HUGO OF SAINT-CHER (Hugo a Sancto Caro). - Learned exegete and theologian, b. at St-Cher near Vienne in the Dauphiné, d. at Orvieto on 19 March 1263. In 1225 he entered the Dominicans. In Paris he studied philosophy, theology and law. After having held high offices in the Order, in 1244 he was named cardinal by Innocent IV, who used him as legate in Germany and on other missions.
U. composed not a few biblical works. Following the tendency of the time, he occupied himself especially with the text of the Vulgate. To him is owed a Sacra Biblia recognita et emendata, id est a scriptorum vitiis expurgata. Additis ad marginem variis lectionibus codicum manuscriptorum Hebraeorum, Graecorum et veterum Latinorum codicum aetate Caroli Magni scriptorum. And a biblical correctory (v.), composed ca. 1248, which together with the Correctorium Parisiense replaced the Correctorium Senonense in the Dominican Order. In this textual revision U. followed in particular the notes of St. Jerome and of other ancients, giving excessive weight to readings more conformable to the Hebrew original. To U. go back the first biblical concordance and the division of the chapters into smaller sections, marked by letters of the alphabet. The division was adopted by many exegetes and also by the liturgical texts, as can be seen in ancient Missals and Breviaries. As an exegete U. had notable care for the literal sense, while not neglecting, according to the use of the time, the spiritual one. His Postillae in universa Biblia iuxta quadruplicem sensum litteralem, allegatum, morale, anagogicum, had a perceptible influence on later exegesis; they were printed various times: the first edition appeared in Basel in 1482; the best is that of Venice of 1754 (Opera omnia in universum Vetus et Novum Testamentum, 8 vols.). In the question of the biblical canon of the Old Testament, U. (cf. Prologus in Eccli., ed. of Venice, III, 171b) attributed a secondary authority to the deuterocanonical books, following St. Jerome.
As a theologian U. composed a Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard and Quaestiones disputatae on the Sacraments, some of which have been identified in a manuscript of Douai.