And it was the same pressure of quantity that told, in the long 
run, in favor of typography. But the point where the visual and 
the oral approaches to scripture came into sharp medieval 
conflict was, as might have been predicted, axial or polar to the 
area where conflict occurred in the new visual culture of the 
Renaissance. Hugh of St. Victor conveys the matter clearly:

          The mystical sense is only gathered from what the 
     letter says, in the first place. I wonder how people have 
     the face to boast themselves teachers of allegory, when 
     they do not know the primary meaning of the letter. “We 
     read the Scriptures”, they say, “but we don’t read the 
     letter. The letter does not interest us. We teach allegory.” 
     How do you read Scripture then, if you don’t read the 
     letter? Subtract the letter and what is left? “We read the 
     letter” they say, “but not according to the letter. We read