On an actual page, plan and cross-section would have to be shown as
separate drawings. But Hugh describes raising the central column and
pulling up the three decks into a three-dimensional figure, and then, as
he fills in the various pieces of the picture he is able to move back and forth
between the planar projection and the elevated one. This is done mentally,
in imagination. Hugh says:
If you wonder what I mean when I say we should make a column, think of it this
way: raise up the cubit that lies in the middle of this band so that it drags the band
itself up with it, as though the band were folded over the center. And thus, both
halves of the band hang downward toward the floor of the Ark, forming planes
themselves, and they are joined to the floor of the Ark at the edges, so that it looks
like an upright column.48
Book two describes this central column, ‘ now that the column is standing
in the middle of the Ark’’ (I. 108). It signifies the Tree of Life and the Book of
Life together, the Book being its northern hemisphere and the Tree its
southern; its north also represents Christ’s human nature and its south half
His divinity. These associations summarize Hugh’s lengthy moralization of
the column of the Ark in Book two, sections 6–8 of De archa Noe. On the
plan, however, the column is shown splayed out, as it were, so that the arms
of the cross which are directed towards the north and the south represent
these two faces of the column. They are differentiated by color also, the north
being green, the south sapphire. Floor beams extend across each of the three
rectangles to meet the roof beams which extend diagonally from under the
central cubit to the largest perimeter; these form the three decks.
Next, Hugh focuses on the longitudinal band (zona), which extends from
one end to the other under the cubit. This band represents the ‘ longitude’ of
the Church, that is, its life extended in time. The upper half of the figure,
from the top of the Ark to the central cubit represents history from Adam to
the Incarnation, the lower half, time since the Incarnation. In the upper half
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are written the names of the generations from Adam to Christ; in the lower
the succession of apostles and popes.
Within this diagram, Hugh singles out the twelve patriarchs and the
apostles for a particular mnemonic. Midway down the upper half, the
name ‘‘Judah’’ is written – centrally, because he was the first-born. About it
and to the right are written the names of the next three patriarchs; to the
left, the remaining eight, from Dan to Benjamin. Superimposed on these
names are busts of the twelve, what Hugh describes as ‘‘images from the
chest up’’ of the sort which the Greeks called eikones, and which sometimes
are seen carved in stone tablets. 49 Thus the twelve appear in order in their
places, name and image together, ‘‘like the senate of the City of God.’’
Just below the central cubit is written ‘‘Peter,’’ and to left and right about
him, also in a semicircle, the names of the rest of the apostles, six to the
right and five to the left. We recall that in Bradwardine’s memory-art the
order of items in a series depended on groupings to the right and left of a
central figure. To each apostle’s name are also attached the images that
mark him – cum suis iconibus. When completed, the rank of apostles
together with the rank of patriarchs ‘‘like the twenty-four elders sitting
around the throne in the Apocalypse’’ (II. 91), that is, the central cubit
pictured with the Cross and Lamb. Following this figuring of the apostles is
written the succession of popes, through Honorius (d. 1130), and the
remaining space is for those who will live after us, through the end of time.
But the historical diagram has more refinements. It is also divided into
three unequal parts, one extending from Adam to the patriarchs, the second
from the patriarchs to the Incarnation, and the last through the bottom half
of the whole figure. These correspond to the times of the natural law, the
written law, and grace. Hugh marks these by painting three border stripes
down the long sides of the Ark. But the stripes are not of equal width, for
the outermost is broader than the two others, and the middle one is
narrowest of all. They are painted in three colors: green, yellow, and violet,
whose relative position in the lines corresponds to the division of time
being represented. Green is outermost (the broadest line) during the time
of natural law, yellow during the written law, violet during the time of
grace. Violet is in the middle (the narrowest) at the time of natural law,
yellow in the time of grace, and green in the time of written law. The
innermost stripe is yellow during the time of natural law, violet in that of
written law, green in that of grace. The three colors represent, says Hugh,
the three kinds of moral action possible to human beings – motivated by
natural goodnesss, motivated by God’s revealed law, and motivated by
grace. All three sorts have been present on earth in every period of history,
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but the proportions have varied, in the manner recalled by the distribution
of the colors in the border stripes.
