Critical edition and introduction by Frans van Liere

Andrew of Saint Victor was one of the most prominent biblical scholars of the twelfth century. He was a regular canon of the Parisian abbey of St Victor, which in the twelfth century had developed into a prestigious center of spiritual learning, closely connected to the nascent university in Paris. Because of his frequent use of Jewish exegetical materials, Andrew's commentaries are a rich source for the history both of biblical hermeneutics and of inter-religious dialogue during the Middle Ages. His Isaiah commentary caused outrage among medieval Christian scholars because it eschewed traditional christological interpretations, and instead offered a reading "secundum Hebraeos." Scholars have seen Andrew of St Victor as standing at the cradle of a scholarly interest in the Biblical text, which influenced scholars such as the fourteenth-century Franciscan Nicholas of Lyra, and, in the long run, reformers such as John Wycliff, Martin Luther, and John Calvin.