A physic garden is a type of herb garden with medicinal plants. Botanical gardens developed from them.
92-469: Modern botanical gardens were preceded by medieval physic gardens, often monastic gardens , that existed by 800 at least. Gardens of this time included various sections including one for medicinal plants called the herbularis or hortus medicus . Pope Nicholas V set aside part of the Vatican grounds in 1447 for a garden of medicinal plants that were used to promote the teaching of botany, and this
184-547: A cycle called the Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum . The songs from the Symphonia are set to Hildegard's own text and range from antiphons, hymns, and sequences (such as Columba Aspexit ), to responsories. Her music is monophonic , consisting of exactly one melodic line. Its style has been said to be characterized by soaring melodies that can push the boundaries of traditional Gregorian chant and to stand outside
276-521: A family of the free lower nobility in the service of the Count Meginhard of Sponheim . Sickly from birth, Hildegard is traditionally considered their youngest and tenth child, although there are records of only seven older siblings. In her Vita , Hildegard states that from a very young age she experienced visions . From early childhood, long before she undertook her public mission or even her monastic vows, Hildegard's spiritual awareness
368-965: A female rhetorician, transcending bans on women's social participation and interpretation of scripture. The acceptance of public preaching by a woman, even a well-connected abbess and acknowledged prophet, does not fit the stereotype of this time. Her preaching was not limited to the monasteries; she preached publicly in 1160 in Germany. She conducted four preaching tours throughout Germany, speaking to both clergy and laity in chapter houses and in public, mainly denouncing clerical corruption and calling for reform. Many abbots and abbesses asked her for prayers and opinions on various matters. She traveled widely during her four preaching tours. She had several devoted followers, including Guibert of Gembloux, who wrote to her frequently and became her secretary after Volmar's death in 1173. Hildegard also influenced several monastic women, exchanging letters with Elisabeth of Schönau ,
460-483: A letter with his blessing. This blessing was later construed as papal approval for all of Hildegard's wide-ranging theological activities. Towards the end of her life, Hildegard commissioned a richly decorated manuscript of Scivias (the Rupertsberg Codex); although the original has been lost since its evacuation to Dresden for safekeeping in 1945, its images are preserved in a hand-painted facsimile from
552-816: A modern crossword puzzle today. Hildegard's Lingua ignota ('unknown language') consisted of a series of invented words that corresponded to an eclectic list of nouns. The list is approximately 1,000 nouns; there are no other parts of speech. The two most important sources for the Lingua ignota are the Wiesbaden, Hessische Landesbibliothek 2 (nicknamed the Riesenkodex) and the Berlin manuscript. In both manuscripts, medieval German and Latin glosses are written above Hildegard's invented words. The Berlin manuscript contains additional Latin and German glosses not found in
644-402: A mystic. Although her medical writings were long neglected and then, studied without reference to their context, she was the inspiration for Dr. Gottfried Hertzka's "Hildegard-Medicine", and is the namesake for June Boyce-Tillman 's Hildegard Network, a healing center that focuses on a holistic approach to wellness and brings together people interested in exploring the links between spirituality,
736-489: A nearby visionary. Hildegard corresponded with popes such as Eugene III and Anastasius IV , statesmen such as Abbot Suger , German emperors such as Frederick I Barbarossa , and other notable figures such as Bernard of Clairvaux , who advanced her work, at the behest of her abbot, Kuno, at the Synod of Trier in 1147 and 1148. Hildegard of Bingen's correspondence is an important component of her literary output. Hildegard
828-479: A saint for centuries. On 10 May 2012, Pope Benedict XVI extended the liturgical cult of Hildegard to the entire Catholic Church in a process known as " equivalent canonization ". On 7 October 2012, he named her a Doctor of the Church , in recognition of "her holiness of life and the originality of her teaching." Hildegard was born around 1098. Her parents were Mechtild of Merxheim-Nahet and Hildebert of Bermersheim,
920-407: A space of spiritual confinement and served to document Hildegard's grand style and strict formatting of medieval letter writing. Contributing to Christian European rhetorical traditions, Hildegard "authorized herself as a theologian" through alternative rhetorical arts. Hildegard was creative in her interpretation of theology. She believed that her monastery should exclude novices who were not from
1012-488: A theological notion ultimately derived from Genesis: all things put on earth are for the use of humans. In addition to her hands-on experience, she also gained medical knowledge, including elements of her humoral theory, from traditional Latin texts. Hildegard catalogued both her theory and practice in two works. The first, Physica , contains nine books that describe the scientific and medicinal properties of various plants, stones, fish, reptiles, and animals. This document
