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YALE JOURNAL OF BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 78 (2005), pp. 57-82.Copyright © 2005. All rights reserved.

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Reprinted from From Magic to Science: Essays on the Scientific Twilight (London: ErnestBenn, 1928).

CLASSICS OF BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE

The Visions of Hildegard of Bingen

Charles Singer

London, England

§1. HILDEGARD AND HER WORKS

Hildegard of Bingen was born in1098, of noble parentage, at Böckelheim,on the River Nahe, near Sponheim.Destined from an early age to a religiouslife, she passed nearly all her days withinthe walls of Benedictine houses. She waseducated and commenced her career in theisolated convent of Disibodenberg, at thejunction of the Nahe and the Glan, whereshe rose to be abbess. In 1147 she andsome of her nuns migrated to a new con-vent on the Rupertsberg, a finely placed

site, where the smoky railway junction ofBingerbrück now mars the landscape.Between the little settlement and theimportant mediaeval town of Bingenflowed the River Nahe. The stream was,and is, here spanned by a bridge of Romanorigin, to which still clings the name of thepagan Drusus (15 B.C. to A.D. 19). At thisspot (Figure 93), a place of ancient memo-ries, secluded and yet linked to the world,our abbess passed the main portion of herlife, and here she closed her eyes in theeighty-second year of her age onSeptember 17, 1179.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Hildegard of Bingen (1089 to 1179) was a notable figure in medievalScholastic 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 Latinchurch. She devoted considerable thought to understanding the natural world and wasreputed 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 drawingsand illustrations thought to be in her own hand.

Nearly a century ago, one of the founders of modern scholarship in the history of medicineand science, Dr. Charles Singer, carefully examined the Hildegard manuscripts and offeredthe conclusion that Hildegard’s visions were most likely to be her interpretations of theauras and visual scotomata associated with migraine headaches. His paper, first publishedin 1917 (in Volume I of his Studies in the History and Method of Science) caused a minorstorm of controversy, as it attacked the supposedly divine origin of Hildegard’s visions. Thisessay was expanded, revised, and appeared in Singer’s From Magic to Science: Essayson 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 apparentthroughout this essay. Through Hildegard’s writings, he provides us with a penetratingglimpse into the rather unfamiliar scholastic thinking about the natural world that wouldsoon give way to the modernity of our own times.

Hildegard was a woman of extraordi-narily active and independent mind. Shewas not only gifted with a thoroughly effi-cient intellect, but was possessed of greatenergy and considerable literary power, andher writings cover a wide range, betrayingthe most varied activities and remarkableimaginative faculty. The most interesting ofher works are her books of visions. She wasbefore all things an ecstatic, and both of hergreat mystical works, the Scivias (writtenbetween 1141 and 1150), and the Liberdivinorum operum simplicis hominis (writ-ten between 1163 and 1170) contain pas-sages of real power and beauty. Less valu-able is her third long mystical work (thesecond in point of time), the Liber vitaemeritorum (written between 1158 and1162). She wrote an interestingmystery-play and is perhaps responsible fora collection of musical compositions, whileher life of St. Disibode, the Irish missionary(594 to 674) to whom her part of theRhineland owes its Christianity, and heraccount of St. Rupert, a local saint com-memorated in the name “Rupertsberg,”bear witness to her narrative powers, to hercapacity for systematic arrangement, and toher historical interests. Her extensive corre-spondence demonstrates the influence thatshe wielded, while certain other works byher give us glimpses of her activities ashead of a religious house.

Her biographer, the monk Theodoric,records that she also busied herself withthe treatment of the sick and credits herwith miraculous powers of healing. Someof the cited instances of this faculty, as thecuring of a love-sick maid, are but mani-festations of personal ascendancy overweaker minds. Notwithstanding herundoubted acquaintance with such feebleremains of ancient science as existed in herday, and notwithstanding the claims thathave been made for her as a pioneer of thehospital system, there is no serious evi-dence that her treatment extended beyondexorcism and prayer. There is a medicalcompilation ascribed to her, which is aninteresting relic of Dark Age medicine. Weare, however, unconvinced by the evidencethat Hildegard was its authoress.

