Note 11 — Chapter XXXV
Reading edition
I have employed the text in Migne PL vol. 176, cols. 739-812. It should be noted, however, that B. Hauréau, Les Œuvres de Hugues de Saint-Victor, Essai critique, nouvelle edition, Paris, 1886, demonstrated that there should be only six books of the Didascalicon instead of seven as in this edition and that of 1648. This will not affect our investigation, as we shall make no use of the seventh book, but we shall have later to discuss whether a passage on magic belongs at the close of the sixth book or not. There appears to be a somewhat general impression that the edition of 1648 is the earliest edition of Hugh’s works, but the British Museum has an undated incunabulum of the “Didascolon” numbered IB. 859, fol. 254.
Vincent of Beauvais in the thirteenth century speaks of the “Didascolon” as in five books (Speculum doctrinale, XVIII, 62) but is probably mistaken. The MSS seem uniformly to divide the work into a prologue and six books, as in the following at Oxford:
New College 144, 11th (sic) century, folio bene exaratus et servatus, fols. 105-43, “Incipit prologus in Didascalicon.”
Jesus College 35, 12th century, fol. 26-
St. John’s 98, 14th century, fol. 123-
Corpus Christi 223, 15th century, fol. 73-
I have not noted what MSS of the Didascalicon there are in the British Museum. The following MSS elsewhere may be worth listing as of early date:
Grenoble 246, 12th century, fols. 99-133.
BN 13334, 12th century, fol. 52-, de arte didascalica, is probably our treatise, although the catalogue names no author.
BN 15256, 13th century, fol. 128-.
Still other MSS will be mentioned in a subsequent note.