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#17327727915121104-452: A thirsty person can swallow in one gulp"). She even includes bleeding instructions for animals to keep them healthy. In the third and fourth sections, Hildegard describes treatments for malignant and minor problems and diseases according to the humoral theory, again including information on animal health. The fifth section is about diagnosis and prognosis, which includes instructions to check the patient's blood, pulse, urine, and stool. Finally,
1196-475: A type of garden found in medieval monasteries. The vegetation would provide fruit, such as apples or pears, as well as manual labor for the monks as was required by the Rule of Saint Benedict . Cemetery gardens, which tended to be very similar to generic orchards, acted as a symbol of Heaven and Paradise, thus providing spiritual meaning and righteous labor. The majority of data about monastic gardens can be found in
1288-543: Is also thought to contain the first recorded reference of the use of hops in beer as a preservative. The second, Causae et Curae , is an exploration of the human body, its connections to the rest of the natural world, and the causes and cures of various diseases. Hildegard documented various medical practices in these books, including the use of bleeding and home remedies for many common ailments. She also explains remedies for common agricultural injuries such as burns, fractures, dislocations, and cuts. Hildegard may have used
1380-466: Is one of the earliest descriptions of purgatory as the place where each soul would have to work off its debts after death before entering heaven. Hildegard's descriptions of the possible punishments there are often gruesome and grotesque, which emphasize the work's moral and pastoral purpose as a practical guide to the life of true penance and proper virtue. Hildegard's last and grandest visionary work, Liber divinorum operum , had its genesis in one of
1472-560: Is one of the few known composers to have written both the music and the words. One of her works, the Ordo Virtutum , is an early example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving morality play . She is noted for the invention of a constructed language known as Lingua Ignota . Although the history of her formal canonization is complicated, regional calendars of the Catholic Church have listed her as
1564-527: Is structured into three parts of unequal length. The first part (six visions) chronicles the order of God's creation: the Creation and Fall of Adam and Eve, the structure of the universe (described as the shape of an "egg"), the relationship between body and soul, God's relationship to his people through the Synagogue, and the choirs of angels. The second part (seven visions) describes the order of redemption:
1656-474: Is superabundant within them. For if man had remained in paradise, he would not have had the flegmata within his body, from which many evils proceed, but his flesh would have been whole and without dark humor [ livor ]. However, because he consented to evil and relinquished good, he was made into a likeness of the earth, which produces good and useful herbs, as well as bad and useless ones, and which has in itself both good and evil moistures. From tasting evil,
1748-588: The Church of England , in which she is commemorated on 17 September. In recent years, Hildegard has become of particular interest to feminist scholars. They note her reference to herself as a member of the weaker sex and her rather constant belittling of women. Hildegard frequently referred to herself as an unlearned woman, completely incapable of Biblical exegesis. Such a statement on her part, however, worked slyly to her advantage because it made her statements that all of her writings and music came from visions of
1840-822: The Dendermonde Codex , which contains one version of her musical works; and the Ghent manuscript, which was the first fair-copy made for editing of her final theological work, the Liber Divinorum Operum . At the end of her life, and probably under her initial guidance, all of her works were edited and gathered into the single Riesenkodex manuscript. The Riesenkodex manuscript is a collection of 481 folios of vellum bounded by wooden boards bound in pig leather that measure 45 by 30 centimetres (18 by 12 in). Hildegard's most significant works were her three volumes of visionary theology: Scivias ("Know
1932-533: The General Roman Calendar as an optional memorial. Numerous popes have referred to Hildegard as a saint, including Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI . Hildegard's pilgrimage church in Eibingen houses her relics . On 10 May 2012, Pope Benedict XVI extended the veneration of Saint Hildegard to the entire Catholic Church in a process known as "equivalent canonization," thus laying
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#17327727915122024-558: The Middle Ages , primarily through archaeology , textual documentation, and artworks such as paintings , tapestry and illuminated manuscripts . The early Middle Ages brings a surprisingly clear snapshot of gardening at the time of Charlemagne with the survival of three important documents: the Capitulare de villis , Walafrid Strabo 's poem Hortulus , and the plan of St Gall which depicts three garden areas and lists what
