As readers sense immediately from a 900-page book, this volume seems to offer every known fact about the founder of northern Renaissance Hebrew studies and a whole lot more. Indeed, Posset meticulously recounts the fruits of scrupulous reading of the recently-published Reuchlin correspondence, having surveyed dozens of other sources to provide a detailed chronological recital of the life of this late medieval public servant and linguistic genius, who not only provided some of the earliest tools for studying Hebrew north of the Alps, but also brought medieval Cabalistic interpretation into the service of his allegorical exegesis. For example, Posset examined the work of the contemporary Italian Cabalist Agostino Giustiniani, only to determine that, unlike Italian contemporaries, Giustiniani ignored Reuchlin completely (pp. 164–5). Sometimes enticing scenes are set but, disappointingly, not analysed, such as Erasmus’ contempt for Reuchlin's Cabalistic speculations (p. 161). But the attention to detail is helpful as Posset explores the twists and turns of Reuchlin's duel with Johannes Pfefferkorn and his allies in the fight over the banning and burning of Jewish books, within the context of shifting imperial policy on the Jews.
Posset is harshly critical of Philip Melanchthon's Renaissance biography of Reuchlin, without recognising the nature of the genre of Ciceronian oratorical paeans. Posset rejects the association of Reuchlin with the Wittenberg Reformation while providing evidence of some similarities between Reuchlin and Luther, for example by accenting Reuchlin's Christ-centred interpretation of the Old Testament, without exploring contrasts and assessing similarities. He unfortunately does not go into sufficient detail to support his accurate assessment of the gulf between their ways of thinking, nor does he analyse the critical contributions of Reuchlin's work to Luther's own biblical scholarship. Throughout, Posset insists that Reuchlin was a dedicated, loyal late medieval Catholic, but without situating him within the several streams of medieval doctrine and practice.
Though subtitled ‘a theological biography’, the most important theological element in Reuchlin's scholarship, his use of the Cabala, as Posset prefers to spell it, is not analysed. Neither its Neoplatonic roots and structure nor its function in the exposition of texts becomes clear in the many superficial mentions of its presence. The nature and quality of Reuchlin's treatment of the Hebrew language and its textual Sitz im Leben are not evaluated.
The publisher apparently did not provide an editor to rectify numerous infelicities in the book's English.
None the less, Posset's study invites moving beyond the chronology and facts of Reuchlin's life to the study of his scholarly method and his aims in biblical interpretation. It provides an extensive basis for such future studies.
