Scepticism, Critique, and the Art of Writing: Preliminary Considerations on the Question of Textual Authority in Medieval Peshaṭ Exegesis

 ‘The glossed book’s lay-out [...]’ stems from Mary Carruthers, The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 265; ‘Glosses not only use a variety of strategies [...]’ is quoted from Suzanne Reynolds, Medieval Reading: Grammar, Rhetoric, and the Classical Text (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 7.  Cf. the definition from the Maimonides Centre’s mission statement: ‘One of the most important research objectives is to examine whether the method of enquiry implied in the term ‘scepticism’ could be regarded an anthropological constant [...] across both Eastern and Western philosophy and culture. The assumption would be that people in every culture express doubts about the claims of authorities to truth, the reliability of texts, and their social or mystical relevance, doubts about the power and presence of divinities, or about the power of reason and the controlling power of social structures and their respective consequences [...].’ (https://www.maimonides-centre.uni-hamburg. de; accessed March 2018).  A term introduced by Carruthers, Book of Memory, 243.  This paper is based on my article “‘Daneben steht immer ein kluger Kopf ’: Die Glossenformationen im Codex Wien hebr. 220,” in Diligens scrutator sacri eloquii. Beiträge zur Exegeseund Theologiegeschichte des Mittelalters. Festgabe für Rainer Berndt SJ, eds. Hanns Peter Neuheuser, Ralf M. W. Stammberger, and Matthias M. Tischler (Münster: Aschendorff, 2016): 53–85, and was reworked under the respective topic during my stay as Senior Fellow at the Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies—Jewish Scepticism, Universität Hamburg (October 2017–March 2018). My thanks to Jonas Leipziger who arranged, in particular, the edition of the gloss material in this paper, Bettina Burghardt who translated parts of this paper from German into English. Thanks also to all the staff mem-