2116-718: The Sibyl of the Rhine , was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic , visionary , and as a medical writer and practitioner during the High Middle Ages . She is one of the best-known composers of sacred monophony , as well as the most recorded in modern history. She has been considered by a number of scholars to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany. Hildegard's convent at Disibodenberg elected her as magistra ( mother superior ) in 1136. She founded
2208-519: The "Book of the Rewards of Life" takes up the play's characteristic themes. Each vice, although ultimately depicted as ugly and grotesque, nevertheless offers alluring, seductive speeches that attempt to entice the unwary soul into their clutches. Standing in humankind's defence, however, are the sober voices of the Virtues, powerfully confronting every vicious deception. Amongst the work's innovations
2300-516: The 1920s. In her second volume of visionary theology, Liber Vitae Meritorum , composed between 1158 and 1163, after she had moved her community of nuns into independence at the Rupertsberg in Bingen, Hildegard tackled the moral life in the form of dramatic confrontations between the virtues and the vices. She had already explored this area in her musical morality play, Ordo Virtutum , and
2392-999: The Apothecaries founded the Chelsea Physic Garden in 1673, of which Philip Miller , author of The Gardeners Dictionary , was the most notable Director. By 1676, the position of "Keeper of the Physic Garden" was held by the Professor of Botany at the University of Edinburgh . Some of the earliest physic gardens included: Monastic garden A monastic garden was used by many people and for multiple purposes. Medieval gardens were an important source of food for households, but also encompassed orchards, cemeteries and pleasure gardens, as well as providing plants for medicinal and cultural uses. For monasteries, gardens were sometimes important in supplying
2484-600: The Christian story of sin, confession, repentance, and forgiveness. Notably, it is the female Virtues who restore the fallen to the community of the faithful, not the male Patriarchs or Prophets. This would have been a significant message to the nuns in Hildegard's convent. Scholars assert that the role of the Devil would have been played by Volmar, while Hildegard's nuns would have played the parts of Anima (the human souls) and
2576-487: The Divine more believable, therefore giving Hildegard the authority to speak in a time and place where few women were permitted a voice. Hildegard used her voice to amplify the church's condemnation of institutional corruption , in particular simony . Hildegard has also become a figure of reverence within the contemporary New Age movement , mostly because of her holistic and natural view of healing, as well as her status as
2668-649: The Islamic world as a result of the Islamic translation effort. As a result, gardening was particularly important for medicinal use. For example, when the peel of the poppy stalk was ground and mixed with honey, it could be used as a plaster for wounds. Other herbs and plants, such as roses, lilies, sage, rosemary and other aromatic herbs, were used for internal complications, such as a headache or stomachache. Almonds were said to aid sleep, provoke urination, and induce menstruation. In practice, monks used these medicinal herbs not only for themselves, but also to help heal
2760-568: The Mass or the Office of a certain feast. It is, in fact, the earliest known surviving musical drama that is not attached to a liturgy . The Ordo virtutum would have been performed within Hildegard's monastery by and for her select community of noblewomen and nuns. It was probably performed as a manifestation of the theology Hildegard delineated in the Scivias . The play serves as an allegory of
2852-486: The Riesenkodex. The first two words of the Lingua as copied in the Berlin manuscript are aigonz (German, goth ; Latin, deus ; English, god ) and aleganz (German, engel ; Latin, angelus ; English, angel ). Barbara Newman believes that Hildegard used her Lingua ignota to increase solidarity among her nuns. Sarah Higley disagrees and notes that there is no evidence of Hildegard teaching
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2944-606: The Symphony of Heaven, an early version of Hildegard's musical compositions. In early 1148, a commission was sent by the Pope to Disibodenberg to find out more about Hildegard and her writings. The commission found that the visions were authentic and returned to the Pope, with a portion of the Scivias . Portions of the uncompleted work were read aloud to Pope Eugenius III at the Synod of Trier in 1148, after which he sent Hildegard
3036-476: The Virgin Mary and the saints. Hildegard's medicinal and scientific writings, although thematically complementary to her ideas about nature expressed in her visionary works, are different in focus and scope. Neither claim to be rooted in her visionary experience and its divine authority. Rather, they spring from her experience helping in and then leading the monastery's herbal garden and infirmary, as well as
