ABSTRACT
For the mystic Richard of St Victor, speculation took place "when the people perceive through a mirror, but contemplatio when they see the truth in its purity without any covering and veil of shadow". If the soul turns away from the intelligible form, the image vanishes-just as a mirror requires the presence in front of it of whatever it reflects. Only intellect that is always in act, unlike ours, can fully enjoy the pleasure of thinking, and it is at its most intense in thinking of thinking itself. Direct knowledge of reality in its absoluteness -as opposed to knowledge that one takes ready-made and formulated from others, without repeating and verifying it in one's own experience-is one of the essential aspects of the knowledge through self-reflection that Dante develops by appropriating insights of Islamic philosophy. A strong line of continuity connects Dante with Islamic intellectual wisdom in its potential for mounting a fundamental critique of modernity.
