'In Its Extraordinary Arrangement': Hugh of Saint Victor, the History of Salvation, and the World Map of The Mystic Ark (original) (raw)

2021, Victorine Restoration: Essays on Hugh of St Victor, Richard of St Victor, and Thomas Gallus, ed. Robert J. Porwoll and David Allison Orsbon (Brepols, Turnhout, 2021; completed and in press since 2014) 123-146

Conrad Rudolph "'In Its Extraordinary Arrangement': Hugh of Saint Victor, the History of Salvation, and the World Map of The Mystic Ark," Victorine Restoration: Essays on Hugh of St Victor, Richard of St Victor, and Thomas Gallus, ed. Robert J. Porwoll and David Allison Orsbon (Brepols, Turnhout, 2021; completed and in press since 2014) 123-146. Hugh of Saint Victor's Mystic Ark is a Latin manuscript that gives general instructions on how to make an image of all time, all space, all matter, all human history, and all spiritual striving. This image was meant to be repeated again and again in order to serve as the subject of a months-long course that presented a middle-ground worldview in the face of perceived threats from the new, neo-platonically based critical learning of School (University) culture at an important time in the history of Western intellectual development (original image and course 1125-1130, Paris). In this study, I expand upon the discussion from my book, The Mystic Ark, of one of the most prominent and crucial components of The Mystic Ark: the world or world map. This map is perhaps the earliest significant example of a map with Jerusalem at its center, it has the earliest executed oval earth of which I'm aware, and it incorporates the earliest Last Judgment that is part of a map. But its real interest lies in the way in which the actual specifics of the map are engaged with the Ark of the Flood that forms the core of this image, in a way, even activated by the Ark, resulting in a cartographical image of previously unrivalled conception. Among other things, The Mystic Ark presents an elaborate visual summary of the entire history of salvation from the beginning until the end of time, an image that is nothing less than a visual capsulization of Hugh's most original theological theory as expressed in his great written systematic theology, De sacramentis: the works of creation and the works of restoration. The works of creation consist of the world with all its "elements" as manifested during the six days of creation that culminated in the Fall of Adam and Eve--that is, the alienation of humankind from its creator. The works of restoration comprise the Incarnation of the Word (that is, Christ) with all its "sacraments" as manifested during the six ages of the history of salvation (the six ages that constitute human history from Adam to the end of time)--works that will restore humankind to its creator. Central to this world-view as put forth in the image of The Mystic Ark is the depiction of the earth as the stage for the history of salvation, with the Ark proper acting as an image of both the Church throughout time and of the progression of time itself (as specifically stated in the text of The Mystic Ark), and with the focal point of all this being Christ as the Lamb of God in the central cubit of the Ark proper. It is the fundamental pervasion of this dynamic of the history of salvation throughout the image of The Mystic Ark--the map, the Ark, the cosmos, the figure of Christ--that makes its map so different from other contemporary maps, which may, in a less concerted way, also refer to the history of salvation. Other themes that are taken up are the "extraordinary arrangement" of the Ark--to quote a contemporary witness--as manifested in Hugh's theory of an east-west spatial-temporal progression of events throughout history (translatio spiritualitatis and, to a lesser extent, translatio imperii); the manner in which the actual specifics of the map of The Mystic Ark are engaged with the Ark proper--in a way, even activated by the Ark proper; and Hugh's desire "to show not things and not the images of things, but rather their significations--not those that the things themselves signify, but those that are signified," or, put another way, his desire to show not Egypt or the geographical depiction of Egypt, but rather "ignorance," which is what the word "Egypt" was thought to mean etymologically and so exegetically. That is, he wanted to show not the geographical reality, but the spiritual reality. In the end, the map of The Mystic Ark is nothing less than the centerpiece of a fully articulated world-view directly aimed at (and appropriating) the more prestigious (and secular) neoplatonic thought of the time, a newly perceived threat that was arising out of the same School culture in which and for which The Mystic Ark was created, and from whose standard academic imagery it borrows.