3128-484: The Virtues. The devil's part is entirely spoken or shouted, with no musical setting. All other characters sing in monophonic plainchant. This includes patriarchs, prophets, a happy soul, an unhappy soul, and a penitent soul along with 16 virtues (including mercy, innocence, chastity, obedience, hope, and faith). In addition to the Ordo Virtutum , Hildegard composed many liturgical songs that were collected into
3220-598: The Ways"), Hildegard describes her struggle within: But I, though I saw and heard these things, refused to write for a long time through doubt and bad opinion and the diversity of human words, not with stubbornness but in the exercise of humility, until, laid low by the scourge of God, I fell upon a bed of sickness; then, compelled at last by many illnesses, and by the witness of a certain noble maiden of good conduct [the nun Richardis von Stade ] and of that man whom I had secretly sought and found, as mentioned above, I set my hand to
3312-540: The Ways", composed 1142–1151), Liber Vitae Meritorum ("Book of Life's Merits" or "Book of the Rewards of Life", composed 1158–1163); and Liber Divinorum Operum ("Book of Divine Works", also known as De operatione Dei , "On God's Activity", begun around 1163 or 1164 and completed around 1172 or 1174). In these volumes, the last of which was completed when she was well into her seventies, Hildegard first describes each vision, whose details are often strange and enigmatic, and then interprets their theological contents in
3404-399: The age of 42, Hildegard received a vision she believed to be an instruction from God, to "write down that which you see and hear." Still hesitant to record her visions, Hildegard became physically ill. The illustrations recorded in the book of Scivias were visions that Hildegard experienced, causing her great suffering and tribulations. In her first theological text, Scivias ("Know
3496-588: The age of five, she began to understand that she was experiencing visions. She used the term visio (Latin for 'vision') to describe this feature of her experience and she recognized that it was a gift that she could not explain to others. Hildegard explained that she saw all things in the light of God through the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Hildegard was hesitant to share her visions, confiding only to Jutta , who in turn told Volmar, Hildegard's tutor and, later, secretary. Throughout her life, she continued to have many visions, and in 1141, at
3588-444: The basic framework of humoral theory from ancient medicine, Hildegard's conception of the hierarchical inter-balance of the four humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) was unique, based on their correspondence to "superior" and "inferior" elements – blood and phlegm corresponding to the "celestial" elements of fire and air, and the two biles corresponding to the "terrestrial" elements of water and earth. Hildegard understood
3680-416: The blood of the sons of Adam was turned into the poison of semen, out of which the sons of man are begotten. And therefore their flesh is ulcerated and permeable [to disease]. These sores and openings create a certain storm and smoky moisture in men, from which the flegmata arise and coagulate, which then introduce diverse infirmities to the human body. All this arose from the first evil, which man began at
3772-500: The books to teach assistants at the monastery. These books are historically significant because they show areas of medieval medicine that were not well documented because their practitioners, mainly women, rarely wrote in Latin. Her writings were commentated on by Mélanie Lipinska , a Polish scientist. In addition to its wealth of practical evidence, Causae et Curae is also noteworthy for its organizational scheme. Its first part sets
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3864-401: The church's history); and moral or tropological (i.e. related to the soul's growth in virtue). Finally, the five visions of the third part take up again the building imagery of Scivias to describe the course of salvation history. The final vision (3.5) contains Hildegard's longest and most detailed prophetic program of the life of the church from her own days of "womanish weakness" through to
3956-540: The clergy of Mainz: a man buried in Rupertsberg had died after excommunication from the Catholic Church. Therefore, the clergy wanted to remove his body from the sacred ground. Hildegard did not accept this idea, replying that it was a sin and that the man had been reconciled to the church at the time of his death. Hildegard said that she first saw "The Shade of the Living Light" at the age of three, and by
4048-467: The coming and ultimate downfall of the Antichrist. Attention in recent decades to women of the medieval Catholic Church has led to a great deal of popular interest in Hildegard's music. In addition to the Ordo Virtutum , 69 musical compositions, each with its own original poetic text, survive, and at least four other texts are known, though their musical notation has been lost. This is one of
4140-794: The coming of Christ the Redeemer, the Trinity , the church as the Bride of Christ and the Mother of the Faithful in baptism and confirmation , the orders of the church, Christ's sacrifice on the cross and the Eucharist , and the fight against the devil. Finally, the third part (thirteen visions) recapitulates the history of salvation told in the first two parts, symbolized as a building adorned with various allegorical figures and virtues. It concludes with
