Book Series Victorine Texts in Translation, vol. 2

On Love

A Selection of Works of Hugh, Adam, Achard, Richard, and Godfrey of St Victor

Hugh Feiss O.S.B.

  • Pages: 391 p.
  • Size:152 x 229 mm
  • Illustrations:1 b/w
  • Language(s):English
  • Publication Year:2011

  • € 60,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
  • ISBN: 978-2-503-53459-6
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  • ISBN: 978-2-503-57407-3
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Review(s)

 "[...] this is a most welcome volume with intriguing and powerful texts that shed new light on the broader discourse of love in the twelfth century." (Albrecht Classen, in: The Medieval Review 12.02.15)

"Les lecteurs anglophones disposent d'une sélection judicieuse de quelques-uns des plus beaux textes de l'école de Saint-Victor, traduits et présentés par un des meilleurs spécialistes en la matière." (D. Poirel, in: Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique, 106, 2011, p. 669)

"Une imposante bibliographie et des indices (auteurs anciens et médiévaux, et notions) parachèvent ce beau volume, marqué par une grande finesse théologique (A. Noblesse-Rocher, dans: Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie Religieuses, 2012, tome 92, n° 4, p. 661)

Summary

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 neighbor 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 of St Victor (d. 1141): ThePraise of Charity; The Betrothal Gift of the Soul; In Praise of the Spouse; On the Substance of Love; What Truly Should Be Loved ?; (2) On the Four Degrees of Violent Love, by Richard of St Victor (d. 1173), which traces the likenesses and differences between romantic love and the love of God; (3) Achard of St Victor (d. 1170), Sermon 5 and two of Adam of St Victor’s sequences are examples of how these authors wove love into their writings ; (4) excerpts from the Microcosmus by Godfrey of St Victor (d. ca. 1195), summarize the central place of love in his humanistic theological anthropology.

Hugh Feiss, OSB (STD, Anselmianum, Rome; Monastery of the Ascension), the editor of this volume, translated Achard of St Victor, Works (2001).