Divisio mechanicae in septem.
The Seven Branches of the Mechanical Arts
Hugh enumerates the seven mechanical arts and explains how three address outward protection while four address inward nourishment, mirroring the division of the liberal arts.
The mechanical arts comprise seven branches of knowledge: textile work, metalworking, navigation, agriculture, hunting, medicine, and theatrical arts. Of these, three relate to nature's outward covering — the means by which nature itself protects itself from hardship — while four relate to the inward side, by which it nourishes itself through feeding and fostering, in a way that indeed mirrors the trivium and quadrivium: the trivium deals with words, which belong to the outward realm, and the quadrivium handles the understandings that are conceived within.
Wisdom's Wedding Gift to Human Endeavor
Drawing on the myth of Mercury and Philology, Hugh shows that all human arts serve eloquence joined to wisdom, and that wisdom brings public advantage, honor, and defense to both the wise and their friends.
These are the seven handmaids that Mercury received from Philology as a wedding gift — because, clearly, every human endeavor serves eloquence when it is joined to wisdom, as Tullius says in his work on rhetoric concerning the pursuit of eloquence: 'By this one is safe, by this one is honored, by this one is renowned, and by this same gift life becomes joyful.' For from this source great advantages flow to public life, if wisdom — the guide of all things — stands ready at hand. And from this, praise, honor, and dignity flow toward those who have attained it. From this too, their friends gain a most reliable and secure defense.
Why the Arts Are Called Mechanical and Liberal
Hugh explains the etymology of 'mechanical' as derivative from nature and 'liberal' as pertaining to free minds or noble students in antiquity.
These are called 'mechanical' — that is, 'adulterine' or derivative — because they concern the work of the craftsman, which borrows its form from nature. Just as the other seven are called 'liberal' — either because they demand minds that are, that is, unencumbered and well-trained, since they debate subtly about the causes of things — or because in ancient times only the free, that is, the noble, were accustomed to study them, whereas the commoners and the children of the unremarkable pursued the mechanical arts for practical skill in making things.
The Diligence of the Ancients
Hugh praises the remarkable diligence of the ancients in reducing all human making to fixed rules, defining the mechanical art as the science to which the fabrication of all things converges.
In this the great diligence of the ancients is apparent, who wanted to leave nothing untried, but to bind all things under fixed rules and precepts.1 The mechanical art is the science to which they say the making of all things converges.
Read the original Latin
Mechanica septem scientias continet: lanificium, armaturam, navigationem, agriculturam, venationem, medicinam, theatricam. ex quibus tres ad extrinsecus vestimentum naturae pertinent, quo se ipsa natura ab incommodis protegit, quattuor ad intrinsecus, quo se alendo et fovendo nutrit, ad similitudinem quidem trivii et quadrivii, quia trivium de vocibus quae extrinsecus sunt et quadrivium de intellectibus qui intrinsecus concepti sunt pertractat. hae sunt septem ancillae quas Mercurius a Philologia in dotem accepit, quia nimirum eloquentiae, cui iuncta fuerit sapientia, omnis humana actio servit, sicut Tullius in libro rhetoricorum de studio eloquentiae dicit: Hoc tuta, hoc honesta, hoc illustris, hoc eodem vita iucunda fiat. nam hinc ad rem publicam plurima commoda veniunt, si moderatrix omnium praesto est sapientia. hinc ad eos qui ipsam adepti sunt, laus, honos, dignitas, confluit. hinc amicis quoque eorum certissimum et tutissimum praesidium est. hae mechanicae appellantur, id est, adulterinae, quia de opere artificis agunt, quod a natura formam mutuatur. sicut aliae septem liberales appellatae sunt, vel quia liberos, id est, expeditos et exercitatos animos requirunt, quia subtiliter de rerum causis disputant, vel quia liberi tantum antiquitus, id est, nobiles, in eis studere consueverant, plebei vero et ignobilium filii in mechanicis propter peritiam operandi.
in quo magna priscorum apparet diligentia, qui nihil intentatum linquere voluerunt, sed omnia sub certis regulis et praeceptis stringere. mechanica est scientia ad quam fabricam omnium rerum concurrere dicunt.
Notes
- 1 ↩Stringere literally means 'to draw tight' or 'bind'; 'bind' captures the sense of securing practices under strict rules.
Didascalicon de Studio Legendi (On the Study of Reading) companion
Hugh said begin with small daily portions. Start tomorrow.
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