NICCOLÒ di LIRA (Latin Lyranus). — Franciscan exegete, born at Lyre (Normandy) around 1270, died in Paris in October 1349. In 1292 he entered the Order of Friars Minor; from 1308 he was master of theology at Paris, from 1319 to 1324 provincial minister of the province of France, and from 1324 of Burgundy. He pursued his literary activity especially from 1326 onward. He is called doctor planus or utilis.
His genuine works number 12, while the doubtful or pseudepigraphical works number 54. The principal ones among the former are Postillae perpetuae in Vetus et Novum Testamentum (postilla litteralis), supplemented by Moralitates or Moralia (postilla moralis). Also De differentia translationis nostrae et Hebraica littera Veteris Testamenti; Probatio adventus Christi; De visione divinae essentiae ab animabus sanctis a corpore separatis.
There exist more than 100 manuscripts and more than 100 editions of these works. The great fame of N., and especially the extraordinarily wide diffusion of the Postilla, is explained by the fact that he set forth the literal sense of Sacred Scripture clearly and concisely, with a thorough knowledge of Hebrew. He was not the first in the Middle Ages to expound the literal sense; nevertheless, he freed exegesis from the excessive divisions and subdivisions then in use, which often caused more confusion than clarity, reducing to more sober proportions both the analysis of the text and the citation of passages more or less parallel.