Commentary Par XII 133

'Hugh of St. Victor, celebrated mystic and theologian of the beginning of cent. xii; he was born near Ypres in Flanders c. 1097 or, as some believe, at Hartingham in Saxony, and was educated during his early years in the monastery of Hammersleben near Halberstadt in Saxony; in 1115 he removed to the abbey of St. Victor near Paris, which had recently been founded by William of Champeaux, the preceptor of Abelard, and which during cent. xii was a centre of mysticism; he became one of the canons-regular of the abbey, and was in 1130 appointed to the chair of theology, which he held until his death in 1141, his reputation being so great that he was known as "alter Augustinus" [a second Augustine] and "lingua Augustini" [Augustine's tongue].  He was the intimate friend of Bernard of Clairvaux, and among his pupils were Richard of St. Victor and Peter Lombard.  His writings, which are very numerous, and are characterized by great learning, are frequently quoted by Thomas Aquinas; the most celebrated are the De eruditione didascalica, a sort of encyclopaedia of the sciences as then understood, viewed in their relation to theology, the Institutiones monasticae, including the treatises De arca morali, De arca mystica, and De vanitate mundi; and the De sacramentis Christianae fidei, on the mysteries of the faith, comprising a systematic exposition of Catholic theology; he also wrote commentaries on various books of the Old and New Testament (with the latter of which he appears to rank as of equal importance the canons, the decretals, and the writings of the fathers), and upon the De caelesti hierarchia of Dionysius the Areopagite' (Ugo da San Vittore).