For her time and circumstanceHildegard saw a fair amount of the world.Living on the Rhine, the highway ofWestern Germany, she was well placed forobserving the traffics and activities ofmen. She had journeyed as far north asCologne, and had traversed the easterntributary of the great river to Frankfort onthe Main and to Rothenburg on the Taube.Her own country, the basin of the Naheand the Glan, she knew intimately. Shewas in constant communication withMayence, the seat of the archbishopric inwhich Bingen was situated, and there has

58 Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen

Figure 93.The Hildegard country.

survived an extensive correspondence withthe ecclesiastics of Cologne, Speyer,Hildesheim, Treves, Bamberg, Prague,Nürenberg, Utrecht, and numerous othertowns of Germany, the Low Countries, andCentral Europe.

Hildegard’s journeys, undertaken withthe object of stimulating spiritual revival,were of the nature of religious progresses.Like those of her contemporary, St.Bernard of Clairvaux, they were in factlargely directed against the heretical andmost cruelly persecuted Cathari, anAlbigensian sect widely spread in theRhine country of the twelfth century. Injustice to her memory it is to be recalledthat she herself was ever against the shed-ding of blood. It was not an age of toler-ance, but had her less ferocious views pre-vailed, some more substantial relic thanthe groans and tears of this people mighthave reached our time, while the annals ofthe Church would have been spared thedefilement of an indelible stain.

Hildegard’s correspondence with St.Bernard, then preaching his crusade, withfour popes, Eugenius III, Anastasius IV,Adrian IV, and Alexander III, and with the

emperors Conrad and Frederic Barbarossa,brings her into the current of generalEuropean history. She comes into someslight contact with the story of England byher hortatory letters to Henry II and hisconsort Eleanor, the divorced wife ofLouis VII.

To complete a sketch of her literaryactivities, mention should be made of asecret script and language attributed to her.It is a foolishly empty device that hardlymerits the dignity of the term “mystical.” Ithas, however, exercised the ingenuity ofseveral learned philologists.

There is ample material for a fullbiography of Hildegard, and manyaccounts have appeared of her. Most ofthem are the work of men devoid of criti-cal judgement and are marked by a desirefor edification that neither adds to theirattractiveness as literature nor conduces toour assurance of their truthfulness. Itwould demand more skill than her biogra-phers have exhibited to interest a detachedreader in the minutiae of monastic disputesthat absorbed a considerable part of heractivities. Perhaps the best life of her is theearliest. It is certainly neither the most

Singer: The visions of Hildegard of Bingen 59

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

credulous nor the worst written and is byher contemporaries, the monks Godefridand Theodoric.

Hildegard was never canonized.Attempts towards that end were madeunder the Popes Gregory IX (1237),Innocent IV (1243), and John XXII (1317).Miraculous cures and other works of won-der were claimed for her, but either theywere insufficiently miraculous or insuffi-ciently attested. Those who have impartial-ly traced her life in her documents will, webelieve, agree with the verdict of theChurch. Hers was a fiery, a prophetic, inmany ways a singularly noble spirit, butshe exhibited defects of character whichprevent us from regarding her as a womanof truly saintly mind or life. From her doc-trine of Nous [see below] the orthodoxmay derive evidence of her heresy as anauthor and the pious draw comfort for herfailure to achieve canonization as a saint.

In attempting to interpret the views ofHildegard on scientific subjects, certainspecial difficulties present themselves.First is the confusion arising from the writ-ings to which her name has been erro-neously attached. From the discussionwhich follows we omit certain worksascribed to her on what seem to us inade-quate grounds. A second difficulty is dueto the receptivity of her mind, so thatviews and theories that she accepts in herearlier works become modified, altered,and developed in her later writings. A thirddifficulty, perhaps less real than the others,is the visionary and involved form inwhich her thoughts are cast. But a fourthand more vital difficulty is the attitude thatshe adopts towards phenomena in general.To this difficulty we must devote a littlespecial attention.

To Hildegard’s mind there is no dis-tinction between physical events, moral


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


Plate XII (left). Vision of the “Sedens Lucidus.” From a manuscript of Hildegard’sScivias at Wiesbaden, written at Bingen about 1180. The figure is typical of migraine. Itconsists of glittering background, here represented in gold, on which appears a very brightshimmering 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 migrainousappearances of rather different types.Plate XIII (right). Vision of the “Zelus Dei.” From a manuscript of Hildegard’s Scivias atWiesbaden, written at Bingen about 1180. This figure is a representation of a vision ofmigrainous 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 ofmigrainous vision shown in the Plate I, in Plate XI, and in Figure 108.

