Good afternoon and God’s peace. My name is Hugo and I am from Bologna where I was born on the Saint Martin’s day year 1248 AD. At the moment I work as a master i.e. a teacher in Paris. During my life I have travelled from one city to another seeking for knowledge. After the monastery school I found my way into the University of my Hometown, Bologna. These were good times, together with the other boys we did some reading, singing and we also drank a little wine, had a little fun and even wrote a couple of shameless poems. The studies didn’t always proceed so well, but we sure had some good times!
And after a while I did become a bit interested in the studies, too. I got interested in Philosophy and Aristotle. There were a couple of copies of Metaphysics by Aristotle circling among the students. That was a book I tried to memorise and learn to understand. As a youngster I was under the impression that my lifetime and ability would have been sufficient enough for that. I left for Paris because wanted to receive teaching from the very best scholars. After all it was in Paris that Saint Thomas of Aquinas hung around in his lifetime. Not that everyone appreciated his presence at the time; I on the other hand have heard so much of his disputations that I would have been more than happy to follow them.
Thomas’s students guided me, too. Telling me about the master’s abilities and a couple of times during my lectures I have also read some of his texts. Finally I graduated and received the right to teach in a university. I did better than many others, even though it hasn’t always been so easy. The students are lazy, just like they were when I was one. They don’t always remember to pay their teachers, but we are all poor living more out of spirit than out of bread. Occasionally they make their demands of reformed education, how dare they. Although I have it quite well, there are people in my classes and I get along, so far I haven’t been forced to travel around the country looking for a teacher’s position in a cathedral school.
I never did become a great philosopher, but quite a capable man anyway. I have taught for twenty years already in the spirit of God and depending on Aquinas. I have left Metaphysics alone, even though occasionally I have written short comments regarding it. I have heard people say all kinds of oddities about that John Duns Scotus, who has new ideas, but I am starting to reach the age when enthusiasm isn’t enough for new information. However, all knowledge is from God and as a gift from him, it’ll all amount to good things.
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