The Visions of Hildegard of Bingen

CLASSICS OF BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE

Charles Singer

London, England

EDITOR’S NOTE : Hildegard of Bingen (1089 to 1179) was a notable figure in medieval Scholastic thought both because she was a creative and independent thinker and an influ - ential woman in a time and culture we think of as dominated by the male-oriented Latin church. She devoted considerable thought to understanding the natural world and was reputed to be a gifted healer. Of special note is the impact of her visions on her own cos - mology as well as on later thinkers. Even today, there are popular cults of mysticism asso - ciated with Hildegard, and one can buy current recordings of music she supposedly com - posed. Her visions are accessible to us through several manuscripts that include drawings and illustrations thought to be in her own hand.

Nearly a century ago, one of the founders of modern scholarship in the history of medicine and science, Dr. Charles Singer, carefully examined the Hildegard manuscripts and offered the conclusion that Hildegard’s visions were most likely to be her interpretations of the auras and visual scotomata associated with migraine headaches. His paper, first published in 1917 (in Volume I of his Studies in the History and Method of Science ) caused a minor storm of controversy, as it attacked the supposedly divine origin of Hildegard’s visions. This essay was expanded, revised, and appeared in Singer’s From Magic to Science: Essays on the Scientific Twilight (London, 1928) and is the version reprinted here. Singer’s erudi - tion, knowledge of classical and medieval sources, and wide medical learning is apparent throughout this essay. Through Hildegard’s writings, he provides us with a penetrating glimpse into the rather unfamiliar scholastic thinking about the natural world that would soon give way to the modernity of our own times.

§1. HILDEGARD AND HER WORKS site, where the smoky railway junction of Bingerbrück now mars the landscape. Hildegard of Bingen was born in Between the little settlement and the 1098, of noble parentage, at Böckelheim, important mediaeval town of Bingen on the River Nahe, near Sponheim. flowed the River Nahe. The stream was, Destined from an early age to a religious and is, here spanned by a bridge of Roman life, she passed nearly all her days within origin, to which still clings the name of the the walls of Benedictine houses. She was pagan Drusus (15 B.C. to A.D. 19). At this educated and commenced her career in the spot (Figure 93), a place of ancient memo - isolated convent of Disibodenberg, at the ries, secluded and yet linked to the world, junction of the Nahe and the Glan, where our abbess passed the main portion of her she rose to be abbess. In 1147 she and life, and here she closed her eyes in the some of her nuns migrated to a new con - eighty -second year of her age on vent on the Rupertsberg, a finely placed September 17, 1179.

Reprinted from From Magic to Science: Essays on the Scientific Twilight (London: Ernest Benn, 1928). 57 58 Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen

Figure 93. The Hildegard country.

Hildegard was a woman of extraordi - Her biographer, the monk Theodoric, narily active and independent mind. She records that she also busied herself with was not only gifted with a thoroughly effi - the treatment of the sick and credits her cient intellect, but was possessed of great with miraculous powers of healing. Some energy and considerable literary power, and of the cited instances of this faculty, as the her writings cover a wide range, betraying curing of a love -sick maid, are but mani - the most varied activities and remarkable festations of personal ascendancy over imaginative faculty. The most interesting of weaker minds. Notwithstanding her her works are her books of visions. She was undoubted acquaintance with such feeble before all things an ecstatic, and both of her remains of ancient science as existed in her great mystical works, the Scivias (written day, and notwithstanding the claims that between 1141 and 1150), and the Liber have been made for her as a pioneer of the divinorum operum simplicis hominis (writ - hospital system, there is no serious evi - ten between 1163 and 1170) contain pas - dence that her treatment extended beyond sages of real power and beauty. Less valu - exorcism and prayer. There is a medical able is her third long mystical work (the compilation ascribed to her, which is an second in point of time), the Liber vitae interesting relic of Dark Age medicine. We meritorum (written between 1158 and are, however, unconvinced by the evidence 1162). She wrote an interesting that Hildegard was its authoress. mystery -play and is perhaps responsible for For her time and circumstance a collection of musical compositions, while Hildegard saw a fair amount of the world. her life of St. Disibode, the Irish missionary Living on the Rhine, the highway of (594 to 674) to whom her part of the Western Germany, she was well placed for Rhineland owes its Christianity, and her observing the traffics and activities of account of St. Rupert, a local saint com - men. She had journeyed as far north as memorated in the name “Rupertsberg,” Cologne, and had traversed the eastern bear witness to her narrative powers, to her tributary of the great river to Frankfort on capacity for systematic arrangement, and to the Main and to Rothenburg on the Taube. her historical interests. Her extensive corre - Her own country, the basin of the Nahe spondence demonstrates the influence that and the Glan, she knew intimately. She she wielded, while certain other works by was in constant communication with her give us glimpses of her activities as Mayence, the seat of the archbishopric in head of a religious house. which Bingen was situated, and there has Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen 59

Figure 94. The structure of the sphere of the earth. From a manuscript at Lucca of Hildegard’s Liber Divinorum Operum Simplicis Hominis , written about 1200. Figure 95. Hildegard’s first scheme of the universe, slightly simplified from a figure in the Weisbaden Codex.

survived an extensive correspondence with emperors Conrad and Frederic Barbarossa, the ecclesiastics of Cologne, Speyer, brings her into the current of general Hildesheim, Treves, Bamberg, Prague, European history. She comes into some Nürenberg, Utrecht, and numerous other slight contact with the story of England by towns of Germany, the Low Countries, and her hortatory letters to Henry II and his Central Europe. consort Eleanor, the divorced wife of Hildegard’s journeys, undertaken with Louis VII. the object of stimulating spiritual revival, To complete a sketch of her literary were of the nature of religious progresses. activities, mention should be made of a Like those of her contemporary, St. secret script and language attributed to her. Bernard of Clairvaux, they were in fact It is a foolishly empty device that hardly largely directed against the heretical and merits the dignity of the term “mystical.” It most cruelly persecuted Cathari, an has, however, exercised the ingenuity of Albigensian sect widely spread in the several learned philologists. Rhine country of the twelfth century. In There is ample material for a full justice to her memory it is to be recalled biography of Hildegard, and many that she herself was ever against the shed - accounts have appeared of her. Most of ding of blood. It was not an age of toler - them are the work of men devoid of criti - ance, but had her less ferocious views pre - cal judgement and are marked by a desire vailed, some more substantial relic than for edification that neither adds to their the groans and tears of this people might attractiveness as literature nor conduces to have reached our time, while the annals of our assurance of their truthfulness. It the Church would have been spared the would demand more skill than her biogra - defilement of an indelible stain. phers have exhibited to interest a detached Hildegard’s correspondence with St. reader in the minutiae of monastic disputes Bernard, then preaching his crusade, with that absorbed a considerable part of her four popes, Eugenius III, Anastasius IV, activities. Perhaps the best life of her is the Adrian IV, and Alexander III, and with the earliest. It is certainly neither the most 60 Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen

Plate I (left). Vision of the Fall of the Angels. From a manuscript of Hildegard’s Scivias at Wiesbaden, written at Bingen about 1180. Plate XI (right). Vision of the Trinity. From a manuscript of Hildegard’s Scivias at Wies- baden, written at Bingen about 1180.

credulous nor the worst written and is by In attempting to interpret the views of her contemporaries, the monks Godefrid Hildegard on scientific subjects, certain and Theodoric. special difficulties present themselves. Hildegard was never canonized. First is the confusion arising from the writ - Attempts towards that end were made ings to which her name has been erro - under the Popes Gregory IX (1237), neously attached. From the discussion Innocent IV (1243), and John XXII (1317). which follows we omit certain works Miraculous cures and other works of won - ascribed to her on what seem to us inade - der were claimed for her, but either they quate grounds. A second difficulty is due were insufficiently miraculous or insuffi - to the receptivity of her mind, so that ciently attested. Those who have impartial - views and theories that she accepts in her ly traced her life in her documents will, we earlier works become modified, altered, believe, agree with the verdict of the and developed in her later writings. A third Church. Hers was a fiery, a prophetic, in difficulty, perhaps less real than the others, many ways a singularly noble spirit, but is the visionary and involved form in she exhibited defects of character which which her thoughts are cast. But a fourth prevent us from regarding her as a woman and more vital difficulty is the attitude that of truly saintly mind or life. From her doc - she adopts towards phenomena in general. trine of Nous [see below] the orthodox To this difficulty we must devote a little may derive evidence of her heresy as an special attention. author and the pious draw comfort for her To Hildegard’s mind there is no dis - failure to achieve canonization as a saint. tinction between physical events, moral Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen 61