4232-515: The disease-causing imbalance of these humors to result from the improper dominance of the subordinate humors. This disharmony reflects that introduced by Adam and Eve in the Fall, which for Hildegard marked the indelible entrance of disease and humoral imbalance into humankind. As she writes in Causae et Curae c. 42: It happens that certain men suffer diverse illnesses. This comes from the phlegm which
4324-543: The few times she experienced something like an ecstatic loss of consciousness. As she described it in an autobiographical passage included in her Vita , sometime in about 1163, she received "an extraordinary mystical vision" in which was revealed the "sprinkling drops of sweet rain" that she stated John the Evangelist experienced when he wrote, "In the beginning was the Word" (John 1:1). Hildegard perceived that this Word
4416-656: The final chapter of Part One, Vision Four with Hildegard's commentary on the prologue to the Gospel of John (John 1:1–14), a direct rumination on the meaning of "In the beginning was the Word". The single vision that constitutes the whole of Part Two stretches that rumination back to the opening of Genesis, and forms an extended commentary on the seven days of the creation of the world told in Genesis 1–2:3. This commentary interprets each day of creation in three ways: literal or cosmological; allegorical or ecclesiological (i.e. related to
4508-460: The groundwork for naming her a Doctor of the Church . On 7 October 2012, the feast of the Holy Rosary , the pope named her a Doctor of the Church. He called Hildegard "perennially relevant" and "an authentic teacher of theology and a profound scholar of natural science and music." Hildegard of Bingen also appears in the calendar of saints of various Anglican churches, such as that of
4600-593: The heavenly places. And again I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, 'Cry out, therefore, and write thus!' It was between November 1147 and February 1148 at the synod in Trier that Pope Eugenius heard about Hildegard's writings. It was from this that she received Papal approval to document her visions as revelations from the Holy Spirit, giving her instant credence. On 17 September 1179, when Hildegard died, her sisters claimed they saw two streams of light appear in
4692-502: The intimate relationship between music and text in Hildegard's compositions, whose rhetorical features are often more distinct than is common in 12th-century chant. As with most medieval chant notation, Hildegard's music lacks any indication of tempo or rhythm; the surviving manuscripts employ late German style notation, which uses very ornamental neumes . The reverence for the Virgin Mary reflected in music shows how deeply influenced and inspired Hildegard of Bingen and her community were by
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#17327727915124784-468: The language to her nuns. She suggests that the language was not intended to remain a secret; rather, the presence of words for mundane things may indicate that the language was for the whole abbey and perhaps the larger monastic world. Higley believes that "the Lingua is a linguistic distillation of the philosophy expressed in her three prophetic books: it represents the cosmos of divine and human creation and
4876-403: The largest repertoires among medieval composers. One of her better-known works, Ordo Virtutum ( Play of the Virtues ), is a morality play . It is uncertain when some of Hildegard's compositions were composed, though the Ordo Virtutum is thought to have been composed as early as 1151. It is an independent Latin morality play with music (82 songs); it does not supplement or pay homage to
4968-575: The living Light." And as the sun, the moon, and the stars appear in water, so writings, sermons, virtues, and certain human actions take form for me and gleam. Perhaps because of Hildegard's visions or as a method of political positioning, or both, Hildegard's parents offered her as an oblate to the Benedictine monastery at Disibodenberg , which had been recently reformed in the Palatinate Forest . The date of Hildegard's enclosure at
5060-481: The local community. One prominent healer was Hildegard of Bingen , an abbess who lived in a monastery housing both men and women. Eventually she was elected magistra and would later care for her own secluded monastery. Besides her extensive writing, Hildegard was regularly visited by people throughout Europe, including Henry II of England , the Holy Roman Emperor, and the empress of Byzantium, as well as
5152-477: The local community. Hildegard was seen as the “first woman physician” because of her work as a healer and medical writings. Monasteries would also rely on their gardens to grow the food the monks needed. There were even monastic gardens that tried to grow produce that was both medically beneficial and appetizing, with vegetables high in starch or in flavor being sought after the most. Some commonly found vegetables include: In most cases, cemetery gardens were also
5244-426: The monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. Hildegard wrote theological, botanical, and medicinal works, as well as letters, hymns , and antiphons for the liturgy . She wrote poems, and supervised miniature illuminations in the Rupertsberg manuscript of her first work, Scivias . There are more surviving chants by Hildegard than by any other composer from the entire Middle Ages, and she