The elevation of the Ark also shows the ship’s ladders, by which one
mounts from one storey to the next. These, says Hugh, are placed about the
center column at the intermediate points of the compass, called by Hugh
the east- and west- ‘‘frigor’’ and ‘‘calor,’’ (north-east, north-west, south-east,
and south-west). These associate the storeys with ascents from vice to virtue
and to holiness. So, from ‘‘the cold of the east’’ (the north-east) which
Hugh labels pride, one ascends first to fear, then to sorrow, then love. From
the ‘‘cold of the west,’’ which is ignorance, one ascends to knowledge,
meditation, and finally contemplation. From ‘‘the heat of the east,’’ which
is fervid zeal of spirit, one ascends to temperance, to prudence, and finally
to fortitude. There are 12 ladders in all, 4 about the column, on each of the 3
decks. Each ladder has 10 steps, for a total of 120, and on the steps,
alternating by gender, are 60 men and 60 women, who represent the 60
warriors of Israel who surround the bed of Solomon (Cant. 3:7), and the 60
queens (Cant. 6:8) who mount up to his embrace.
But the ladders contain far more detail than this. Those 3 on the north-
east are inscribed with the 30 books of the Bible, in order, 10 on each as
though each step of the ladder were a book.50 And each book is divided on
the outside (as it were, on its spine – books were still usually stored flat in
their cupboards at this time) into three gradus (steps), corresponding to the
three modes of Biblical interpretation: literal narrative, allegory, and tropol-
ogy or moralizing. Each of the ladders also has an inscription, appropriate to
its role in the three stages of virtuous ascents which Hugh analyzed previ-
ously. For the north-east, the ascent from pride, the three stages were fear,
> sorrow, and love. So the first ladder has inscribed on it: ‘‘Here ascend those
who fear hell, with Isaiah calling and saying, ‘Their worm will not die, and
their fire will not be put out.’ (Is. 66:24).’ This is the last verse in Isaiah.
At the top of the first ladder is the book of Lamentations, tenth in Hugh’s
Bible. On the second ladder is written, ‘ Here ascend those who mourn the
exile of the present life, because of the vessels of the Lord’s house that were
taken away captive into Babylon.’ At the top of this ladder is the book called
Paralipomenon or Chronicles; the last event it tells of is the beginning of the
Captivity. The third ladder in the series is labelled, ‘ Here ascend those who
sigh for their native land, who await the return of their spouse, saying ‘Come,
Lord Jesus Christ.’ (Apoc. 20:21).’ This is the last verse of the Apocalypse,
and the last in the Bible.
In the next three chapters of Hugh’s treatise, the ladders are pressed into
the service of a greatly elaborated moralization of the vices and virtues. The
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details of this are a bit hard to describe, so a translation of part of it may
provide a useful sampling of this section. Hugh gathers in material by using
the four directions, the boxing of the compass, which he introduced earlier:
the four evangelists are also drawn in the four corners of the Ark. In the cold of the
east is the lion, to frighten those who are swollen [with pride]. In the the cold of the
west is the eagle, to give light to the blind. In the warmth of the west is the bull, to
slay the flesh. And in the warmth of the east is the man, to call man back to his
origin. [Hugh previously says that the south-east, the direction of zeal, is where
man was created – these compass points are part of a geographical-historical-moral
mappa mundi.] Through the Book of Life, which faces the north, ascend those
from the cold of the east and from the cold of the west, and therefore a hand with
an open book stretches downward from the top of the lower ladder on the inside,
coming from the Book of Life, chastising on the one side and teaching on the
other. On one side, the reproof is written: ‘‘Woe, woe, woe’ (Apoc. 8:13), and on
the other, the teaching of Judah: ‘‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth’’ (Gen. 1:1) . . . On the Tree of Life ascend those coming from the warmth of
the east and the warmth of the west. Therefore two branches extend downwards
from the top of the ladder, one on each, one with leaves, the other with fruit; both
come from the Tree of Life, nourishing some and offering shade to others. The
virtues, moreover, are depicted opposite each ladder on the part to the inside in the
following way. Fear ascends first from the cold of the east opposite the Book,
naked, since it has thrown down the clothes of pride because of the fire and worms
that are drawn under the foot of the ladder. On the second ladder, Grief is
depicted [depingitur] and next to it, the carrying away into Babylon beginning
with Joachim and then coming down crosswise to the foot of the second ladder
and finally exiting from the Ark for Babylon, which is located at this point on the
map of the world. Next to the third ladder, Love is drawn [pingitur] as one of the
virgins with a burning lamp and a container of oil, awaiting the arrival of her
betrothed. Each of the virtues reaches upward with one hand, in the position of
someone climbing. (De formatione arche, IV. iv. 224 - v. 11)
Other imagines of the virtues inhabit the other ladders. The ladder of
desire (concupiscentia) starts in the bottom of the Ark’s hold, on the south-
west quadrant of the column, with a figure of a bare-breasted girl otherwise
covered by branches from the Tree of Life; opposite her a devil-seducer
blows fire from his nostrils and mouth. Higher up on this same ladder a
naked man is beaten with switches, in order to express, in the manner of an
imago rei, the virtue of patience. The figures on the ladders to the north-
west, the direction of knowledge, begin with a person coming out of a cave,
his face veiled, who falls down at the foot of the ladder, striking a rock and
shattering the vessel he is carrying – this is the image for Ignorance, ‘‘which
destroys the wholeness of the soul with its various errors.’’ On the second
ladder sits Meditation, gathering up the pieces of the broken soul. And on
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the third ladder, Contemplation, depicted as a faber (smith), joins the
fragments and liquifies them as though in a furnace with a pipe that runs
into the central cubit as though in a mint for coins, reforming the fractured
soul through the fire of divine love in the likeness of God. On the fourth set
of ladders, those on the south-east, Temperance is painted like a house-
holder seated at his family table; Prudence like a journeying pilgrim who
flees the world; and finally Fortitude, dressed in a cloud, like one who has
rejected the world and is raised on high.
