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In his letters to students, Philip of Harvengt († 1183) engages himself in a dialogue with the environment of the schools of his time. This is obvious since the exchange of letters was not an entirely private affair as it is nowadays. Letters were shared with one's companions and read by them. When Philip therefore wrote a letter to a student, he addressed in fact a broader public. The letters addressed to students appear to belong to two different literary types. His earliest letters, Ad Wedericum  and ad Hervardum  are in fact treatises concerning a debated question with some spiritual advise in the margin. Later written letters only contain spiritual advise. But all Philip's letters show a keen awareness of the fact that a sound exegesis starts from a litteral understanding of the material text of Sacred Scripture, even though he depicts its study as preparing for an experienced meeting with the  One who inspired it. This fundamental conviction concerning study of Scripture probably points towards influence from the Parisian school of the canons regular of Saint Victor. In his letter Ad Wedericum  Hugh of Saint Victor is explicitly quoted while Philip develops his argument in favour of a literal explication of the six days during which creation took place according to the book Genesis. "The school should be called another monastery", for, in spite of the different environment, assiduous study of Scripture is performed in both places. Bible study probably took on a different character in monasteries of  regular canons, such as Saint Victor in Paris and Bonne-Espérance, than the monastic lectio divina.