Plate XII (left). Vision of the “Sedens Lucidus.” From a manuscript of Hildegard’s Scivias at Wiesbaden, written at Bingen about 1180. The figure is typical of migraine. It consists of glittering background, here represented in gold, on which appears a very bright shimmering point of red light. From this point fortification figures radiate. The vision is iden - tical in pathological basis with that depicted in Plate XIII and both are combined in the “reconstructed” vision of Plate XIV. Plate I, Plate XI, and Figure 108 are migrainous appearances of rather different types. Plate XIII (right). Vision of the “Zelus Dei.” From a manuscript of Hildegard’s Scivias at Wiesbaden, written at Bingen about 1180. This figure is a representation of a vision of migrainous origin. In its essential parts it is identical with Plate XII, and it recurs in the “reconstructed” vision shown in Plate XIV. It should be compared to the other types of migrainous vision shown in the Plate I, in Plate XI, and in Figure 108. truths, and spiritual experiences. This view, which our children share with their mediaeval ancestors, was developed but not transformed by her visionary powers. Her fusion of internal and external uni - verse links Hildegard to a whole series of mediaeval visionaries, culminating with Dante. In Hildegard, as in her fellow -mys - tics, we find that ideas on Nature and Man, the Moral World and the Material Universe, the Spheres, the Winds and the Humours, Birth and Death, on the Soul, the Resurrection of the Dead, and the Nature of God, are not only interdependent but closely interwoven. Nowadays we sep - arate our ideas into categories, scientific, ethical, theological, philosophical, and so Plate XIV. “Reconstructed” Vision of forth, and we even esteem it a virtue to “The Heavenly City” (Compare Plates XII and XIII). From a manuscript of retain and restrain our thoughts within lim - Hildegard’s Scivias at Wiesbaden, written its that we deliberately set for them. To at Bingen about 1180. Note that the visions Hildegard the segregation of ideas in this represented in Plates XII and XIII reappear here. The other parts of the picture are manner would have been incomprehensi - represented separately in other miniatures ble. Such terms as parallelism or allegory in the same manuscript. 62 Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen

Figure 96 (left). Scheme of the “zones” of the world, the Frigid, the Temperate, and the Tropic ( perusta ) from Herrade de Landsberg’s Hortus delicarum . Figure 97 (right). The Last Judgement and the Fate of the Elements . From a manu - script of Hildegard’s Scivias , written at Bingen about 1180.

Figure 98 (left). Man’s Fall and the Disturbance of the Primordial Elemental Harmony. From a manuscript of Hildegard’s Scivias, written at Bingen about 1180. Figure 99 (right). The New Heavens and the New Earth and the New Ordering of the Elements. From a manuscript of Hildegard’s Scivias , written at Bingen about 1180. Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen 63

Figure 100. Hildegard’s later scheme of the universe constructed from her mea - surements. AB, CD, and EF are all equal and GH, HK, and KL are all equal. The clouds are situated in the outer part of the Aer tenuis and are formed by an extension of the Aer aquosus toward the earth. Figure 101. The Macrocosm, the Microcosm, and the Winds. From a manuscript at Lucca of Hildegard’s Liber Divinorum Operum Simplicis Hominis , written about 1200.

do not cover her views of the relation of the material and spiritual. In her mind the material and spiritual are really interfused, or rather they have not yet been separated. Therefore, although in the following pages an attempt is made to estimate her scientific views, yet this method must, of its nature, interpret her thought only in a very partial fashion. Hildegard presents to us scientific thought as an undifferentiated factor, and an attempt is here made to sep - arate it, by the artificial but not unscientif - ic process of dissection, from the organic matrix in which it is embedded. The interest of the works of Hildegard is greatly heightened by the existence of cer - tain early and most remarkably illuminated manuscripts of her visions. Some knowl - edge of the miniatures in two of these, one at Wiesbaden and one at Lucca, is essential for the understanding of her meaning. The illuminated manuscript of Hildegard’s Scivias in the provincial library at Wiesbaden is a truly noble volume, in excellent preservation and of the highest Figure 102. Nous pervaded by the Godhead and the controlling Hyle . From value for the history of mediaeval art. It a manuscript at Lucca of Hildegard’s Liber was prepared in or near Bingen at about the Divinorum Operum Simplicis Hominis , time of Hildegard’s death. Its miniatures written about 1200. 64 Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen

help greatly in the interpretation of the visions, illustrating them often in the minutest details. In view of the great diffi - culty in visualizing much of her narrative, there can be little doubt that the preparation of these miniatures was either supervised by the prophetess herself or under her immediate tradition (Plate I, Plates XI to XIV, Figures 95, 97 to 99, 107 to 109). The other important illuminated manu - script of Hildegard is that of the Liber divi - norum operum simplicis hominis in the municipal library at Lucca. It was written very early in the thirteenth century. Of its most remarkable miniatures, some are of special value for the interpretation of Hildegard’s theories on the relation of Macrocosm and Microcosm, of which more hereafter. They represent the meaning of the text with a convincing sureness of touch. Figure 103. Nous pervaded by the Godhead and embracing both the Without the clues provided by the Lucca Macrocosm and the Microcosm. From a miniatures, many passages in the book manuscript at Lucca of Hildegard’s Liber would be wholly incomprehensible. It is Divinorum Operum Simplicis Hominis , written about 1200. probable that the traditional interpretation of Hildegard’s works, thus preserved to our time by these miniatures and by them alone, had its origin from the mouth of the prophetess herself (Plate II, Figures 94 and 101 to 103). We have here to consider especially Hildegard’s view of the material world, the scientific contents of her visions. These are all grouped round her theory of the Macrocosm and Microcosm. It will be con - venient to consider her views under four heads. Firstly, her conception of the struc - ture of the Universe, the Macrocosm (§2). Secondly, the doctrine of the relation of Macrocosm and Microcosm (§3). Thirdly, her view of the structure of the body of Man, the Microcosm (§4). Fourthly, her view of the nature of the soul (§5).

§ 2. HILDEGARD’S VIEW OF THE UNIVERSE, THE MACROCOSM

To the student of mediaeval science Figure 104. An anatomical drawing of the Thirteenth Century, representing the Hildegard’s beliefs as to the nature and veins. From manuscript Ashmole 399. structure of the universe are among the Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen 65

Figure 105. The Microcosm from Herrade de Landsberg’s Hortus Delicarum . Over the head of the figure are written the names of the seven planets. Air and fire stand one on each side. The inscription against the head may be ren - dered: “The head of the Microcosm is round like the heavenly sphere. In it are two eyes as the two luminaries shine the heavens and there are seven orifices adorn it like the seven heavens of harmo - ny.” Against the thorax is written: “In the Figure 106. The arrival of the soul in the chest is breath and cough like the winds body of the infant. From a manuscript of and thunder.” Against the abdomen is writ - Hildegard’s Scivias , written at Bingen ten: “Into the belly all thing flow like rivers about 1180. to the sea.” By the legs stand the emblems of Earth and Water and the analogy is sim - ilarly carried on. among other mediaeval writers. Many of the so -called Mappaemundi exhibit the most interesting that she has to impart, and surface of the habitable earth itself as oval, here the miniatures aid us greatly. and it was probably from the misunder - In the middle of Hildegard’s universe standing of such charts that Hildegard and is a spherical earth. Around this are other writers gained their conception of an arranged a number of concentric shells or oval universe. In her method of orientation zones. The inner zones, like the earth also she follows the Mappaemundi , plac - itself, tend to be spherical. The outer zones ing the east at the top of the page, where are, however, oval, and the outermost of all we are accustomed to place the north. is egg -shaped, with one end prolonged and It is unfortunate that Hildegard does more pointed than the other (Figure 95). not deal with geography in the restricted The concentric structure of the uni - sense, and so we are not in full possession verse with the earth in the middle is a com - of her views on the antipodes, a subject of monplace of mediaeval science. In most derision to patristic and of misconception mediaeval works, as for instance in Dante, to scholastic writers. She does, however, the universe is, however, described as vaguely refer to the inversion of seasons spherical. The egg -shape, as exhibited by and climates in the opposite hemisphere, Hildegard, is unusual, but is encountered though she confuses the issue by the adop - 66 Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen

tion of a theory, widespread in the Middle represented, in the traditional fashion, by Ages and reproduced in the Divina the breath of supernatural beings. Commedia , that the antipodean surface of Of the four outer zones the first is the the earth is uninhabitable, since it is either aer aquosus , also round, from which beneath the ocean or in the mouth of the blows the east wind. In the outer part of the Dragon (Figure 94). The nature of the aer aquosus float the clouds, and accord - antipodean inversion of climates was ing as they contract or expand or are blown clearly grasped by her contemporary, aside the heavenly bodies above are Herrade de Landsberg (Figure 96). revealed or concealed. Hildegard’s views as to the internal Enwrapping the aer aquosus is the structure of the terrestrial sphere are more purus aether , the widest of all the zones. difficult to follow. Her doctrine of The long axis of this, as of the remaining Purgatory and Hell is confused, but she outer shells, is in the direction from east to held that the interior of the earth contained west, thus determining the path of move - two vast spaces, shaped like truncated ment of the heavenly bodies. Scattered cones, where punishment was meted out through the purus aether are the constella - and whence many evil things had issue. tions of the fixed stars and arranged along Her whole scheme presents analogies as the long axis are the moon and the two well as contrasts to that of her kindred spir - inner planets. From this zone blows the it Dante (Figure 95). Hildegard, however, west wind. The position and constitution who died before the thirteenth century had of this purus aether is evidently the result dawned, presents us with a scheme far less of some misinterpretation of Aristotelian definite and elaborated than that of her writings. great successor, who had all the stores of The next zone, the umbrosa pellis or the golden age of scholasticism on which ignis niger , is a narrow dark shell, whence to draw. proceed the more dramatic meteorological In Hildegard’s first diagram of the events. Here, following on the hints of the universe, which is of the nature of a “sec - Wisdom of Solomon (Chap. v) and the tion,” the world, the sphaera elementorum Book of Job (Chap. xxxviii), are situated of mediaeval writers, is diagrammatically the diagrammatically portrayed treasuries represented as compounded of earth, air, of lightning and of hail. From here the fire, and water confusedly mixed in what tempestuous north wind bursts forth. The her younger contemporary, Alexander of presence of this ignis niger suggests some Neckam (1157 to 1217), calls “a certain contact on the part of the authoress with concordant discord of the elements.” In the the teaching of the Meteorologica of illustrations, the four elements have each a Aristotle. The nature of this contact we conventional method of representation, shall consider later. which appears again and again in the dif - The outermost layer of all is a mass of ferent miniatures (Figures 98 to 99). flames, the lucidus ignis . Here are the sun Around this world with its four ele - and the three outer planets, and from here ments is spread the atmosphere, the aer the south wind pours its scorching breath lucidus or alba pellis , diagrammatically (Figure 95). represented, like the earth which it The movements of the four outer enwraps, as circular. Through this alba zones around each other, carrying the pellis no creature of earth can penetrate. heavenly bodies with them, are attributed Beyond are ranged in order four further to the winds in each zone. The seasonal shells or zones. Each zone contains one of variations in the movements of the heaven - the cardinal winds, and each cardinal wind ly bodies, along with the recurring seasons is accompanied by two accessory winds, themselves, are also determined by the Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen 67

Figure 108. The days of creation and the fall of man. From a manuscript of Hildegard’s Scivias , written at Bingen Figure 107. Departure and fate of the about 1180. soul. From a manuscript of Hildegard’s Scivias, written at Bingen about 1180. universe but also with her beliefs as to the prevalent winds, which, acting as the end of things is Hildegard’s doctrine of the motive -power upon the various zones, elements. Before the Fall of Man these form a celestial parallelogram of forces. In were arranged in a harmony, which was this way is explained also why in spring disturbed by that catastrophe (Figure 98), the days lengthen and in autumn they so that they have since remained in the state shorten, until in either case an equinox is of mingled confusion in which we always reached. encounter them on the terrestrial globe. I looked and behold the east and the south This mistio , to use the mediaeval wind with their collaterals, moving the firma - Aristotelian term, is symbolized by the ment by the power of their breath, caused it to irregular manner in which the elements are revolve over the earth from east to west; and represented in the central sphere of the dia - in the same way the west and north wind and gram of the universe (Figure 95). Thus their collaterals, receiving the impulse and projecting their blast, thrust it back again mingled they will remain until subjected to from west to east. the melting -pot of the Last Judgement I saw also that as the days began to length - (Figure 97), when they will emerge in a en, the south wind and his collaterals gradual - new and eternal harmony, no longer mixed ly raised the firmament in the southern zone as matter, but separate and pure, parts of the upwards towards the north, until the days ceased to grow longer. Then, when the days new heaven and the new earth ( Figure 99). began to shorten, the north wind with his col - But the heavens and the earth which are now laterals, shrinking from the brightness of the … are kept in store and reserved unto fire sun, drove the firmament back gradually against the day of judgement and perdition of southward until by reason of the lengthening ungodly men.… But the day of the Lord will days the south wind began yet again to raise it come … in the which the heavens shall pass up. (Migne, cols. 789 to 791) (Figure 95). away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and Intimately bound up not only with her the works that are therein shall be burned theory of the nature and structure of the up.… Nevertheless we, according to his 68 Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen

promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 The description we have given of the Peter iii, 7, 10, and 12) universe was set forth by Hildegard in her first mystical work, the Scivias (1141 to So Hildegard, acting on a scriptural 1150). Subsequently she became dissatis - hint, is enabled to dematerialize her doc - fied with the account she had given and, trine of the after-things. while not withdrawing it, she sought in her But, although since man’s fall the ele - later Liber Divinorum Operum (1163 to ments have lost their order, and their harmo - 1170) so to modify the original presentment ny on this terrestrial orb, yet is that harmony as to bring it more into line with accepted still in part preserved in the celestial spheres views which treated the universe as a series that encircle and surround our globe; and of concentric spheres. Thus she writes: water, air, earth, and fire have each their There appeared to me in vision a disk very respective representatives in the four con - like that object which I saw twenty -eight centric zones, the aer aquosus , the purus years ago of the form of an egg, in the third aether , the umbrosa pellis , and the lucidus vision of my book Scivias . In the outer part of ignis (Figure 95). These are the “superior the disk there was as it were the lucidus ignis , and beneath it the circle of the ignis niger was elements” which still retain some at least of portrayed … and these two circles were so their individuality and primal purity. From joined as to be one circle. each of their spheres blows, as we have seen, one of the cardinal winds, and each wind There was thus one outer zone repre - partakes of the elemental character of the senting the fire: zone whence it issues, and has a correspond - Under the circle of the ignis niger there was ing influence on man’s body, since each of another circle in the likeness of the purus the four humours is specifically affected by aether which was of the same width as the the element to which it corresponds. two conjoined (outer) fiery circles. And below this circle again was the circle of the aer aqu - Then I saw that by the diverse quality of the osus as wide as the lucidus ignis. And below winds, and of the atmosphere as they in turn this circle was yet another circle, the fortis et sweep through it, the humours in man are agi - albus lucidusque aer … the width whereof tated and altered. For in each of the superior was as the width of the ignis niger , and these elements there is a breath of corresponding circles were joined to make one circle which quality by which, through the power of the was thus again of width equal to the outer winds, the corresponding element (below) is two. Again, under this last circle yet another forced to revolve in the atmosphere, and in no circle, the aer tenuis , was distinguishable, other way is it moved. And by one of those which could be seen to raise itself as a cloud, winds, with the agency of sun, moon and sometimes high and light, sometimes stars, the atmosphere which tempers the depressed and dark, and to diffuse itself as it world is breathed forth. (Migne, col. 791). were throughout the whole disk…. The outer - (Cf. Figure 101.) most fiery circle perfuses the other circles with its fire, while the watery circle saturates This doctrine of the relation of the vari - them with its moisture (cf. Wisdom of ous winds to the four elements and through Solomon xix. 18 to 20). And from the extreme them to the four humours is found in the De eastern part of the disk to the extreme west a Rerum Natura of Isidore of Seville, and is line is stretched out (i.e., the equator) which separates the northern zones from the others illustrated in European manuscripts from the (Migne, cols 403 to 414) (Figure 100, Plate II, ninth century onward, but we meet it set and Figures 101, 103). forth with special definiteness in the twelfth century in the translations from Messahalah The earth lies concentrically with the aer [see below]. It is encountered also in the tenuis and its measurements are given thus: work of Herrade de Landsberg [see below]. In the midst of the aer tenuis a globe was indi - In and after the thirteenth century it had cated, the circumference of which was every - become a common -place. where equidistant from the fortis et albus Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen 69