truths, and spiritual experiences. Thisview, which our children share with theirmediaeval ancestors, was developed butnot transformed by her visionary powers.Her fusion of internal and external uni-verse links Hildegard to a whole series ofmediaeval visionaries, culminating withDante. In Hildegard, as in her fellow-mys-tics, we find that ideas on Nature and Man,the Moral World and the MaterialUniverse, the Spheres, the Winds and theHumours, Birth and Death, on the Soul,the Resurrection of the Dead, and theNature of God, are not only interdependentbut closely interwoven. Nowadays we sep-arate our ideas into categories, scientific,ethical, theological, philosophical, and soforth, and we even esteem it a virtue toretain and restrain our thoughts within lim-its that we deliberately set for them. ToHildegard the segregation of ideas in thismanner would have been incomprehensi-ble. Such terms as parallelism or allegory

Plate XIV. “Reconstructed” Vision of“The Heavenly City” (Compare PlatesXII and XIII). From a manuscript ofHildegard’s Scivias at Wiesbaden, writtenat Bingen about 1180. Note that the visionsrepresented in Plates XII and XIII reappearhere. The other parts of the picture arerepresented separately in other miniaturesin the same manuscript.


Figure 96 (left). Scheme of the “zones” of the world, the Frigid, the Temperate, andthe 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 theElements. From a manuscript of Hildegard’s Scivias, written at Bingen about 1180.

do not cover her views of the relation of thematerial and spiritual. In her mind thematerial and spiritual are really interfused,or rather they have not yet been separated.

Therefore, although in the followingpages an attempt is made to estimate herscientific views, yet this method must, ofits nature, interpret her thought only in avery partial fashion. Hildegard presents tous scientific thought as an undifferentiatedfactor, and an attempt is here made to sep-arate it, by the artificial but not unscientif-ic process of dissection, from the organicmatrix in which it is embedded.

The interest of the works of Hildegardis greatly heightened by the existence of cer-tain early and most remarkably illuminatedmanuscripts of her visions. Some knowl-edge of the miniatures in two of these, one atWiesbaden and one at Lucca, is essential forthe understanding of her meaning.

The illuminated manuscript ofHildegard’s Scivias in the provincial libraryat Wiesbaden is a truly noble volume, inexcellent preservation and of the highestvalue for the history of mediaeval art. Itwas prepared in or near Bingen at about thetime of Hildegard’s death. Its miniatures


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 cloudsare situated in the outer part of the Aer tenuis and are formed by an extension of the Aeraquosus toward the earth.Figure 101. The Macrocosm, the Microcosm, and the Winds. From a manuscript atLucca of Hildegard’s Liber Divinorum Operum Simplicis Hominis, written about 1200.

Figure 102. Nous pervaded by theGodhead and the controlling Hyle. Froma manuscript at Lucca of Hildegard’s LiberDivinorum Operum Simplicis Hominis,written about 1200.

help greatly in the interpretation of thevisions, illustrating them often in theminutest details. In view of the great diffi-culty in visualizing much of her narrative,there can be little doubt that the preparationof these miniatures was either supervisedby the prophetess herself or under herimmediate tradition (Plate I, Plates XI toXIV, 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 themunicipal library at Lucca. It was writtenvery early in the thirteenth century. Of itsmost remarkable miniatures, some are ofspecial value for the interpretation ofHildegard’s theories on the relation ofMacrocosm and Microcosm, of which morehereafter. They represent the meaning of thetext with a convincing sureness of touch.Without the clues provided by the Luccaminiatures, many passages in the bookwould be wholly incomprehensible. It isprobable that the traditional interpretationof Hildegard’s works, thus preserved to ourtime by these miniatures and by them alone,had its origin from the mouth of theprophetess herself (Plate II, Figures 94 and101 to 103).

We have here to consider especiallyHildegard’s view of the material world, thescientific contents of her visions. These areall grouped round her theory of theMacrocosm and Microcosm. It will be con-venient to consider her views under fourheads. Firstly, her conception of the struc-ture of the Universe, the Macrocosm (§2).Secondly, the doctrine of the relation ofMacrocosm and Microcosm (§3). Thirdly,her view of the structure of the body ofMan, the Microcosm (§4). Fourthly, herview of the nature of the soul (§5).

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

To the student of mediaeval scienceHildegard’s beliefs as to the nature andstructure of the universe are among the


Figure 103. Nous pervaded by theGodhead and embracing both theMacrocosm and the Microcosm. From amanuscript at Lucca of Hildegard’s LiberDivinorum Operum Simplicis Hominis,written about 1200.

Figure 104. An anatomical drawing ofthe Thirteenth Century, representing theveins. From manuscript Ashmole 399.

most interesting that she has to impart, andhere the miniatures aid us greatly.

