Harvard Language and Literature Professor to Speak on International Bible Project

Follow us on Twitter: @BaylorUMedia
Media contact: Terry Goodrich, (254) 710-3321
WACO, Texas (Nov. 13, 2014) – Luis Girón-Negrón, Ph.D., professor of comparative literature and Romance languages and literatures at Harvard University will give his lecture, “A Rabbi, a Friar and a Knight: The Old Spanish Bible of Moshe Arragel,” at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 14, in the Armstrong Browning Lecture Hall.
Girón-Negrón will speak about his current project, the first annotated critical edition of the Biblia de Arragel, a 1430 illuminated manuscript translation of the Old Testament translated from Hebrew into Spanish. The Hispano-Jewish work is considered one of the most important vernacular Bibles of the European Middle Ages.
“It’s a remarkable, multi-year project with an international team,” said Luke Taylor, Ph.D., assistant professor of English in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences.
The collaboration, sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Collaborative Research Fellowship, includes a team of experts in the fields of linguistics, history and language. In addition to the annotation, the team plans to compile a book-length study of the manuscript’s content, language and significance in the cultural and religious history of late medieval Spain.
The immediate goal of the ACLS Fellowship is the annotation and edition of Arragel’s commented Pentateuch. The long-term outcome will be the printed edition and study of the entire Arragel codex along with a web version.
“Luis will introduce us to something most people aren’t familiar with. He’s a wonderful teacher,” said, Taylor, who was mentored by Girón-Negrón during his doctorate at Harvard University. “To be able to invite him to Baylor is a joy.”
Preceding his lecture, Girón-Negrón will make a brief commentary on the special exhibition of the 500th anniversary of the Complutensian Polyglot Bible at 3:45 p.m. in the Armstrong Browning Treasure Room. The Bible is a unique edition that includes the first printed editions of the Greek New Testament, the complete Septuagint and the Targum Onkelos. Of the original 600, six-volume sets, 123 remain in existence.
The Armstrong Browning Library and Lecture Hall is located at 710 Speight Ave. in Waco.
by Sarah Czerwinski, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805
For more information, contact Luke Taylor
ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY
Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution, characterized as having “high research activity” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University provides a vibrant campus community for approximately 16,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. Baylor sponsors 19 varsity athletic teams and is a founding member of the Big 12 Conference.