lucidusque aer , and it was as far across as the depth of the space from the top of the highest movements of the heavenly bodies is circle to the extremity of the clouds, or from the entirely innocent of the doctrine of epicy - extremity of the clouds to the circumference of cles, but in other respects her views have the inner globe (Migne, col. 751) (Figure 100). come to resemble those, for instance, of Messahalah, one of the simplest and easi - In her earlier work, the Scivias , est writers on the sphere. Furthermore, her Hildegard apparently had not realized the conceptions have developed so as to fit in need of accounting for the independent with the Macrocosm -Microcosm scheme movements of the planets other than the which she grasped. about the year 1158. sun and moon. She had thus placed the Even in her latest work, however, her the - moon and two of the moving stars in the ory of the universe exhibits differences purus aether , and the sun and the three from the typical scholastic view, as exem - remaining moving stars in the lucidus ignis . plified for instance by Dante (Figure 100). Since these spheres were moved by the Like many mediaeval writers, winds, their contained planets would be Hildegard would have liked to imagine an subject to the same influences. In the Liber ideal state of the elemental spheres in Divinorum Operum , however, she has which the rarest, fire, was uppermost, and come to realize how independent the move - the densest, earth, undermost. Her concep - ments of the planets really are, and she tions were however disturbed by the awk - invokes a special cause for their vagaries. ward facts that water penetrated below the I looked and behold in the outer fire ( lucidus earth, and indeed sought the lowest level, ignis ) there appeared a circle which girt about the while air and not water lay immediately whole firmament from the east westward. From above the earth’s surface. Mediaeval writ - it a blast produced a movement from west to east ers adopted various devices and expended in the opposite direction to the movement of the a vast amount of ingenuity in dealing with firmament. But this blast did not give forth his breath earthward as did the other winds, but this obvious discrepancy. Hildegard instead thereof it governed the course of the plan - devotes much space and some highly ets (Migne, col. 791) (Cf. Figure 101). involved allegory, both in the Scivias and in the Liber Divinorum Operum , to the The source of the blast is represented in explanation of the difficulty, while Dante the Lucca manuscript as the head of a super - himself wrote a treatise in high scholastic natural being with a human face (Figure 101). style on this very subject. These works of These curious passages were written two mystics illustrate the essential differ - at some date after 1163, when Hildegard ence between mediaeval and modern sci - was at least 65 years old. They reveal our ence. Both writers attach a far greater prophetess attempting to revise much of demonstrative value to analogy than we her earlier theory of the universe. Note that now allow, and the reasoning of both is (a) the universe has become round; (b) almost exclusively a priori . The vast stress there is an attempt to arrange the zones on analogy and the constant use of a priori according to their density, i.e., from with - methods are the two chief elements which out inwards, fire, air (ether), water, earth; separate the scientific thought of the (c) exact measurements are given; (d) the Middle Ages from that of our own time. water zone is continued earthward so as to mingle with the central circle. In all these §3. HILDEGARD’S THEORY OF THE and other respects she has adapted her RELATION OF MACROCOSM AND opinions to the general current of mediae - MICROCOSM val science which was just beginning to be moulded by Aristotelian works translated The winds and elements of the outer from the Arabic. Her knowledge of the universe, the Macrocosm, become in 70 Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard’s later schemes intimately relat - William Harvey, Robert Boyle, and Leibnitz ed to structures and events within the body is surely worthy of attention. We may turn of man himself, the Microcosm, the being now to Hildegard’s presentation of this doc - around whom the universe centres. The trine. terms Macrocosm and Microcosm are not Hildegard’s Liber Divinorum Operum employed by her, but, in her last great opens with a remarkable and beautiful work, the Liber Divinorum Operum , she vision illustrated by a no less remarkable succeeds, in most eloquent and able fash - picture (Figure 102): ion, in synthesizing into one great whole, I saw a fair human form and the countenance centred around this doctrine, her theologi - thereof was of such beauty and brightness that cal beliefs and her physiological knowl - it had been easier to gaze upon the sun. The edge, together with her conceptions of the head thereof was girt with a golden circlet working of the human mind and of the through which appeared another face as of an aged man. From the neck of the figure on either structure of the universe. The work is thus side sprang a pinion which swept upward an epitome of the science of the time above the circlet and joined its fellow on high. viewed, however, through the distorting And where on the right the wing turned medium of this theory. In studying it the upward, was portrayed an eagle’s head with modern reader is necessarily hampered by eyes of flame, wherein appeared, as in a mirror, the lightning of the angels, while from a man’s the bizarre and visionary form into which head in the other wing the lightning of the stars the whole subject is cast. Nevertheless, the did radiate. From either shoulder another wing scheme, though complex and difficult, is reached to the knees. The figure was robed in neither incoherent nor insane, as at first brightness of the sun, while the hands held a sight it may seem. It is, in fact, a highly lamb shining with light. Beneath, the feet tram - pled a horrible black monster of revolting systematic and skilful presentment of a shape, upon the right ear of which a writhing cosmic theory which for centuries domi - serpent fixed itself (Migne, col. 741). nated scientific thought. As an explanation of the complexity of The image declares its identity in existence which thinkers of all ages have words reminiscent of the Wisdom litera - sought to bring within the range of some sim - ture or of passages in the Hermetic writ - ple formula, this theory of the essential simi - ings, but which are, in fact, partly bor - larity of Macrocosm and Microcosm held in rowed from Bernard Sylvester (see below). the Middle Ages, during the Renaissance and I am that supreme and fiery force that sends even into quite modern times, a position forth all the sparks of life. Death hath no part comparable to that of the theory of evolution in me, yet do I allot it, wherefore I am girt in our own age. If at times it passed into folly, about with wisdom as with wings. I am that fantasy, and even madness, it should be living and fiery essence of the divine sub - stance that glows in the beauty of the fields. I remembered that it also fulfilled a high pur - shine in the water, I burn in the sun and the pose. It gave a significance to the facts of moon and the stars. Mine is that mysterious nature and a formula to the naturalist, it uni - force of the invisible wind. I sustain the breath fied philosophic systems, it exercised the of all living. I breathe in the verdure and in the ingenuity of theologians, and furnished a flowers, and when the waters flow like living things, it is I. I formed those columns that convenient framework to prophecy, while it support the whole earth … I am the force that seemed to illumine history and to provide a lies hid in the winds, from me they take their key and meaning to life itself. Even now it is source, and as a man may move because he not perhaps wholly devoid of message, but as breathes, so doth a fire burn but by my blast. a phenomenon in the history of human All these live because I am in them and am of their life. I am wisdom. Mine is the blast of thought, a theory which appealed to such the thundered word by which all things were diverse scientific writers as Seneca, Albertus made. I permeate all things that they may not Magnus, Paracelsus, William Gilbert, die. I am life. (Migne, col. 743.) Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen 71

Hildegard thus supposes that the (c) The purus aether , containing the west whole universe is permeated by a single wind, the moon, the two inner planets, living spirit, the figure of the vision. This and certain fixed stars. spirit of the Macrocosm (Figure 102), the (d) The aer aquosus , containing the east Nous or “world spirit” of Hermetic and wind. Neoplatonic literature, the impersonated (e) The fortis et albus lucidusque aer , Nature, as we may perhaps render it, is in where certain other fixed stars are its turn controlled by the Godhead that per - placed. vades the form and is represented rising (f) The aer tenuis , or atmosphere, in the from its vertex as a second human face. outer part of which is the zone of the Nature, the spirit of the cosmic order, con - clouds. All these zones are represent - trols and holds in subjection the hideous ed in the accompanying plates and monster, the principle of death and disso - diagram. lution, the Hyle or primordial matter of the From all these objects, from the Neoplatonists whose chaotic and anarchic spheres of the elements, from the sun, force would shatter and destroy this fair moon, and other planets, from the four world unless fettered by a higher power. winds each with their two collaterals, from With the details of the visionary figure the fixed stars, and from the clouds, we need not delay (it is outside our pur - descend influences, indicated by lines, pose to attempt a full elucidation of towards the figure of the Microcosm Hildegard’s allegory. The eagle in the right (Figures 101 and 103 and Plate II). wing signifies the power of Divine Grace, The Microcosm is then introduced: while the human head in the left wing indi - And again I heard the voice from heaven say - cates the powers of the natural man. To the ing, “God who created all things, wrought bosom of the figure is clasped the Lamb of also man in His own image and similitude, God), but we pass to the description of the and in him He traced [signavit] all created structure of the Macrocosm itself, to which things, and He held him in such love that He destined him for the place from which the the second vision is devoted (Figure 103). fallen angel had been cast (Migne, col. 744). Here appears the same figure of the Macrocosmic spirit. But now the head and The various characters of the winds feet only are visible, and the arms are out - are expounded in a set of curious passages stretched to enclose the disk of the uni - in which the doctrine of the Macrocosm verse which conceals the body. Although and Microcosm is further mystically elab - the Macrocosm now described is consider - orated. An endeavour is made to attribute ably altered from Hildegard’s original to the winds derived from the different scheme of the universe, she yet declares quarters of heaven qualities associated that “I saw in the bosom of the form the with a number of animals ( Liber appearance of a disk of like sort to that Divinorum Operum , part i, visions 2 and which twenty -eight years before I had seen 3). The conception is illustrated and made in the vision, set forth in my book comprehensible by the miniatures in the Scivias ”(Migne, col. 751). The zones of Lucca manuscript (Plate II and Figs. 101 this disk are then described (Figure 100). and 103). They are from without inwards: An associated vision is devoted to a (a) The lucidus ignis , containing the three comparison of the organs of the human outer planets, the sixteen principal body, the Microcosm (Figure 103), to the fixed stars, and the south wind. parts of the Macrocosmic scheme. Some of (b) The ignis niger , containing the sun, these views are set forth below. the north wind, and the materials of Another vision explains the influence thunder, lightning, and hail. of the heavenly bodies and of the “superi - 72 Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen

