Didascalicon

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Hugo von St. Viktor editing the Didascalicon

Didascalicon de Studio legendi (study book) is an important and well-known scientific system of early scholasticism , which the Parisian theologian and school founder Hugo von St. Viktor wrote around 1128 in Middle Latin . The subject encompasses spiritual and secular areas and ranges from the theory of philosophical discussions to the practice of medicine, agriculture, and even cloth production ( lanificium ). In addition, the author discusses which characteristics and learning techniques are necessary for a successful study and which ethical attitude of the student is desirable.

swell

Hugo von St. Viktor compiles his extensive material from diverse sources, from the Greek philosopher Plato (whose work Timaeus he knows in the Latin adaptation of Chalcidius ) to Roman ancient and late ancient writers and church fathers to early medieval authors such as Johannes Scottus Eriugena . He makes most extensive use of Boethius , whom he also cites by name, Isidore of Seville, and Jerome's commentaries on the Bible .

Structure and content

The work is divided into 6 books and an appendix. The first 3 books deal mainly with secular and the last with spiritual subjects, but the treatment of subjects does not generally adhere to the boundaries of the book. The most important topics are:

  • The Image of Man - the anthropology of Hugo von St. Viktor (Book I, 1–3; Book II, 3–5)
  • eruditiones (instructions) that concern the student and the lesson (Book I, 4–8; Book III, 6–19; Book VI, 1–3; VI, 12–13)
  • The artes liberales and secular education (Book II, 1–2; Book II, 6–19)
  • divina scriptura (scriptures) (Book IV)
  • Proper understanding and study of the scriptures (Book V; Book VI, 4-14).

The image of man - the anthropology of Hugo von St. Viktor

Hugo von St. Victor addresses many basic anthropological questions. Man appears as a creature and in the image of God. The human soul power is decisive for its quality as a rational being. But the body is also part of the human being; and this makes it a bridge between the spiritual and material realms. In these explanations one recognizes the influences of Plato and Aristotle , but also of Boethius and the church father Augustine of Hippo .

eruditiones , student

The author realizes that not everyone is suitable for a student. Natural talent, diligence and discipline are necessary (Book III, 6). He also gives his students instructions for successful learning; Reading should be systematic (Book III, 9) and supplemented by reflection (Book III, 10). Surprisingly, he also finds it necessary to give up his homeland (Book III, 19). This chapter is often cited because it gives an insight into his life. Hugo von St. Viktor had to leave his beloved homeland as a child. He adorns this personal memory with 3 quotations from famous Latin poets ( Ovid , Virgil , Horace ).

Artes liberal and secular education

The seven liberal arts are explained in partly very brief quotations from ancient authors (including Boethius, Isidore of Seville, Donatus , Cicero ). Together with other ancient educational content that Hugo von St. Viktor collects under the terms physica (nature of things), practica (ethical, economic and political ideas), they are arranged in a schema of the sciences. It also contains the mechanica , which concerns the production of all things and is carried out by common people ( plebei ). It is divided into cloth manufacture ( lanificium ), armouring ( armatura ), merchant shipping ( navigatio ), agriculture ( agricultura ), hunting ( venatio ), medicine ( medicina ) and theater ( theatrica ). The idea is not entirely new. The late antique writer Cassiodorus already pointed out to the monks who are not up to the sciences. the way to devote oneself to gardening and agriculture, for example with the writings of Columella ( Institutiones divinarum et saecularium litterarum , I, 28,5-6). Johannes Scottus Eriugena contrasts artes mechanices with artes liberales in his 9th century commentary on Martianus Capella .

divina scriptura (scriptures)

Mainly a conventional listing of the biblical books, their authors and translators. The texts are largely borrowed from Isidore von Seville ( Etymologiae , VI) and the church father Hieronymus ( In libris Samuel et Malachim ).

Tradition and survival

In its entirety, with its diversity of knowledge, scientific system and also its ethical standards, the work could not establish itself in the school operations of the large Parisian schools, not even in Saint Viktor itself. However, sub-areas were very successful and received a wide range of responses. For example, citations can be found for the English theologian Johann von Salisbury, who wrote a little later .

The treatment of the mechanica aroused particular interest . Through these explanations, the term mechanics was established as a generic term for human work activity, at least in the circle of philosophers. Hugo's sentence in Appendix A: propter necessitatem inventa est mechanica ( mechanics was invented for the sake of necessity ) was taken up and further developed by several successors (e.g. Albertus Magnus ).

The script has been preserved in numerous manuscripts. For his 1939 edition, Charles H. Buttimer was able to draw on 30 manuscripts from several European libraries (including Wolfenbüttel , Paris-Bibliothèque nationale, Cambridge Pembroke, Vatican City). The editio princeps is Hain * 9022 between 1472 and 1478. In 1896 Joseph Freundgen published a translation into German, as did Thilo Offergeld in 1997.

Text editions and translations

  • Charles H. Buttimer (Ed.): Hugonis de Sancto Victore Didascalicon De Studio legendi. Washington DC 1939.
  • Thilo Offergeld: Didascalicon de studio legendi. Study book, Latin-German, Freiburg im Breisgau, Herder 1997 (Fontes Christiani 27) with a copy of the Latin text edited by CH Buttimer from Washington 1939 (The University of America, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Latin 10).
  • Jerome Taylor: The Didascalicon of Hugh of St. Victor , Translated from the Latin with an Introduction, New York / London 1961

literature

  • Reinhard Sprenger: eruditio and ordo discendi in Hugos von St. Viktor eruditiones didascalicae - a study of the history of ideas on the 12th century , Münster (Westphalia) 1970
  • Peter Sternagel: The artes mechanicae in the Middle Ages , Kallmünz 1966
  • Ivan Illich: In the vineyard of the text: When the typeface of modernism emerged , Munich 2010

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Thilo Offergeld: Didascalicon de studio legendi, introduction p. 7
  2. ↑ Jerome Taylor: The Didascalicon of Hugh of St. Victor , Notes p. 175-228
  3. ↑ Thilo Offergeld: Didascalicon de studio legendi, introduction p. 48
  4. ↑ Thilo Offergeld: Didascalicon de studio legendi, introduction p. 57f
  5. ↑ Reinhard Sprenger: eruditio and ordo discendi in Hugos von St. Viktor eruditiones didascalicae , pp. 23–43
  6. ↑ Jerome Taylor: The Didascalicon of Hugh of St. Victor , Notes, p. 216
  7. ↑ Jerome Taylor: The Didascalicon of Hugh of St. Victor , Notes, pp. 201ff, 207f
  8. ↑ Thilo Offergeld: Didascalicon de studio legend, introduction p. 55f
  9. ↑ Peter Sternagel: The artes mechanicae in the Middle Ages , p. 30f
  10. ↑ Thilo Offergeld: Didascalicon de studio legendi, introduction p. 57
  11. ↑ Jerome Taylor: The Didascalicon of Hugh of St. Victor , Notes p. 217
  12. ↑ Thilo Offergeld: Didascalicon de studio legendi, introduction p. 96
  13. ↑ Jerome Taylor: The Didascalicon of Hugh of St. Victor , Notes p. 213f
  14. ↑ Peter Sternagel: The artes mechanicae in the Middle Ages , p. 85
  15. ↑ Sternagel: Peter Die artes mechanicae in the Middle Ages , p. 86
  16. ↑ Charles H. Buttimer (ed.): Hugonis de Sancto Victore Didascalicon De studio legendi. , Instroduction S. LII
  17. ↑ Charles H. Buttimer (ed.): Hugonis de Sancto Victore Didascalicon De studio legendi. , Introduction S. XIV

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