Hugh allows his Ark-diagram to complicate almost endlessly, as it devel-
ops in his recollective meditation. There are many room-ettes (mansiunculae)
within the Ark itself, which the Bible refers to but does not describe. But
Hugh thinks that some were built like nests into the outer wall of the Ark, for
the amphibious animals who can live neither entirely in water nor entirely on
dry land. The rooms within the Ark itself, of which there are a great many
(though again, the Bible says nothing about them), represent places men-
tioned in the route of the Exodus, from Rameses in Egypt to Jericho on the
bank of Jordan. This map is fitted onto the various temporal and moral
categories which Hugh has already associated with the directions and areas of
the main figure, so that each location on the map is treated as though it were
a mental box filled with links to variously related materials, analogous to the
manner in which the design of Herbert of Bosham’s psalter packs individual
Psalm verses with their extensive commentary.
Surrounding the whole Ark are ellipses, which diagram Hugh’s cosmol-
ogy. The innermost of these represents the zone of air, and is divided into
quadrants that correspond to the four parts of the world, which is the
rectangular Ark itself (these four are the areas formed when the cross is laid
out onto the largest rectangle). In each quadrant of this ellipse a figure is
painted to recall one of the four seasons, and the twelve winds are disposed
on it as well at the appropriate compass points. Another zone is projected
outside this one and divided into twelve parts; in it are represented the
twelve months together with the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Surrounding
the calendar ellipse is the figure of Divine Majesty, His shoulders and head
rising above the top of the whole figure and His feet extending below it,
thereby seeming to contain all things in His embrace, in the conventional
manner one sees in many such figures at this time. About Him are two
seraphs with extended wings, between whom and the figure of Majesty are
painted the nine orders of angels, forming a
semicircle about the Throne.
Included also is a chain of six circles extended from the top of the genealogy
to the Throne; in each of these is written a rubric which summarizes in
order the work of a day of creation. 51
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Hugh de Fouilloy: The Dove and the Hawk
No paintings of Hugh of St. Victor’s Ark exist; this is one of the stronger
evidences that it was never intended to be realized graphically, for a distinc-
tive trait of both pedagogy and spiritual exercise in the twelfth century is
painted diagrams and drawings both in books and on parchment rolls, like
posters, developed for teaching and meditational use in conjunction with
treatises. Many illustrated treatises remain in which the drawings and
structuring devices have been copied faithfully and extensively along with
the texts accompanying them. Some, such as Richard of St. Victor’s plans
and drawings of the visionary Temple-complex in Ezekiel, are very complex:
manuscripts of this work, composed at St. Victor not long after Hugh of
St. Victor’s treatises on Noah’s Ark, faithfully and completely copy the set,
evidently because they were recognized to be essential to the commentary.
Yet Hugh of St. Victor’s Ark remains, as it began, a richly imagined
ekphrasis.
One example of a treatise that always had painted pictures is by Hugh de
Fouilloy (also called Hugo de Folieto), known usually now as Liber
aviarium or De avibus (‘‘On Birds’’), the first nineteen chapters of which
are actually a separate composition concerning the dove and the hawk
(indicated quite clearly in the manuscripts by the phrase ‘‘Explicit de
columba et accipitre,’’ though the edition in the Patrologia Latina does
not show this). Hugh de Fouilloy entered the priory of St-Laurent-au-Bois
in the village of Fouilloy (Folieto) near Corbie in 1120, became its prior in
1152, and died about twenty years later.52 This priory was absorbed in 1223
by the large Benedictine foundation at Corbie; as a result, Hugh de
Fouilloy was forgotten and his work – which remained popular – was
attributed to his contemporary, Hugh of St. Victor, until the eighteenth
century. In addition to his book of birds, he wrote several other short
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