or elements” on the power of nature as upon his legs. Beyond lies the dead body exhibited on the surface of the earth. It is of a beast on which a carrion bird has set - illustrated by a charming miniature in the tled. Lucca manuscript (Plate II). Again I saw that the moisture in the aer tenuis I saw that the upper fiery firmament was was as it were boiling above the surface of the stirred, so that as it were ashes were cast earth, awakening the force of the earth and therefrom to earth, and they produced rashes making fruits to grow (Migne, col. 807). and ulcers in men and animals and fruits. This happier scene is represented in These effects are shown in the left the left lower quadrant of Plate II. Here the upper quadrant of Plate II, where the ashes beneficent fertilizing influence is falling are seen proceeding from the lucidus ignis , on trees and herbs, and the happy hus - the “upper fiery firmament.” Two figures bandmen are reaping its results. are seen, a female semi -recumbent, who The main outline of the Liber lifts a fruit to her mouth, and a male figure Divinorum Operum , in which these visions fully recumbent, on whose legs a rash is are to be found, is borrowed from the work displayed. The trees also in this quadrant of her contemporary Bernard Sylvester of show the effects of the ashes, two of them Tours, De mundi universitate sive mega - being denuded of fruit and foliage. cosmus et Microcosmus . In this composi - Then I saw that from the ignis niger certain tion, written about 1150 by a teacher in a vapours ( Nebulae ) descended, which with - cathedral school, gods and goddesses of ered the verdure and dried up the moisture of the classical pantheon flit across the stage the fields. The purus aether, however, resisted as though the writer were a pagan. The these ashes and vapours, seeking to hold back mythology of Bernard is founded mainly these plagues. on Plato’s Timaeus . The eternal seminaria These vapours may be seen in the of created things are mentioned and the right upper quadrant of Plate II. They general line of thought is Neoplatonic. descend from the ignis niger , attenuate for Thus the anima universalis of Neoplatonic a space in the purus aether , and then writings can be identified with the Nous of descend through the other zones on to an Bernard. This principle is contrasted with arid and parched land. Here are two hus - primordial matter or Hyle . The general set - bandman; one sits forlornly clasping his ting of Hildegard’s work is quite different, axe, while the other leans disconsolately but Hildegard’s figure of the spirit of the upon his hoe. On the legs of the latter a Macrocosm is identical with Bernard’s rash may be distinguished. Nous. Hyle , on the other hand, becomes in And looking again I saw that from the fortis et Hildegard’s plan the monstrous form, the album lucidusque aer certain other clouds emblem of brute matter, on which the spir - reached the earth and infected men and beasts it of the universe tramples. with sore pestilence, so that they were sub - Hildegard’s conception of Macrocosm jected to many ills even to the death, but the and Microcosm, which was thus borrowed aer aquosus opposed that influence so that they were no hurt beyond measure. from Bernard Sylvester, has analogies also to those well -known figures illustrating the This scene is portrayed in the right supposed influence of the signs of the lower quadrant of Plate II. Here is a hus - zodiac on the different parts of the body. bandman in mortal anguish. He has gath - Such figures, with the zodiacal symbols ered his basket of fruit and now lies strick - arranged around a figure of Christ, may be en with the pestilence. His left hand is laid seen in manuscripts anterior to Hildegard on his heart, while his right hangs listless and may be traced back to pagan sources in on his thigh, pointing to tokens of plague which Hercules takes the place of Christ. Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen 73

The influence of the “Melothesia” — to in detail the structure of man’s body, the give it the name assigned by Porphyry — Microcosm, in terms of the greater uni - has been traced through its period of efflo - verse, and discussed the influence of the rescence at the Renaissance right down to heavenly bodies on terrestrial events, our own age and country, where it still Hildegard turns to the internal structure of appeals to the ignorant and foolish, and is the terrestrial sphere (Figure 94). still to be found in popular calendars and Upon the surface of the earth towards prophecies. the east stands the building which symbol - Hildegard often interprets natural izes the aedificium of the church, a events by means of a peculiarly crude form favourite conception of our authoress. This of the doctrine of the parallelism of church is surmounted by a halo, whence Macrocosm and Microcosm. Thus she tells proceed a pair of pinions which extend the us that “if the excess of waters below are shelter over a full half of the earth’s cir - drawn up to the clouds (by the judgement cumference. As for the rest of the earth’s of God in the requital of sinners), then the surface, part is within the wide -opened moisture from the aer aquosus transudes jaws of a monster, the Destroyer, and the through the fortis et albus lucidusque aer remainder is beneath the surface of the as a draught drunk transudes into the uri - ocean. Within the earth are five parts anal - nary bladder; and the same waters descend ogous, as she holds, to the five senses of in an inundation (Migne, col. 757). man. An eastern clear arc and a western Again, events in the body of man are clouded one signify respectively the excel - most naively explained on the basis of the lence of the Orient where Zion is situated, nature of the external world as she has pic - and the Cimmerian darkness of the tured it. Occidental regions over which the shadow The humours at times rage fiercely as a leop - of the dragon is cast. Centrally is a ard and again they are softened, going back - quadrate area divided into three zones wards as a crab; or they may show their diver - where the qualities of heat and cold and of sity by leaping and goring as a stag, or they a third intermediate “temperateness” ( tem - may be as a wolf in their ravening, and yet peries ) are stored. North and south of this again they may invade the body of man after the manner of both wolf and crab. Or else they are two areas where purgatory is situated. may show forth their strength unceasingly as Each is shaped like a truncated cone, and a lion, or as a serpent they may go now softly, composed also of three sectors. Souls suf - now violently, and at times they may be gen - fer the torment of flame in one section, the tle as a lamb and at times again they may torment of water in another, while in the growl as an angered bear, and at times they may partake of the nature of the lamb and of third or intermediate section lurk monsters the serpent (Migne, cols. 3, 791 to 792). and creeping things which add to the mis - (These animals will be seen represented in eries of purgatory or at times come forth to Plate II and in Figures 101 and 103) earth’s surface to plague mankind (Figure 94). These northern and southern sections The word cancer is here used, but the exhibit by their reversed arrangement the crab goes sideways, not backwards. By belief in the antipodean inversion of cli - cancer Hildegard, who had never seen the mate, an idea hinted at several times in sea, means the freshwater crayfish Astacus Hildegard’s writings, but more definitely fluviatilis , an animal common in the Rhine illustrated by a figure of Herrade de basin. It is the head of a crayfish that is fig - Landsberg (Figure 96). ured in the miniatures of the vision of the Macrocosmic schemes of the type Macrocosm in the Lucca manuscript. illustrated by the text of Hildegard and by Having completed her general survey the figures of the Lucca manuscript, had a of the Macrocosm and having investigated great vogue in mediaeval times, and were 74 Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen

