2023 Undergraduate Research Showcase

Document Type

Student Presentation

Presentation Date

4-21-2023

Faculty Sponsor

Karen Wadley

Abstract

As participants in the Historia Scholastica Project, our obligation for the 2022-2023 academic year is the advancement of the transcription, translation and contextualization of Idaho’s oldest publicly accessible book, Peter Comestor’s Historia Scholastica. Boise State University’s manuscript was printed in the mid-late 1470s, 300 years after its original composition. Because of its wide popularity, Historia Scholastica was copied multiple times in various vernaculars and served as a biblical commentary, placing the world and events of humanity in relation to the events of the old and new testaments, from Genesis to Revelation. In order to accomplish this, Comestor utilized a variety of extra-biblical ancient Jewish and Greek sources. His use of these sources has provided both a research avenue, and a challenge to modern readers. The specific contextual issue we explore here is Comestor’s mention, reference, and discussion of the term Palestini. With contact flowing between the east and the west due to the Crusades, we strive to understand Comestor’s potential perception and understanding of Palestini, and how Palestine as its own distinct nation transcends into the complicated geopolitical issues and conversations of our modern era.

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