporary, put it. Every reading reveals new layers of allusion and collusion between Bernard and his correspondents, even though often the written word served mainly to introduce its bearer and the verbal message which he conveyed. A whole world around Bernard emerges here which thanks to this new printing can be savoured and enjoyed afresh.
CHRISTOPHER HOLDSWORTH
University of Exeter