Bruno of Segni

PL 164, col. 150A

Date1079–1123PlaceSegniTraditionlatinVerseGenesis 1:1

English

In what beginning? In him, surely, who says: 'I am the Beginning, who also speak to you' (John 8:25) — 'for all things were made through him, and without him was made nothing' (John 1:3). In this beginning, therefore, God created from the outset the whole fabric of the world and the very orders of the angels.

Fresh draft (Claude), approved by Wilson Pruitt · cc-by

Latin

In quo principio? In eo utique qui ait: « Ego principium qui et loquor vobis (Joan. VIII, 26) .-- Omnia enim per ipsum facta sunt, et sine ipso factum est nihil (Joan. I, 3) . » In hoc igitur principio omnem mundi fabricam, ipsosque angelorum ordines ab exordio creavit Deus.

PL 164, col. 150A · pd

Notes

The same commentator, the same verse, the other answer — and the structure is the point. Bruno finishes the literal exposition of the whole first day, and only then turns back: 'having set these things out to the letter, let us see what they also signify allegorically. In what beginning? In him, surely, who says: I am the Beginning.' The two readings are not rivals for him but layers, taken in order, and he does not ask which is the sense of the word. This is how the Latin bench keeps three answers alive for seven centuries without ever having to lose two of them; Peter Comestor's 'the phrase is to be repeated' is the same manoeuvre, made explicit.

In the Son

Threads

→ parallel · Bruno of Segni
One commentator giving both answers in order and treating them as layers rather than rivals: the literal exposition takes in principio as 'in the beginning of all creatures', and then, the letter disposed of, 'in what beginning? in him, surely, who says: I am the Beginning.' Neither reading is asked to yield to the other.