ABOUT THE BOOK The version of the Rule of St. Augustine used at the Abbey of St. Victor began with the command to love God above all things and one's neighbour as oneself. Not surprisingly, then, love was a pervasive theme in the writings produced there, many of which are introduced and translated here: 1. Five lyrical essays by Hugh (d. 1141): The Praise of Charity; The Betrothal Gift of the Soul; In Praise of the Spouse; On the Substance of Love; What Truly Should Be Loved? 2. Richard (d. 1173), On the Four Degrees of Violent Love, compares romantic love and the love of God 3. Achard (d. 1170), Sermon 5 and two of Adam's sequences show how these authors wove love into their writings 4. Excerpts from the Microcosmus by Godfrey (d. ca. 1195) summarize the central place of love in his humanistic theological anthropology Hugh Feiss and his team have made an invaluable contribution to medieval studies. These twelfth-century texts, assembled for the first time in one volume, still blaze with the passionate love of God that once set a world on fire. In Victorine hands, exegesis, liturgy, psychology, and even cosmology glow with this transforming flame.
Hugh and Richard had an incalculable influence on later medieval piety, while the lesser-known texts by Adam, Achard, and Godfrey round out this picture of the great Parisian abbey in its heyday. Barbara Newman Professor of English, Religion, and Classics and John Evans Professor of Latin at Northwestern University Love is an experience given fresh and exhilarating insight by a series of remarkable teachers nurtured by the abbey of St. Victor in twelfth-century Paris. In the various essays of Hugh of St. Victor introduced and translated in this volume, all relating to love, we find the calm voice of a master on the greatness of ordered love. In the sequences of Adam of St Victor, we find crisp poems of divine praise. Achard of St Victor brings speculative genius to his reading of the Bible. Richard of St Victor plunges us into the violence of love. Godfrey of St Victor expounds love as the force that binds man to God. This volume provides a magnificent point of entry into the fascinating diversity of Victorine authors, all of whom contributed in their own way to fresh thinking about love, human and divine. Constant J.
Mews Professor, Monash University and Director, Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology ABOUT THE SERIES The important role of the "school" of St. Victor in the development of twelfth- and thirteenth-century theology has long been recognized, but has not been adequately explored and appreciated by scholars and non-specialists alike. There have been relatively few English translations of Hugh of St Victor and his successors, whose works have had great influence on later medieval thinkers and retain enduring value for contemporary reflection on Christian theology, exegesis, and spirituality. The editorial board is enthusiastically committed to completing the project of translating into English all of the Victorine texts. Ten volumes are planned.