Be Fertile and Increase, Fill the Earth and Master It : The Ancient and Medieval Career of a Biblical Text

Author / Editor
Cohen, Jeremy.

Title
Be Fertile and Increase, Fill the Earth and Master It : The Ancient and Medieval Career of a Biblical Text

Published
Ithaca, N.Y. and London: Cornell University Press, 1989.

Physical Description
xiv, 375 pp.

Description
Surveys the historical understanding and application of Gen. 1.28, tracing its "career" in Scripture, its interpretations in Hebrew and Christian traditions, and its roles in such literature as Bernard Silvestris's "Cosmographia," Alain de Lille's "De planctu Naturae," and Jean de Meun's "Roman de la rose." Chaucer includes the verse in WBP not to condemn the Wife but to "accentuate her condemnation of medieval Chrsitian values."

Chaucer Subjects
Wife of Bath and Her Tale.