This article explores medieval Jewish and Christian interpretations of an enigmatic biblical commandment—the mandate to incinerate a red heifer to produce waters of expiation (Num. 19)—as a case study to examine interreligious dialogue in medieval exegesis. It features a critical edition and translation of one such reading by the fourteenth-century Italian poet and intellectual, Immanuel of Rome. Immanuel’s commentary is contextualized both in his own oeuvre as well as in the broader field of contemporary Jewish thought. The article also examines Immanuel’s red heifer exegesis as a unique example of a biblical passage glossed differently in two of the author’s commentaries, which sheds new light on his exegetical methodology. As a biblical precept no longer observed after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, the red heifer serves as a useful tool to demonstrate the approaches of Jewish scholars who insisted on the integrity of the biblical commandments but grappled to rationalize an especially cryptic ceremony. On the other hand, it also exhibits various exegetical modalities adopted by Christian glossators who struggled to discern the precept’s literal meaning in light of a predominant tradition of allegorical interpretation. When contextualized within the environment of medieval Jews, Christian scholastics, and the mendicant orders, readings of the red heifer rite highlight the interchange of approaches that transcended religious and even temporal boundaries. The article concludes by demonstrating the impact of mendicant vernacular preaching on Jews of the Italian peninsula, focusing on the red heifer interpretation as an example of such dialogue.

This paper seeks to examine various aspects of Templar general chapters and also to draw some comparisons with the general chapters of other orders. Origins, frequency, length, and location are discussed, together with the size and composition of the chapter. The functions of chapters, including legislation, appointments to leading offices, alienation of property, and justice, are considered. The question of capitular seals is also investigated. For many topics the surviving evidence is limited, but some claims that have been made about Templar general chapters are challenged. The evidence about alleged early chapters is not convincing. It seems that chapters were expected to be held annually and not at intervals of five years. There is evidence to show that chapters were occasionally held in western Europe as well as at the Order’s headquarters and other places in the East. Lastly, the assertion that Hospitaller general chapters were more representative than those of the Temple is questioned.

This article presents three new discoveries of Carolingian epistolae formatae from Provence and Catalonia, which update recent editions of the texts in question and offer clues about their historical context and purpose.

Couched within a question about the culpability or innocence of a rape victim in a dramatic case in Gratian’s Decretum lies a quotation attributed to Saint Lucy. This early Christian martyr from Syracuse enjoyed increasing popularity and devotion in northern Italy and beyond by the twelfth century. Gratian appeals to her story and to her own statement as his first authority within this section of his famous textbook, Decretum C.32 q.5, in order to argue that a woman’s chastity or modesty (pudicitia) cannot be tarnished or taken away through physical force. If she does not consent to the act, she is not guilty and her purity remains. This note discusses the story about Lucy, explains the liturgical centrality of narratives like it, and, with an examination of several twelfth-century manuscripts, tracks down the source (or likely source type) for the dialogue Gratian quotes. In doing so, it highlights a hitherto underappreciated source for Gratian’s Decretum, namely, hagiography.

Among the pageants erected for the royal entry of Queen Mary I in 1553 was an arch sponsored by Florentine merchants. Its image survives in a print held in the collection of the British Museum. It is the earliest surviving print of a temporary pageant structure in England. Not previously the subject of any in-depth investigation, this paper introduces the print, its context and authorship.