passed on to later ages. Some passages in An investigation of her account reveals Hildegard’s work read curiously like the fact that she is making an independent extracts from Paracelsus (1491 to 1541), attempt to fit the anatomical knowledge of and it is not hard to find a link between her day into her favourite theory. To under - these two difficult and mystical writers. stand her results we must know something Trithemius, the teacher of Paracelsus, was of the material on which she is drawing, as abbot of Sponheim, an important settle - well as of the theory into which she is try - ment almost within sight of Hildegard’s ing to fit it. convents on the Rupertsberg and The list of works containing anatomi - Disibodenberg. Trithemius studied cal descriptions that was available to a Hildegard’s writings with great care and German writer of the twelfth century is not attached much importance to them, so that long. A perusal of them reduces her sources they may well have influenced his pupil. of information to three. One of these was The influence of mediaeval theories of the book On the Nature of Man by the relation of Macrocosm and Microcosm Constantine the African (died 1087). This is encountered among numerous book was translated by him about 1085, at Renaissance writers beside Paracelsus. But the Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino, as knowledge accumulated, the difficulty in from some unknown Arabic original. The applying the details of the theory became other anatomical work to which Hildegard ever greater. Facts were strained and muti - was able to refer was a series of five dia - lated more and more to make them fit the grams representing respectively the arteries, Procrustean bed of an outworn theory, veins, bones, nerves, and muscles (Figure which became untenable when the helio - 104). These diagrams were very widespread centric system of Copernicus, Kepler, and during the Middle Ages and were copied in Galileo replaced the geocentric and anthro - the most servile fashion for centuries. Her pocentric systems of an earlier age. The account of the structure of the body was idea of a close parallelism between the also in part derived from the work of Hugh structure of man and of the wider universe of St. Victor On the Members and Parts of was gradually abandoned by the scientific, Man . On this, however, her dependence is while among the unscientific it degenerated less direct than upon the other two. The and became little better than an insane resultant is a curious visionary system of obsession. As such it appears in the inge - anatomy, physiology, and pathology, which nious ravings of the English follower of we set forth in an abbreviated translation: Paracelsus, the Rosicrucian, Robert Fludd, The humours may pass to the liver, where who reproduced, often with fidelity, the sys - wisdom is tested, having been already tem - tems which had some novelty five centuries pered in the brain by the strength of the spirit, before his time. As a similar fantastic obses - and having absorbed its moisture so that now sion this once fruitful hypothesis still occa - it is plump, strong, and healthy. In the right of man is the liver and its great sionally appears in modern works of per - heat, so that the right is swift to act and to verted learning. work (An idea that occurs in Aristotle, Parts of Animals, ii, c. 2, but is rejected by Galen) § 4. HILDEGARD’S VIEW OF … the vessels of the liver, affected by the agi - tation of the humours, trouble the venules of THE STRUCTURE OF MAN, THE the ear of man and sometimes confound the MICROCOSM organ of hearing…. I saw also that sometimes the humours seek One of the visions of the Liber the navel, which covers the viscera as a cap, and Divinorum Operum is devoted to a holds them in, lest they be dissipated, and main - description of man’s body according to the tains their course and preserves the heat both of them and of the veins…. theory of the Macrocosm and Microcosm. Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen 75

And the same humours go to the vessels of breathe and the phlegm may pass thence into the reins and of other members, and pass in the vessels of the heart and give pain there, or their turn to the vessels of the spleen, and then the pain may pass into the side, exciting to the lungs and to the heart; and they meet the pleurisy; under such circumstances also, the viscera on the left where they are warmed by moon being in defect, the man may lapse into the lungs, but the liver warms the right -hand the falling sickness (Migne, cols. 792 -3). side of the body. And the vessels of the brain, heart, lung, liver, and other parts carry strength to the reins, whose vessels descend to the legs, Sometimes Hildegard’s visionary strengthening them; and returning along with anatomical ideas can be paralleled among the leg vessels, they unite with the virile organ her contemporaries. Thus the following or with the womb as the case may be. passage on the relationship of the planets Again, the muscles of the arms, legs, and thighs contain vessels full of humours; and to the brain is well illustrated by a diagram just as the belly has within it viscera contain - of Herrade de Landsberg. ing nourishment, so the muscles of arms, legs, From the summit of the vessel of the and thighs have both vessels and the (con - brain to the extremity of the forehead tained) humours which preserve man’s seven equal spaces can be distinguished. strength…. But when a man runs or walks quickly, the nerves about the knees and the Here the seven planets are designated, the venules in the knees become distended. And uppermost planet in the highest part, the since they are united with the vessels of the moon in front, the sun in the middle, and legs, which are numerous and intercommuni - the other planets distributed among the cated in a net -like manner, they conduct the other spaces (Figure 105). fatigue to the vessels of the liver, and thus they reach the vessels of the brain, and so send the fatigue throughout the body. § 5. BIRTH AND DEATH AND THE The humours in man are distributed in just NATURE OF THE SOUL measure. But when they affect the veins of the liver, his humidity is decreased and also the The method by which the soul enters humidity of the chest is attenuated; so that thus dried, he falls into disease of such a the body is set forth in a very striking vision nature that the phlegm is dry and toxic and in the Scivias and is illustrated in the ascends to the brain. There it produces Wiesbaden Codex by a no less remarkable headache and pain in the eyes and wasting of miniature (Figure 106). The soul, which the marrow, and thus if the moon is in default contains the element of wisdom, passes into he may develop the falling evil (epilepsy). The humidity also which is in the umbili - the infant’s body, while yet within the moth - cus is dispersed by the same humours, and er’s womb. The Wisdom of God is represent - turned into dryness and hardness, so that the ed as a four -square object, with its angles set flesh becomes ulcerated and scabby as though to the four quarters of the earth, this form he were leprous, if indeed he do not actually being the symbol of stability. From it a long become so. And the vessels of his testicles, being adversely affected by these humours, tube -like process descends into the mother’s are dried up within them; and thus, the womb. Down this there passes into the child humours being withdrawn, impetigos may a bright object, described variously as arise … and the marrow of the bones and the “spherical” and as “shapeless,” which “illu - vessels of the flesh are dried up, and so the mines the whole body,” and becomes or man becomes chronically ill, dragging out his days in languor. develops into the soul. But sometimes the humours so affect The birth scene is strikingly portrayed. breast and liver … that various foolish In the foreground lies the mother with the thoughts arise … and they ascend to the brain head and shoulders supported and the right and infect it and again descend to the stomach arm raised. In her womb is the infant in the and generate fevers there, so that the man is long sick. Yet again they vex the minor ves - position known to obstetricians as a “trans - sels of the ear with superfluity of phlegm; or verse presentation.” Around the child may with the same phlegm they infect the vessels be distinguished clear traces of the uterine of the lung, so that he coughs and can scarce membranes. Near the couch are ranged a 76 Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen

who are bitter, distressed, and oppressed of group of ten figures who carry vessels con - heart, so that they may not lift their gaze to taining the various qualities of the child. higher things (Migne, col. 421).… And often Above and to the left the Evil One may be in forgetfulness of God and by the mocking seen pouring some noxious substance into devil, a mistio is made of the man and of the one of these vessels, or perhaps abstracting woman, and the thing born therefrom is deformed, for parents who have sinned some element of good. The whole scene against me return to me crucified in their chil - suggests the familiar fairy story in which, dren (Migne, col. 424). [Compare while all bring pleasant gifts to the child’s Constantine, De humana natura , sections “De birth, there comes at last the old witch or perfectione” and “ De impeditione ”.] the ill -used relative who adds a quota of spitefulness. Hildegard thus supposes that the qual - The scene is described and expounded ities and form of a child are inherited from as follows: its parents, but that two factors, the form - Behold, I saw upon earth men carrying less soul from the Almighty and the cor - milk in earthen vessels and making cheeses rupt fluid instilled by the devil, also con - therefrom. Some was of the thick kind from tribute to the character of offspring. This is which firm cheese is made, some of the thin - the usual mediaeval view and is broadly ner sort from which more porous [ tenuis ] portrayed in the figure. cheese is made, and some was mixed with corruption (tabes) and of the sort from which The strange conception of the body bitter cheese is made. And I saw the likeness being formed from the seed as cheese is of a woman having a complete human form precipitated and curdled from milk, is within her womb. And then, by a secret dis - doubtless derived from a passage in the position of the Most High Craftsman, a fiery Book of Job : sphere having none of the lineaments of a human body possessed the heart of the form, Hast thou not poured me out as milk, And cur - and reached the brain and transfused itself dled me like cheese? through all the members…. And I saw that many circling eddies pos - Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, sessed the sphere and brought it earthward, but with ever renewed force it returned And knit me together with bones and sinews., upward and with wailing asked, “I, wanderer (Job x. 10, 11) [The Aristotelian writings also that I am, where am I ?” “In death’s shadow.” compare the transformation of the material “And where go I ?” “In the way of sinners.” humours into the child’s body with the solidi - “And what is my hope?” “That of all wander - fication of milk in the formation of cheese.] ers” (Migne, col. 415). When the body has thus taken shape there The vision is then further explained as enters into it the soul, which, though at first follows: shapeless, gradually assumes the form of its host, Those whom thou seest carrying milk in the earthly tabernacle; and at death the soul earthen vessels are in the world, men and departs through the mouth with the last breath, as women alike, having in their bodies the seed a fully developed naked human shape, to be of mankind from which are procreated the received by devils or angels as the case may be various kinds of human beings. Part is thick - (Figure 107). ened because the seed in its strength is well and truly concocted, and this produces force - During its residence in the body the ful men to whom are allotted gifts both spiri - soul plays the part usually assigned to it in tual and carnal …. And some had cheeses less the earlier mediaeval psychology. firmly curdled, for they in their feebleness Hildegard regards the brain as having three have seen imperfectly tempered, and they chambers or divisions, corresponding to the raise offspring mostly stupid, feeble, and use - less …. And some was mixed with corruption three parts of man’s nature, an idea encoun - …. for the seed in that brew cannot be rightly tered in the writings of St. Augustine. raised, it is invalid and makes misshapen men Parallel to these there are, she tells us: Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen 77