5336-437: The monastery is the subject of debate. Her Vita says she was eight years old when she was professed with Jutta , who was the daughter of Count Stephan II of Sponheim and about six years older than Hildegard. However, Jutta's date of enclosure is known to have been in 1112, when Hildegard would have been 14. Their vows were received by Bishop Otto of Bamberg on All Saints Day 1112. Some scholars speculate that Hildegard
5428-470: The monastery. Hildegard states that Jutta taught her to read and write, but that she was unlearned, and therefore incapable of teaching Hildegard sound Biblical interpretation. The written record of the Life of Jutta indicates that Hildegard probably assisted her in reciting the psalms, working in the garden, other handiwork, and tending to the sick. This might have been a time when Hildegard learned how to play
5520-419: The monks' livelihoods, primarily because many of the plants had multiple uses: for instance, peaches were used for closing wounds. Concerning the structure of the gardens, they often were enclosed with fences, walls or hedges in order to protect them from wild animals. Even though wealthier monasteries could construct walls that were made out of stone and brick, wattle fences were used by all classes and were
5612-475: The most common type of fence. Occasionally, bushes were also used as fencing, as they provided both food and protection to the garden. Gardens were typically arranged to allow for visitors, and were constructed with pathways for easy access. However, it was not uncommon for the gardens to outgrow the monastery walls, and many times the gardens extended outside of the monastery and would eventually include vineyards as well. Incorporating irrigation and water sources
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#17327727915125704-428: The nobility because she did not want her community to be divided on the basis of social status. She also stated that "woman may be made from man, but no man can be made without a woman." Because of church limitation on public, discursive rhetoric, the medieval rhetorical arts included preaching, letter writing, poetry, and the encyclopedic tradition. Hildegard's participation in these arts speaks to her significance as
5796-470: The normal practices of monophonic monastic chant. Researchers are also exploring ways in which it may be viewed in comparison with her contemporaries, such as Hermannus Contractus . Another feature of Hildegard's music that both reflects the 12th-century evolution of chant, and pushes that evolution further, is that it is highly melismatic , often with recurrent melodic units. Scholars such as Margot Fassler , Marianne Richert Pfau, and Beverly Lomer also note
5888-538: The pathways next to the beds. When it came to the action of gardening itself, monks of this time typically would use astronomy and the stars to help in calculating the best time of year to plant their gardens as well as the best time to harvest. The tools that were used at the time were similar to those gardeners use today; for example, shears, rakes, hoes, spades, baskets, and wheel barrows were used by monks and are still pivotal to gardening today. Many medical practices migrated, and assimilated, into medieval Europe from
5980-548: The project unfinished. Theoderic utilized sources Guibert had left behind to complete the Vita . Hildegard's works include three great volumes of visionary theology; a variety of musical compositions for use in the liturgy, as well as the musical morality play Ordo Virtutum ; one of the largest bodies of letters (nearly 400) to survive from the Middle Ages , addressed to correspondents ranging from popes to emperors to abbots and abbesses , and including records of many of
6072-507: The second book of Causae et Curae "explore the etiology, or causes, of disease as well as human sexuality, psychology, and physiology." In this section, she gives specific instructions for bleeding based on various factors, including gender, the phase of the moon (bleeding is best done when the moon is waning), the place of disease (use veins near diseased organ or body part) or prevention (big veins in arms), and how much blood to take (described in imprecise measurements, like "the amount that
6164-487: The sermons she preached in the 1160s and 1170s; two volumes of material on natural medicine and cures; an invented language called the Lingua Ignota ('unknown language'); and various minor works, including a gospel commentary and two works of hagiography. Several manuscripts of her works were produced during her lifetime, including the illustrated Rupertsberg manuscript of her first major work, Scivias ;
6256-413: The sins that flesh is heir to." The text of her writing and compositions reveals Hildegard's use of this form of modified medieval Latin, encompassing many invented, conflated, and abridged words. Because of her inventions of words for her lyrics and use of a constructed script, many conlangers look upon her as a medieval precursor. Maddocks claims that it is likely Hildegard learned simple Latin and
