Theobald of Langres

Theobald of Langres^{[lower-alpha 1]} (floruit late 12th century) was a scholastic teacher and author, probably a lay schoolmaster,^[1] although he has also been identified as a Cistercian.^[2] He elaborated and expanded on the work of William of Auberive and Geoffrey of Auxerre, crafting a more systematic theory of numerical symbolism. He left behind one treatise on the subject, De quatuor modis quibus significationes numerorum aperiuntur,^{[lower-alpha 2]} written in a dry style.^[1] It has been edited critically by René Delaflie (1978) and Hanne Lange (1979). A bit of Theobald's advice is:^[3]

When you want to sacramentize a number [i.e., "make it mean"], you should unfold the aforesaid ways of sacramentizing, and turn them over in your mind, because in such frequent consideration, you may perhaps find what you are looking for, lying hidden.^{[lower-alpha 3]}

References

Notes

1. His name may also be spelled Theobold, and in French Thibaud, Thibaut or Thibault.
2. "Concerning the Four Modes in which the Meanings of Numbers are Opened": for the four modes of the title, see Evans (1984), p. 62.
3. Quotiens igitur aliquem volueris numerum sacramentare, debes predictos sacramentandi modos explicare, explicitosque revolvere, quia crebra fortassis revolutione, quod queris, invenies inter eos latere.

Citations

1. Beaujouan 1982, p. 483.
2. Evans 1984, p. 59.
3. Brown 1998, p. 32.

Sources

• Beaujouan, Guy. "The Transormation of the Quadrivium". In Benson, Robert Louis; Constable, Giles; Lanham, Carol Dana. Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 463–87.
• Brown, Catherine (1998). Contrary Things: Exegesis, Dialectic, and the Poetics of Didacticism. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
• Evans, G. R. (1984). The Language and Logic of the Bible: The Earlier Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Further reading

• Deleflie, René (1978). Thibaut de Langres, Traité sur le symbolisme des nombres. Langres: Société historique et archéologique de Langres.
• Garnier, A. (1979). "Thibaut de Langres et la symbolique des nombres". Cahiers Haut-Marnais 136: 35–39.
• Lange, Hanne (1979). Traités du XII^e siècle sur la symbolique des nombres: Geoffroy d'Auxerre et Thibault de Langres. CIMAGL 29. Copenhagen.
• Lange, Hanne (1979). Les donnée mathématiques des traités du XII^e siècle sur la symbolique des nombres. CIMAGL 32. Copenhagen.