The shadow is the Old Testament, and these three lines sum up the teaching of Hugo as to the sacramental nature of the Old Testament narratives. Throughout this hymn Adam follows Hugo closely.[1] In another dedicatory hymn[2] Adam gives the prefigurative meaning of the parts of Solomon's temple. There is likewise much symbolism in the grand hymns addressed to the Virgin. One for the festival of the Assumption[3] gives the figures of the Virgin in the Old Testament the throne of Solomon, the fleece of Gideon, the burning bush. Then with more feeling the metaphorical epithets pour forth, voicing the heart's gratitude to the Virgin's saving aid to man. A still more splendid example of like symbolism and ardent metaphor is the great hymn beginning:
"Salve mater Salvatoris,
Vas electum, vas honoris,"
which won the Virgin's greeting for the poet.[4]
The lives of Honorius, of Hugo, of Adam, from whose works we have been drawing illustrations of mediaeval symbolism, vie with each other in obscurity; and properly enough since they were monks, for whom self-effacement is becoming. This personal obscurity culminates with one last example to be drawn from monastic sources. The man himself was an impressive figure in his time; a sight of him was not to be forgotten: he was called magnus and doctor universalis. Nevertheless it has been questioned whether he lived in the twelfth or the thirteenth century, and whether one man or two bore the name of Alanus de Insulis.
There was in fact but one, and he belongs to the twelfth century, dying almost a centenarian, in the year 1202. The cognomen de Insulis has also been an enigma. From it he has been dubbed a Sicilian, and then a Scot, born on the island of Mona. But the name in reality refers to the chief town of Flanders, which is called Lisle; and Alanus doubtless was a Fleming.