6348-412: The sixth section documents a lunar horoscope to provide an additional means of prognosis for both disease and other medical conditions, such as conception and the outcome of pregnancy. For example, she indicates that a waxing moon is good for human conception and is also good for sowing seeds for plants (sowing seeds is the plant equivalent of conception). Elsewhere, Hildegard is even said to have stressed
6440-453: The skies and cross over the room where she was dying. Hildegard's hagiography , Vita Sanctae Hildegardis , was compiled by the monk Theoderic of Echternach after Hildegard's death. He included the hagiographical work Libellus , or "Little Book", begun by Godfrey of Disibodenberg. Godfrey had died before he was able to complete his work. Guibert of Gembloux was invited to finish the work; however, he had to return to his monastery with
6532-451: The start, because if Adam had remained in paradise, he would have had the sweetest health, and the best dwelling-place, just as the strongest balsam emits the best odor; but on the contrary, man now has within himself poison and phlegm and diverse illnesses. Hildegard also invented an alternative alphabet . Litterae ignotae ('Alternate Alphabet') was another work and was more or less a secret code, or even an intellectual code – much like
6624-563: The ten-stringed psaltery . Volmar , a frequent visitor, may have taught Hildegard simple psalm notation. The time she studied music could have been the beginning of the compositions she would later create. Upon Jutta's death in 1136, Hildegard was unanimously elected as magistra of the community by her fellow nuns. Abbot Kuno of Disibodenberg asked Hildegard to be Prioress , which would be under his authority. Hildegard, however, wanted more independence for herself and her nuns and asked Abbot Kuno to allow them to move to Rupertsberg . This
6716-642: The tenets of the Christian faith, but was not instructed in the Seven Liberal Arts , which formed the basis of all education for the learned classes in the Middle Ages: the Trivium of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric plus the Quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. The correspondence she kept with the outside world, both spiritual and social, transcended the cloister as
6808-444: The theoretical information she likely gained through her wide-ranging reading in the monastery's library. As she gained practical skills in diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment, she combined physical treatment of physical diseases with holistic methods centered on "spiritual healing". She became well known for her healing powers involving the practical application of tinctures, herbs, and precious stones. She combined these elements with
6900-418: The value of boiling drinking water in an attempt to prevent infection. As Hildegard elaborates the medical and scientific relationship between the human microcosm and the macrocosm of the universe, she often focuses on interrelated patterns of four: "the four elements (fire, air, water, and earth), the four seasons, the four humors, the four zones of the earth, and the four major winds." Although she inherited
6992-513: The vault of heaven and into the changing sky and spreads itself out among different peoples, although they are far away from me in distant lands and places. And because I see them this way in my soul, I observe them in accord with the shifting of clouds and other created things. I do not hear them with my outward ears, nor do I perceive them by the thoughts of my own heart or by any combination of my five senses, but in my soul alone, while my outward eyes are open. So I have never fallen prey to ecstasy in
7084-404: The visions, but I see them wide awake, day and night. And I am constantly fettered by sickness, and often in the grip of pain so intense that it threatens to kill me, but God has sustained me until now. The light which I see thus is not spatial, but it is far, far brighter than a cloud which carries the sun. I can measure neither height, nor length, nor breadth in it; and I call it "the reflection of
7176-627: The words of the "voice of the Living Light." With permission from Abbot Kuno of Disibodenberg, she began journaling visions she had (which is the basis for Scivias ). Scivias is a contraction of Sci vias Domini ('Know the Ways of the Lord'), and it was Hildegard's first major visionary work, and one of the biggest milestones in her life. Perceiving a divine command to "write down what you see and hear," Hildegard began to record and interpret her visionary experiences. In total, 26 visionary experiences were captured in this compilation. Scivias
7268-427: The work with a salvo of poetic and visionary images, swirling about to characterize God's dynamic activity within the scope of his work within the history of salvation. The remaining three visions of the first part introduce the image of a human being standing astride the spheres that make up the universe and detail the intricate relationships between the human as microcosm and the universe as macrocosm. This culminates in
7360-435: The work within the context of the creation of the cosmos and then humanity as its summit, and the constant interplay of the human person as microcosm both physically and spiritually with the macrocosm of the universe informs all of Hildegard's approach. Her hallmark is to emphasize the vital connection between the "green" health of the natural world and the holistic health of the human person. Viriditas , or greening power,
