Victor at Paris. Hugh’s place of birth is uncertain—evi-
dence supports both Saxony and the Low Countries,
with birth in one and early life in the other area a
possibility. He came to the new community of regular
canons at Saint-Victor, probably in the early 1120s; by
1125, he was writing and teaching and beginning to
gain a wide following among students and peers. Hugh
was instrumental in asserting the fundamental need to
understand the literal, historical sense of the biblical text
before undertaking allegorical and moral interpretation.
Indeed, his whole exegetical and theological project
was founded on the premise that one must understand
history, the unfolding of events in time, as the funda-
mental category for God’s revelation in the history of
the Jewish and Christian peoples. Hugh sought con-
temporary Jewish interpretations for understanding the
literal sense of the Hebrew Scriptures, and he inspired
others, especially Andrew of Saint-Victor and Herbert of
Bosham, to pursue more thoroughly the understanding
of Scripture through knowledge of the Hebrew language
and consultation with Jewish rabbis. In theology, Hugh
composed the fi rst summa of theology in the Parisian
schools, De sacramentis christianae fi dei, thus pav-
ing the way for the long series of summae that would
characterize much of medieval scholastic theology. His
mystical writings, especially the two treatises on the
symbolic meaning of Isaiah’s vision of the seraphim and
the structure of Noah’s Ark (De arca Noe morali and
De arca Noe mystica) are some of the fi rst attempts to
systematize in treatises teaching on the ascetic-contem-
plative life. De arca Noe mystica describes a complex
drawing (meant to be used as a focus for meditation) that
presented a visualization of the cosmos, the unfolding
of the history of salvation, and the stages of the interior
spiritual journey of the individual to contemplative
ecstasy. His commentary on the Celestial Hierarchy
of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (In hierarchiam
coelestem) was a major moment in bringing the thought
of Pseudo-Dionysius into the mainstream of western
theology and mysticism. Hugh based his work upon the
9th-century translation and commentary by “Johannes
Scottus Eriugena, but the interpretation was stamped
with his own distinctive understanding of Dionysius’s
thought, an understanding deeply infl uenced by Hugh’s
Augustinian theology and his own view of the function
of symbols in the mediation of divine truth to human
beings living in a material world. Hugh’s encyclopedic
learning is refl ected in his Didascalicon: de studio leg-
endi, that provides a guide for the student of philosophy
(Books 1–3) and the Bible (Books 4–6). In this work,
Hugh presents the liberal arts as the remedy for the
loss of knowledge and goodness in the Fall, while the
mechanical arts (e.g., weaving) provide for the resulting
weakness of the human body. The section on reading
Scripture outlines Hugh’s understanding of a sequence
of disciplines of study (history, allegory, and tropology),
and gives for each discipline the proper order in which
to read the biblical books appropriate for that approach
to the interpretation of the text. For the student pursuing
the discipline of history, Hugh compiled a Chronicon
with numerous chronological tables and historical aids;
for the student of allegory, his theological masterwork,
De sacramentis christianae fi dei, was intended to serve
as an introduction. De scripturis et scriptoribus sacris,
the preface to Hugh’s collection of literal comments on
the Pentateuch and other Old Testament books (these
comments are printed as Notulae in Migne), is modeled
on the form of the accessus ad auctores then being used
by the arts faculty to introduce classical authors and by
biblical interpreters to introduce their commentaries.
The introduction to Hugh’s Chronicon contains a treatise
on the “art of memory,” an important contribution to the
memory tradition. Hugh’s other works include an un-
fi nished series of sermons on Ecclesiastes; short pieces,
extracts, and fragments collected into several books of
miscellania; short contemplative and theological trea-
tises; several letters; and numerous sermons scattered
throughout medieval collections and only recently fully
identifi ed.
See also Andrew of Saint Victor; Eriugena,
Johannes ScottusFurther Reading
Hugh of Saint-Victor. Opera. PL 175–77.
——. Hugonis de Sancto Victore, Didascalicon: de studio legendi.
A Critical Tex t, ed. Charles Henry Buttimer. Washington, D.C.:
Catholic University Press, 1939.
——. The “Didascalicon” of Hugh of St. Victor: A Medieval
Guide to the Arts, trans. Jerome Taylor. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1961.
——. Hugh of Saint Victor on the Sacraments of the Christian
Faith (De sacramentis), trans. Roy J. Deferrari. Cambridge:
Mediaeval Academy of America, 1951.
Baron, Roger. Science et sagesse chez Hugues de Saint-Victor.
Paris: Lethielleux, 1957.
Ehlers, Joachim. Hugo von St. Viktor: Studien zum Geschichts-
denken und zur Geschichtsschreibung des 12. Jahrhunderts.
Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1973.
Goy, Rudolf. Die Überlieferung der Werke Hugos von St. Viktor:
Ein Beitrag zur Kommunikationsgeschichte des Mittelalters.
Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1976.
Sicard, Patrice. Hugues de Saint-Victor et son école. Turnhout:
Brepols, 1991.
Van den Eynde, Damien. Essai sur la succession et la date des
écrits de Hugues de Saint-Victor. Rome: Apud Pontifi cium
Athenaeum Antonianium, 1960.
Zinn, Grover A. “Mandala Symbolism and Use in the Mysticism
of Hugh of St. Victor.” History of Religions 12 (1972–73):
317–41.
——. “Hugh of St. Victor, Isaiah’s Vision, and De arca Noe.” In
The Church and the Arts, ed. Diana Wood. Oxford: Black-
well, 1992.
Grover A. ZinnHUGH OF SAINT-VICTOR