Three elements in man by which he shows was pinned to my flesh, so that while I did not life; to wit, soul ( anima ), body ( corpus ), and die, yet did I not altogether live. And through - sense ( sensus ). The soul vivifies the body and out those days I watched a procession of inspires the senses; the body attracts the soul angels innumerable who fought with Michael and reveals the senses; the senses affect the and against the Dragon and won the victory soul and allure the body. For the soul rules the … And one of them called out to me, “Eagle, body as a flame throws light into darkness, Eagle, [The eagle is frequently in mediaeval and it has two principal powers or limbs, the writings a symbol of the power of Divine intellect ( intellectus ) and the will ( voluntas ) Grace] why steepest thou? … All the eagles … For the intellect is attached to the soul as are watching thee.… Arise I for it is dawn, the arms to the body; for as the body is pro - and cat and drink” … And then the whole longed into arms with fingers and hands troop cried out with a mighty voice … “Is not attached, so the intellect is produced from the the time for passing come? Arise, maiden, soul by the operations of its various powers arise!” Instantly my body and my senses came (Migne, col. 425). back into the world; and seeing this, my daughters who were weeping around me lift - We need follow Hildegard no further ed me from the ground and placed me on my into her maze of micro -cosmology, in bed, and thus I began to get back my strength. But the affliction laid upon me did not which an essential similarity and relation - fully cease; yet was my spirit daily strength - ship is discovered between the qualities of ened.… I was yet weak of flesh, timid of the soul, the constitution of the external mind, and fearful of pain … but in my soul I cosmos, and the structure of the body, a said, “Lord, Lord, all that Thou puttest upon thought which appears as the culmination me I know to be good … for have I not earned these things from my youth up?” Yet was I of her entire system and provides the clue assured He would not permit my soul to be to the otherwise incomprehensible whole thus tortured in the future life (Migne, col. [Especially in the Liber Divinorum 110).… Thus was my body seethed as in a pat Operum , pars I, vis. iv. ] … yet gave I thanks to God, for if this afflic - tion had not been from Him I had surely not lived so long. But although I was thus tor - §6. THE PATHOLOGICAL BASIS OF tured, yet did I, in supernal vision, often THE VISIONS repeat, cry aloud, and write those things which the Holy Spirit willed to put before me. For the physical accompaniments and Three years were thus passed during phenomena of Hildegard’s visions we have which the Cherubim thus pursued me with a flaming sword … and at length my spirit three separate lines of evidence: her own revived within me and my body was restored account; the statements of her contempo - again as to its veins and marrows, and thus I rary biographers, Theodoric and Godefrid; was healed (Migne, col. 111). and the miniatures of the Wiesbaden Codex, probably prepared under her supervision. This illness of Hildegard was the It is clear that despite the length and longest and most typical but by no means activity of her life Hildegard did not enjoy the only one through which she passed. normal health. From a very early age she She describes her affliction as continuing was the subject of trances and visions, and for long periods, but there can be little from time to time she was prostrated with doubt, from her history, that during much protracted illness. of the time she was able to carry on some God punished me for a time by laying me at least of her functions as head of a reli - on a bed of sickness so that the blood was gious house. dried in my veins, the moisture in my flesh, The condition from which she was suf - and the marrow in my bones, as though the fering was clearly a functional nervous dis - spirit were about to depart from my body. In order; this is sufficiently demonstrated by this affliction I lay thirty days while my body burned as with fever, and it was thought that her repeated complete recoveries, her activ - this sickness was laid upon me for a punish - ity between the attacks, and the great age to ment. And my spirit also was ailing, and yet which she lived. At first sight the long pro - 78 Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen

ward. And they examined Him upon His cession of figures and visions suggests that throne almost as something hostile, and turn - she might have been the victim of a condi - ing from Him they sought rather the north. tion similar to that of which Jerome Cardan And suddenly they were all annihilated, being has left us so complete a personal record. turned into black coals … and cast into the But on reading the books of visions the abyss that I could see them no more ( Scivias , lib. iii, vis I; Migne, col. 565) (Frontispiece). reader will easily convince himself that we are not here dealing with a dream -state. This vision, illustrated by the beautiful The visions are indeed essentially vivid. figure of stars falling into the waves, is inter - “These visions which I saw,” she repeated - preted by her as signifying the Fall of the ly assures us, “I beheld neither in sleep, nor Angels. in dream, nor in madness, nor with my car - The concentric circles appear in nal eyes, nor with the ears of the flesh, nor numerous visions, and notably in that of in hidden places; but wakeful, alert, with the Days of the Creation of the World and the eyes of the spirit and with the inward the Fall of Man , illustrated by what is per - ears, I perceived them in open view and haps the most beautiful of all the minia - according to the will of God. And how this tures of the Wiesbaden Codex (Figure was compassed is hard indeed for human 108). It is in this concentric form that flesh to search out “ (Migne, col. 384). Hildegard most frequently pictures the Nevertheless, though the visions Almighty, and the idea again appears in the exhibit great originality and creative eleventh miniature, here reproduced in its power — the reader will often be remind - original colours, which she describes as “a ed of William Blake — all or nearly all most shining light and within it the appear - present certain characters in common. In ance of a human form of a sapphire colour all a prominent feature is a point or a group which glittered with a gentle but sparkling of points of light, which shimmer and glow” (Plate XI). Appearances of this type move, usually in a wavelike manner, and are recorded again and again. are most often interpreted as stars or flam - The type with fortification figures is ing eyes (Frontispiece). In quite a number encountered in a whole series of visions, of of cases one light, larger than the rest, which we reproduce the account and illu - exhibits a series of concentric circular fig - mination of the Zelus Dei (Plate XIII, and ures of wavering form (Plate XI); and Sedens Lucidus , Plate XII). often definite fortification figures are I looked and behold, a head of marvellous described, radiating in some cases from a form … of the colour of flame and red as fire, coloured area (Plates XII, XIII). Often the and it had a terrible human face gazing north - lights gave that impression of working, ward in great wrath. From the neck downward I boiling, or fermenting, described by so could see no further form, for the body was alto - gether concealed … but the head itself I saw, many visionaries, from Ezekiel onwards. like the bare form of a human head. Nor was it This outline of the visions Hildegard hairy like a man, not indeed after the manner of herself variously interpreted. We give a woman, but it was more like to a man than a examples from the more typical of these woman, and very awful to look upon. visions, in which the medical reader or the It had three wings of marvellous length and breadth, white as a dazzling cloud. They sufferer from migraine will, we think, eas - were not raised erect but spread apart one from ily recognize the symptoms of “scintillat - the other, and the head rose slightly above ing scotoma.” Some of the illuminations, them … and at times they would beat terribly here reproduced in their original colours, and again would be still. No word uttered the will confirm this interpretation. head, but remained altogether still, yet now and again beating with its extended wings. I saw a great star most splendid and beautiful, and with it an exceeding multitude of falling From the head extended a series of sparks which with the star followed south - fortification lines, and this peculiar form of Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen 79

vision is reproduced on several occasions §7. SOURCES OF HILDEGARD’S and variously interpreted (Plate XIII). It is SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE united with similar visions in what we regard as a reconstructed conception of In our discussion we have often exceedingly complex structure. This she referred to works consulted by Hildegard. claims to see separately, and she interprets In this section we have to consider her it as the aedificium of the city of God sources in more general terms. Her imagi - (Plate XIV). Such reconstructed visions native power and mystical tendency make are clearly of a different type and origin to an exhaustive search into the origin of her the simple group in which a shining light ideas a difficult task. Unfortunately, she or group of lights is encountered and inter - does not herself refer to any of her sources preted as a speaking figure. other than the Biblical books; to have cited Hildegard’s visions, perhaps without profane writers would have involved the exception, contain this element of a blind - abandonment of her claim that her knowl - ing or glittering light, which she interprets edge was derived by immediate inspiration in a more or less spiritual manner. We ter - from on high. Nevertheless, it is possible minate our account with the passage in to form some idea, on internal evidence, of which she sums up her experiences of it: the origin of many of her scientific con - “From my infancy up to the present time, ceptions. I being now more than seventy years of age, I The most striking point concerning the have always seen this light in my spirit and sources of Hildegard’s mystical writings is not with external eyes, nor with any thoughts negative. There is no German linguistic of my heart nor with help from the senses. But element distinguishable, and the writings my outward eyes remain open and the other corporeal senses retain their activity. The light show little or no trace of native German which I see is not located but yet is more bril - folk -lore. She claims to be a simple liant than the sun, nor can I examine its unlearned woman, unskilled in the Latin height, length, or breadth, and I name it the tongue; but with the testimony before us of “cloud of the living light.” And as sun, moon, the writings themselves, and of her use of and stars are reflected in water, so the writ - ings, sayings, virtues, and works of men shine Latin, the statement may be set down to a in it before me. And whatever I thus see in mere literary formula, accentuated by the vision the memory thereof remains long with desire to magnify the element of inspira - me. Likewise I see, hear, and understand tion. So far from her having been illiterate, almost in a moment and I set down what I we perceive that not only the form — thus learn.… But sometimes I behold within this light which might have been modified by a con - another light which I name the “Living Light temporary editor — but also the structure itself” … And when I look upon it every sad - and details of her writings betray much ness and pain vanishes from my memory, so painstaking study of the works of others. that I am again as a simple maid and not as an Hildegard lived at rather too early a old woman (Migne, col. 18). date to drink fully at that broad stream of And now that I am over seventy years old my spirit, according to the will of God, soars new knowledge that was soon to flow into upward in vision to the highest heaven and to the Europe through Paris from its reservoir in farthest stretch of the air and spreads itself Moslem Spain. Such drops from that among different peoples to regions exceeding source as may have reached her must have far from me here, and thence I can behold the trickled in either from Italy, with the works changing clouds and the mutations of all created of Constantine the African (died 1087), or things; for all these I see not with the outward eye or ear, nor do I create them from the cogita - perhaps from the Jews who had settled in tions of my heart … but within my spirit, my the Upper Rhineland. eyes being open, so that I have never suffered Her science is primarily of the usual any terror when they left me (Migne, col. 18). degenerate Greek type, of the earlier 80 Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen

Middle Ages. We may distinguish in it dis - one of the earliest to be translated into integrated fragments of Aristotle and Latin; and its contents would account for Galen, coloured and altered by the custom - the change which, as we shall see, came ary mediaeval attempts to bring theory into over Hildegard’s scientific views in her line with scriptural phraseology, though a later years. degree of independence is at times The general conception of the uni - obtained by the visionary form in which verse as a series of concentric elemental her views are set. Hildegard exhibits, like spheres had penetrated to Western Europe all mediaeval writers on science, the centuries before Hildegard’s time. Aristotelian theory of the elements, but her Nevertheless, the prophetess presents it to statement of the doctrine is illuminated by her audience as a new and striking revela - flashes of her own thoughts and is tion. There is another favourite mediaeval coloured by suggestions from St. cosmic theory, however, which she devel - Augustine, Isidore of Seville, Bernard oped along individual lines. Hildegard Sylvester, and from writings attributed to exhibits in a peculiar and original form the Boethius. doctrine of the “Macrocosm and The great translator from the Arabic, Microcosm” (see above). Hardly distin - Gerard of Cremona (1114 to 1187), was guishable in the Scivias (1141 to 1150), it her contemporary, and his labours at appears definitely in the Liber Vitae Toledo made available for Latin readers a Meritorum (1158 to 1162), in which work, vast number of scientific works which had however, it takes no very prominent place, previously circulated only among and is largely overlaid and concealed by Arabic -speaking peoples. Several of these other lines of thought. But in the Liber works, notably Messahalah’s De Orbe , and Divinorum Operum (1163 to 1170) this the Aristotelian De Caelo et Mundo , and belief is the main theme. The book is parts of the Meteorologica , which contain indeed an elaborate attempt to demonstrate material on the form of the Universe and a similarity and relationship between the on the nature of the elements, evidently nature of the Godhead, the constitution of reached the Rhineland in time to be used the universe, and the structure of man, and by Hildegard. On the subject of the form of it thus forms a valuable compendium of the earth Hildegard expressed herself defi - the science of the day viewed from the nitely as a spherist, a point of view more standpoint of this theory. widely accepted in the earlier Middle Ages From whence did she derive the theo - than is perhaps generally supposed. She ry of Macrocosm and Microcosm? In out - considers in the usual mediaeval fashion line its elements were easily accessible to that this globe of ours is surrounded by her in Isidore’s De Rerum Natura . But the celestial spheres that influence terrestrial work of Bernard Sylvester, De mundi uni - events. But while she claims that human versitate sive megacosmus et affairs are controlled, under God, by the Microcosmus , corresponds so closely both heavenly cosmos, she yet commits herself in form, in spirit, and sometimes even in to none of that more detailed astrological phraseology to the Liber Divinorum doctrine that was developing in her time, Operum , that Hildegard must have had and came to efflorescence in the following access to it. Bernard’s work can be dated centuries. In this respect she follows the between the years 1145 to 1153. This earlier and more scientific spirit of such would correspond well with the appear - writers as Messahalah, rather than the ance of his doctrines in the Liber Vitae wilder theories of her own age. The short - Meritorum (1158 to 1162) and their full ness and simplicity of Messahalah’s tract development in the Liber Divinorum on the sphere made it very popular. It was Operum (1163 to 1170). Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen 81

Another older contemporary with disharmony of the elements she picked up whom Hildegard presents points of contact from the Wisdom of Solomon and from the is the mystical writer Hugh of Saxony Pauline writings, supplemented by Isidore (1096 to 1141), head of the monastic of Seville. school of St. Victor at Paris. In Hugh’s Her figure of the Church in the Scivias writings the doctrine of the relation of reminds us irresistibly of Boethius’ vision Macrocosm and Microcosm is more veiled of the gracious feminine form of than with Bernard Sylvester. Nevertheless, Philosophy, and Boethius was very widely the symbolic universe in his work The read in Hildegard’s day. The visions of the Mystic Noah’s Ark is on the lines of punishments of Hell which Hildegard Hildegard’s belief, and presents many par - recounts in the Liber Vitae Meritorum bear allels to the visions of Hildegard. resemblance to the work of her contempo - At Hildegard’s date very complex rary Benedictine, the monk Alberic the cabalistic systems involving the doctrine younger of Monte Cassino (1101 to of Macrocosm and Microcosm were being c.1160), to whom Dante also became elaborated by the Jews, and Rabbinic mys - indebted. ticism specially flourished in her district. Hildegard repeatedly assures us that The famous traveller Benjamin of Tudela, most of her knowledge was revealed to her who visited Bingen during Hildegard’s in waking visions. Some of these, we have lifetime, tells us that he found there a con - seen, had a pathological basis and she was gregation of his people. It is clear from her a sufferer from a condition that would writings that she was familiar with Jews, nowadays probably be classified as hys - and it is possible that she may have derived tero -epilepsy. Too much stress, however, some of the very complex Macrocosmic can easily be laid on the ecstatic present - conceptions, with which her last work is ment of her scientific views. Visions, it crowded, from local Jewish students. must be remembered, were a common lit - The Alsatian Abbess, Herrade de erary device at the period. Her contempo - Landsberg (died 1195), a contemporary of rary Benedictine sister, Elizabeth of Hildegard, developed the Microcosm theo - Schönau, as well as numerous successors, ry along similar lines. A combination of as for example Gertrude of Robersdorf, circumstances thus make it probable that adopted the same frame -work for their the theory, in the form in which these writ - message. The use of the vision for this pur - ers present it, reached the Upper Rhineland pose remained popular for centuries, and somewhere about the middle or latter half we may say of these writers, as of Dante, of the twelfth century, and that it was con - that the visions gave, not the genius nor the veyed by works coloured by Neoplatonism poetic inspiration, but the form merely in and depending on Arabic sources. which they were realized. Apart from the Biblical books, the The contemporaries of Hildegard who work which made the deepest impression provide the closest analogy to her are on Hildegard was Augustine’s City of God , Elizabeth of Schönau (died 1165), whose which forms the background of a large part visions are recounted in her life by of the Scivias . Ezekiel , Daniel , and the Eckbert, and Herrade de Landsberg, Apocalypse among the Biblical books, the Abbess of Hohenburg in Alsace, the price - Gospel of Nicodemus and the Shepherd of less manuscript of whose Garden of Hermas among Apocryphal books, contain Delights was destroyed in the siege of a lurid type of vision which her own spiri - Strassburg in 1870. With Elizabeth of tual experiences enabled her to utilize, and Schönau, who lived in her neighbourhood, which fitted in well with her Microcosmic Hildegard was in frequent correspondence. doctrines. Ideas on the harmony and With Herrade she is not known to have had 82 Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen

direct communication; but the two were into the Arabian twilight. In spite of the contemporaries, lived not very far apart, extreme mystical form in which her mate - and under similar political and cultural rial is cast, we can discern the Aristotelian conditions. Elizabeth’s visions present and Neoplatonic tendencies which the new some striking analogies to those of Arabian science was conveying to Western Hildegard, while the figures of Herrade, of Europe. which copies have fortunately survived, We can perceive in Hildegard some - often suggest the illustrations of the thing of the nature of a complete and Wiesbaden or of the Lucca manuscripts of coherent philosophy, which separates her the works of Hildegard. from the ages that went before her. In fine, Hildegard presents us with the Hildegard’s, works are heralds of the dawn science of the Dark Ages just emerging of a new movement.