7452-419: The writing. While I was doing it, I sensed, as I mentioned before, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close – though just barely – in ten years. [...] And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in
7544-511: Was a forerunner to the academic botanical gardens at Padua and Pisa established in the 1540s. Certainly the founding of many early botanic gardens was instigated by members of the medical profession. The naturalist William Turner established physic gardens at Cologne , Wells , and Kew ; he also wrote to Lord Burleigh recommending that a physic garden be established at Cambridge University with himself at its head. The 1597 Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes by herbalist John Gerard
7636-418: Was critical to keeping the garden alive. In some more complicated systems, the irrigation system used canals to control water-flow. This required that the water source be placed at the highest part of the garden so gravity could aid in the distribution of the water, with smaller canal channels branching out for greater distribution. This was more commonly used with raised bed gardens, as the channels could run in
7728-469: Was grounded in what she called the umbra viventis lucis , the reflection of the living Light. Her letter to Guibert of Gembloux , which she wrote at the age of 77, describes her experience of this light: From my early childhood, before my bones, nerves, and veins were fully strengthened, I have always seen this vision in my soul, even to the present time when I am more than seventy years old. In this vision, my soul, as God would have it, rises up high into
7820-425: Was grown. Further evidence can be found in dilapidated ruins of old monastic infirmaries, where some flowers, like peonies, have been found growing in large patches. Hildegard of Bingen Hildegard of Bingen OSB , ( German : Hildegard von Bingen , pronounced [ˈhɪldəɡaʁt fɔn ˈbɪŋən] ; Latin : Hildegardis Bingensis ; c. 1098 – 17 September 1179), also known as
7912-574: Was one of the first persons for whom the Roman canonization process was officially applied, but the process took so long that four attempts at canonization were not completed and she remained at the level of her beatification . Her name was nonetheless included in the Roman Martyrology at the end of the 16th century up to the current 2004 edition, listing her as "Saint Hildegard" with her feast on 17 September, which would eventually be added to
8004-512: Was only when the Abbot himself could not move Hildegard that he decided to grant the nuns their own monastery. Hildegard and approximately 20 nuns thus moved to the St. Rupertsberg monastery in 1150, where Volmar served as provost, as well as Hildegard's confessor and scribe. In 1165, Hildegard founded a second monastery for her nuns at Eibingen . Before Hildegard's death in 1179, a problem arose with
8096-424: Was placed in the care of Jutta at the age of eight, and that the two of them were then enclosed together six years later. In any case, Hildegard and Jutta were enclosed together at Disibodenberg and formed the core of a growing community of women attached to the monastery of monks, named a Frauenklause, a type of female hermitage. Jutta was also a visionary and thus attracted many followers who came to visit her at
8188-583: Was said to be the catalogue raisonné of physic gardens, both public and private, which were instituted throughout Europe. It listed 1,030 plants found in his physic garden at Holborn , and was the first such catalogue printed. The garden in Oxford, founded by Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby , with Jacob Bobart the Elder as Superintendent, dates to 1632. Begun in Westminster and later moved to Chelsea,
8280-516: Was the key to the "Work of God", of which humankind is the pinnacle. The Book of Divine Works , therefore, became in many ways an extended explication of the prologue to the Gospel of John. The ten visions of this work's three parts are cosmic in scale, to illustrate various ways of understanding the relationship between God and his creation. Often, that relationship is established by grand allegorical female figures representing Divine Love ( Caritas ) or Wisdom ( Sapientia ). The first vision opens
8372-429: Was thought to sustain human beings and could be manipulated by adjusting the balance of elements within a person. Thus, when she approached medicine as a type of gardening, it was not just as an analogy. Rather, Hildegard understood the plants and elements of the garden as direct counterparts to the humors and elements within the human body, whose imbalance led to illness and disease. The nearly three hundred chapters of
8464-506: Was to be a move toward poverty, from a stone complex that was well established to a temporary dwelling place. When the abbot declined Hildegard's proposition, Hildegard went over his head and received the approval of Archbishop Henry I of Mainz . Abbot Kuno did not relent, however, until Hildegard was stricken by an illness that rendered her paralyzed and unable to move from her bed, an event that she attributed to God's unhappiness at her not following his orders to move her nuns to Rupertsberg. It
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