Biography

Hildegard was a remarkable woman, particularly for her time. Mystic, composer of music, visionary, healer, writer - the range of Hildegard's interests, writing and accomplishments make her life extraordinary.

Hildegard was born in 1098, the tenth child of a noble family. As was customary with a tenth child, she was dedicated to the church at birth. When she was eight years old, the family sent her to an anchoress named Jutta for a religious education. Jutta was an ascetic who lived alone in a single room attached to the church of the Benedictine monastery at Disibodenberg in Germany. Hildegard's education was rudimentary; though she learned Latin, she was not proficient in writing it, and often used secretaries to write down her words. She stayed with the anchoress until Jutta died when Hildegard was 38, and shortly after that she was elected to head the small convent of nuns that had gathered around Jutta. Though Hildegard began having visions as a child, she did not reveal them to anyone but Jutta and a monk who served as her secretary, until 1141 when a vision demanded she begin to record what was revealed to her. The Pope gave her permission to do so, and the result was her book Scivias (Know the Ways of God). In 1150 Hildegard took her group of nuns to Bingen to found a new convent. She continued to write in the years that followed, and also composed the music that is still performed today. She died in 1179.

Works

Hildegard was a prolific writer of several kinds of texts. She is now perhaps best known for her music (Symphoneae), but that was a small part of her output. She also wrote extensively of her visions in Liber Scivias, and about medicine and healing in Causae et Curae and Physica. Hildegard's major works are:

• Causae et Curae (Causes and Cures, natural medicine) [1150-1158]]
• Epistolae (Letters) [1147-1179]
• Liber Scivias (Know the Ways of God, visions) [1141-1151]
• Liber Vitae Meritorum (The Book of Life’s Merits, visions) [1158-1163]
• Physica (Natural medicine) [1150-1158]
• Symphoneae (Songs, music) [1151-1170]

Physica (Subtilitatum diversarum naturarum creaturarum)

The Physica is an encyclopedic text on the medicinal uses of fish, animals, bird and reptiles, as well as plants and stones. Together with the Causae et Curae it was called the Subtilitatum diversarum naturarum creaturarum ("The subtleties of different natures of creatures"). At some point the the two texts were split; by the time a sixteenth-century edition was printed, they were considered to be separate works..

Though the Physica describes many of the same animals as the Physiologus and the Bestiaries, it differs in its focus. While the Physiologus and bestiaries are intended to provide moralized and allegorical Christian teachings, the Physica is a book of medical recipes that use parts of animals for healing. Moralizations based on the animals are rare, and description of the animals themselves or of their habits is uncommon. When Hildegard does describe the animal, the description often does not exactly match any account in the bestiaries or Physiologus. For example:

• The whale eats so many fish that it becomes too heavy to move. It therefore emits a spume from its mouth to remove the parts of the fish it does not want, and so is relieved.
• While the habit of the ostrich mother of abandoning her eggs is described as usual, Hildegard gives a reason for that behavior: The ostrich is hot by nature, so if she incubated her eggs they would be burned by her heat.
• The griffin lays its eggs in a cave and guards them against lions, which will trample on any griffin eggs they find and destroy them.
• When the pelican's eggs hatch, she does not recognize the chicks as her own and kills them. She later regrets that, and revives them with her blood.
• In the usual account, when the stag is ill it eats a snake. Hildegard says it eats a basilisk, then eats herbs and drinks water to expel the basilisk, which would otherwise be deadly.

Hildegard's sources for the few descriptions is not known. She could have had access to a copy of the Physiologus or to a bestiary, but her modifications to the standard accounts suggest she was not directly copying from either.

Hildegard's medical recipes use plants, stones, and parts of animals. The ones that use parts of animals are mostly based on the medieval concept of humors: hot or cold, moist or dry. The humors must be kept in balance for good health. In her recipes Hildegard commonly states what an animal's quality is (hot, cold, moist, dry), and which parts are useful for medicine. In addition to treatments for physical ailments, many of the recipes are for mental illness, such as anxiety, depression or madness.

Hildegard also often says which animals are good for healthy or sick people to eat. This is usually based on what the animal itself eats; an animal that eats unclean food is not good for people to eat, particularly sick people, though healthy people might survive eating it. Some animals (or parts of animals) are said to to be poisonous and deadly to humans. Hildegard's advice on the edibility of animals is occasionally counter to common sense; for example, domestic geese should not be eaten by anyone, while wild geese are safe.

Structure of the Physica

The Physica is organized in nine books. with multiple chapters in each. The books appear in the same order in four of the five existing complete manuscript copies. In manuscript B Books 2 and 9 are combined as book 8, with the element water (De aquis) as Book 9. There is some variation in the titles of the books.

1. De plantis : plants and herbs.
   • Title De herbis in manuscripts F and W
2. De elementis : the four elements (earth, air, fire, water)
   • Title De quatuor elementis in manuscript F
   • Title De fluminibus in manuscript W
   • Not found in manuscript B; combined with De metallis
3. De arboribus : trees
• In manuscript B the De arboribus text follows De plantis with no break and no title
• Book 2 in manuscript B
4. De lapidibus : stones
   • Mostly gems and other precious stones
   • Title De lapidibus preciosis in manuscript W
   • Book 3 in manuscript B
5. De piscibus : fish
• Includes marine mammals
• Book 4 in manuscript B
6. De avibus : birds
   • Includes flying insects and composite bird-beast hybrids
   • Title De volatilibus in manuscripts F and W
   • Book 5 in manuscript B
7. De animalibus : animals
   • Mostly quadrupeds, but includes some insects
   • Title De quadrupedibus in manuscript F
   • Book 6 in manuscript B
8. De reptilibus : reptiles
   • Includes snakes, amphibians, land insects, worms and hybrids
   • Title De immundis et venenosis animalibus in manuscript B
   • Title De vermibus venenosis in manuscript F
   • Title De vermibus in manuscript W
   • Book 7 in manuscript B
9. De metallis : metals
   • Combined with De elementis as De metallis et erementis in manuscript B
   • Book 8 in manuscript B; Book 9 is De aquis, usually part of De elementis

Manuscripts

There are five manuscripts containing complete copies of the Physica (Moulinier, chapter 2, page 45-80). None are illustrated. There are also several partial or fragmentary copies; these mostly incorporated parts of the text concerning plant-based medicines.

Complete copies (letter designations from Moulinier):

Animal-related Chapters

For animal names Hildegard used a mix of Latin and German. Some animals could not be matched to any of the standard beast names used on this site. In the lists below, unmatched names are marked with this color and names with a probable Germanic origin are marked with this style. Some animals appear more than once with different names.