Il censimento di Cesare Augusto nelle esegesi di Ugo di St. Cher e Alberto Magno

Several Patristic and Medieval exegetes of Luke 2,1 were interested in the fact that the descriptioorbis promoted by Caesar Augustus was the historical background to Jesus Christ’s Nativity. By combining the juridical idea of the census with the theological function assumed by the professio fidei in the Christian doctrine, a number of theologians, among them Ambrose, Origen and the Venerable Bede, drew attention to some fascinating correspondences between the spheres of politics and religion. In order to define this exegetical debate in the context of the 13th century, I propose acomparison between theinterpretation of Hugh of St. Cher (†1263) in his Postilla super Evangelium Lucae and that of Albert the Great (†1280) in his Enarrationes in Evangelium Lucae.