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                                           Elsa Marmursztejn

John Peter Olivi was one of the most innovative and profound thinkers of the later Middle Ages. His writings were informed by the scholastic and monastic traditions of theology and biblical exegesis. He offered original insights into the meaning of Christian life - as an individual and as a community - during his time. Elsa Marmursztejn's lucid translation and treatment of On the Laws of the Old Testament is particularly welcome, in it Olivi posed some fundamental questions about the nature of social organization and public morality: marriage, asylum, urban life. Contending with the great religious theorists of the thirteenth century he explores the meaning of the ten commandments and related rituals, as a code of conduct for a society as yet untouched by grace. It is therefore a telling set of reflections by a towering intellectual on the inner logic of Jewish law and civic ethics. This translation will interest not only scholars of the Christian intellectual traditions but also those interested in what Judaism represented, beyond polemic.  - Miri Rubin, Queen Mary University of London