Dei simboli e delle figurae. Ugo di San Vittore e i diagrammi al crocevia del XII secolo

The idea of "ordo" is typical of the twelfth century. This concept is stressed in many fields and in different ways. We can observe the struggle of finding and communicating an "ordo" in the systematical organization of the first summae for teaching and learning the doctrine, as in constructing diagrams representing the same contents graphically and symbolically. Moreover, Ivan Illich observed that in those years the nature and the purposes of learning were changing. The way of studying turned from a “monastic" way of moral self-construction to a preparation for preaching and teaching, typical of regular canons and city schools. Illich noticed that the most brilliant change in this process was a different organization of the page of the manuscript, and saw in Hugh of St. Victor a very important figure. By considering of the role of his De sacramentis among the first summe, and especially observing his importance in the development of theological diagrams in the twelfth century, Illich's judgement can be confirmed. Moreover, those points seem to have a strong connection with his interest in the works of the pseudo-Areopagite. Those ideas, which he may have first met in Germany, as a student, would be the axis of his speculations, structuring some central ideas (ordo, symbol, hierarchy) that he would spread throughout the latin West.