Causa omnium homo. Ugo di San Vittore e la nuova antropologia: fra monaci e canonici sulle due rive del Reno

The studies of Marie-Dominique Chenu and Yves Congar in the 1950s focused on the importance of the change of perspective in considering man’s creation between XI and XII century. Before then, man was thought of as a “spare part” for the celestial city: some angels had fallen, and God had replaced them with the creation of man. After this turning point, man was considered the summit of the creation – even more so because of the Incarnation. The ecclesiological – that is, ecclesiastical and social – consequences were deep and wide. Historiography has often insisted on the role the school of Laon, and in general the regular canons, have had in this development. Actually Hugh of St. Victor seems to have played a central role in these changes, in particular due to his studies in the lands east of the Rhine, before he settled in Paris. It was in Germany that the theme of the centrality of man in the creation emerged and spread especially in the network of the Benedictine reform of Hirsau. To be more precise, this kind of speculation was developed there thanks to the spreading in the lands of the Empire of the writings by the pseudo-Areopagite and by his commentator John Scotus Eriugena.