The Didascalicon of Hugh of Saint Victor Quotes

“It is, therefore, a great source of virtue for the practiced mind to learn, bit by bit, first to change about in visible and transitory things, so that afterwards it may be possible to leave them behind altogether. The man who finds his homeland sweet is still a tender beginner; he to whom every soil is as his native one is already strong; but he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign land. The tender soul has fixed his love on one spot in the world; the strong man has extended his love to all places; the perfect man has extinguished his. From boyhood I have dwelt on foreign soil and I know with what grief sometimes the mind takes leave of the narrow hearth of a peasant's hut, and I know too how frankly it afterwards disdains marble firesides and panelled halls.”
― Hugh of Saint Victor, The Didascalicon of Hugh of Saint Victor: A Medieval Guide to the Arts

“Therefore I beg you, reader, not to rejoice too greatly if you have read much, but if you have understood much. Nor that you have understood much, but that you have been able to retain it. Otherwise it is of little profit either to read or to understand.”
― Hugh of Saint Victor, The Didascalicon of Hugh of Saint Victor: A Medieval Guide to the Arts

“The seven rules with which writing is expressed:
1. Analogy: writing is expressed in relational terms, through comparisons and contrasts.
2. Antithesis: the scripture presents opposing or complementary truths
3. Authority: scripture asserts its authority through expressions of an absolute nature.
4. Cumulus: Scripture uses repeated or synonymous words to emphasize a point.
5. Metonymy: Scripture uses a word or phrase to represent a broader or complex idea.
6. Synonymy: Scripture uses different words to describe the same idea.
7. Irony: Scripture uses ironic words or expressions to convey a deeper truth.”
― Hugh of Saint-Victor, The Didascalicon of Hugh of Saint Victor: A Medieval Guide to the Arts