Secunda: armatura.
What Arms Are
Hugh defines arms broadly as instruments of war, then distinguishes protective and striking weapons from missiles, tracing the etymology of both terms.
The second is armor. Arms are sometimes called any instruments at all, just as we speak of the arms of war and the arms of a ship — that is, the instruments of war and of a ship. But properly speaking, arms are the things by which we are protected — such as a shield, a breastplate, or a helmet — or the things by which we strike, such as a sword, a battle-axe, or a lance. Missiles, on the other hand, are the things by which we can hurl — such as a spear or an arrow. And arms take their name from the arm — that is, the forearm — because the forearm protects the part we are accustomed to set against blows. Missiles, however, get their name from the Greek *telon*, meaning 'long,' because things of this sort are long; hence too 'to protelare,' that is, 'to prolong,' is so called.
Armor as Instrumental Knowledge
Armor-craft is characterized as a kind of instrumental knowledge that transforms raw materials into useful instruments.
Armor, then, is so to speak a kind of instrumental knowledge: not only because it uses instruments in working, but because from the material of some raw mass lying ready to hand it produces, as I might say, an instrument. To this craft belongs all the material of stones, woods, metals, sands, and clays.
The Two Branches of Armor-Craft
Armor-craft divides into the architectural branch (masonry and carpentry) and the craftsman's branch (smithing and casting), each with its own methods and materials.
This has two branches: the architectural and the craftsman's. The architectural branch divides into masonry, which covers stonecutters and cement workers, and into carpentry, which covers carpenters and timber workers, as well as other such craftsmen of both kinds — those polishing, hewing, carving, filing, chiseling, joining, and plastering with mattocks, axes, files, hatchets, saws, augers, adzes, small knives, trowels, and levels, in any material whether mud, brick, stone, wood, bone, sand, lime, or plaster, and anything similar that workers use. The craftsman's branch divides into smithing, which by striking extends a mass into form, and into casting, which by pouring reduces a mass into form. Hence casters are so called — those who know how to express the form of a vessel from the unformed mass.
Read the original Latin
Secunda est armatura. arma aliquando quaelibet instrumenta dicuntur, sicut dicimus arma belli, arma navis, id est, instrumenta belli et navis. ceterum proprie arma sunt quibus tegimur, ut scutum, thorax, galea, vel quibus percutimus, ut gladius, bipennis, sarisa. tela autem sunt quibus iaculari possumus, ut hasta, sagitta. dicta autem arma ab armo, id est, bracchio, quia bracchium muniunt quod ictibus opponere solemus. tela autem dicuntur a Graeco telon, id est, longum, eo quod longa sint huiusmodi, unde et protelare, id est, prolongare dicitur. armatura igitur quasi instrumentalis scientia dicitur, non tantum ideo quod instrumentis operando utatur, quantum quod de praeiacenti alicuius massae materia aliquod, ut ita dicam, instrumentum efficiat. ad hanc omnis materia lapidum, lignorum, metallorum, harenarum, argillarum pertinet.
haec duas habet species, architectonicam et fabrilem. architectonica dividitur in caementariam, quae ad latomos et caementarios, et in carpentariam, quae ad carpentarios et tignarios pertinet, aliosque huiusmodi utriusque artifices, in dolabris et securibus, lima et assiculo, serra et terebro, runcinis, artavis, trulla, examussi, polientes, dolantes, sculpentes, limantes, scalpentes, compingentes, linientes in qualibet materia, luto, latere, lapide, ligno, osse, sabulo, calce, gypso, et si qua sunt similia operantium. fabrilis dividitur in malleatoriam, quae feriendo massam in formam extendit, et in exclusoriam, quae fundendo massam in formam redigit. unde exclusores dicti sunt, qui de confusione massae noverunt formam vasis exprimere.
Didascalicon de Studio Legendi (On the Study of Reading) companion
Hugh said begin with small daily portions. Start tomorrow.
Chosen Portion serves one short, ordered devotional reading each day — the medieval lectio pattern, free on iOS.
Hugh taught that formation comes from ordered, incremental daily reading, and Chosen Portion is that ordered daily portion delivered to your phone.
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