# Nicholas of Lyra: Postilla literalis [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MINIATURIST, Flemish]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Manuscript ## Commentary Nicholas of Lyra \(Latin Nicolaus Lyranus, c. 1270-1349\) was the author of the first printed commentary on the Bible and one of the foremost Franciscan theologians and influential exegetes \(biblical interpreters\) of the Middle Ages. His chief work is his monumental 50-volume Postillae perpetuae in universam S. Scripturam \("Commentary Notes to the Universal Holy Scripture"\), a commentary on the whole Bible that became a leading manual of exegesis. The importance of the Postillae lies in its emphasis on a literal, rather than a mystical or an allegorical, interpretation of Scriptures. This illumination showing the Ascension of Christ is from the manuscript containing one of the volumes of Nicholas of Lyra's Postillae. ## Related artworks - [Apocalypse]() - [Boccaccio: Des cas des ruynes des nobles hommes et femmes]() - [Boethius: De consolatione philosophiae]() - [Book of Hours \(La Flora\)]() - [Book of Hours \(La Flora\)]() - [Book of Hours of Isabella of Castile]() - [Book of Hours of Isabella of Castile]() - [Book of Hours of Marie of Gueldern]() - [Book of Hours of Marie of Gueldern]() - [Book of Hours]() - [Book of Hours]() - [Book of Hours]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()