In the middle of Hildegard’s universeis a spherical earth. Around this arearranged a number of concentric shells orzones. The inner zones, like the earthitself, tend to be spherical. The outer zonesare, however, oval, and the outermost of allis egg-shaped, with one end prolonged andmore pointed than the other (Figure 95).

The concentric structure of the uni-verse with the earth in the middle is a com-monplace of mediaeval science. In mostmediaeval works, as for instance in Dante,the universe is, however, described asspherical. The egg-shape, as exhibited byHildegard, is unusual, but is encountered

among other mediaeval writers. Many ofthe so-called Mappaemundi exhibit thesurface of the habitable earth itself as oval,and it was probably from the misunder-standing of such charts that Hildegard andother writers gained their conception of anoval universe. In her method of orientationalso she follows the Mappaemundi, plac-ing the east at the top of the page, wherewe are accustomed to place the north.

It is unfortunate that Hildegard doesnot deal with geography in the restrictedsense, and so we are not in full possessionof her views on the antipodes, a subject ofderision to patristic and of misconceptionto scholastic writers. She does, however,vaguely refer to the inversion of seasonsand climates in the opposite hemisphere,though she confuses the issue by the adop-


Figure 105. The Microcosm fromHerrade de Landsberg’s HortusDelicarum. Over the head of the figure arewritten the names of the seven planets. Airand fire stand one on each side. Theinscription against the head may be ren-dered: “The head of the Microcosm isround like the heavenly sphere. In it aretwo eyes as the two luminaries shine theheavens and there are seven orificesadorn it like the seven heavens of harmo-ny.” Against the thorax is written: “In thechest is breath and cough like the windsand thunder.” Against the abdomen is writ-ten: “Into the belly all thing flow like riversto the sea.” By the legs stand the emblemsof Earth and Water and the analogy is sim-ilarly carried on.

Figure 106. The arrival of the soul in thebody of the infant. From a manuscript ofHildegard’s Scivias, written at Bingenabout 1180.

tion of a theory, widespread in the MiddleAges and reproduced in the DivinaCommedia, that the antipodean surface ofthe earth is uninhabitable, since it is eitherbeneath the ocean or in the mouth of theDragon (Figure 94). The nature of theantipodean inversion of climates wasclearly grasped by her contemporary,Herrade de Landsberg (Figure 96).

Hildegard’s views as to the internalstructure of the terrestrial sphere are moredifficult to follow. Her doctrine ofPurgatory and Hell is confused, but sheheld that the interior of the earth containedtwo vast spaces, shaped like truncatedcones, where punishment was meted outand whence many evil things had issue.Her whole scheme presents analogies aswell as contrasts to that of her kindred spir-it Dante (Figure 95). Hildegard, however,who died before the thirteenth century haddawned, presents us with a scheme far lessdefinite and elaborated than that of hergreat successor, who had all the stores ofthe golden age of scholasticism on whichto draw.

In Hildegard’s first diagram of theuniverse, which is of the nature of a “sec-tion,” the world, the sphaera elementorumof mediaeval writers, is diagrammaticallyrepresented as compounded of earth, air,fire, and water confusedly mixed in whather younger contemporary, Alexander ofNeckam (1157 to 1217), calls “a certainconcordant discord of the elements.” In theillustrations, the four elements have each aconventional method of representation,which appears again and again in the dif-ferent miniatures (Figures 98 to 99).

Around this world with its four ele-ments is spread the atmosphere, the aerlucidus or alba pellis, diagrammaticallyrepresented, like the earth which itenwraps, as circular. Through this albapellis no creature of earth can penetrate.Beyond are ranged in order four furthershells or zones. Each zone contains one ofthe cardinal winds, and each cardinal windis accompanied by two accessory winds,

represented, in the traditional fashion, bythe breath of supernatural beings.

Of the four outer zones the first is theaer aquosus, also round, from whichblows the east wind. In the outer part of theaer aquosus float the clouds, and accord-ing as they contract or expand or are blownaside the heavenly bodies above arerevealed or concealed.

Enwrapping the aer aquosus is thepurus aether, the widest of all the zones.The long axis of this, as of the remainingouter shells, is in the direction from east towest, thus determining the path of move-ment of the heavenly bodies. Scatteredthrough the purus aether are the constella-tions of the fixed stars and arranged alongthe long axis are the moon and the twoinner planets. From this zone blows thewest wind. The position and constitutionof this purus aether is evidently the resultof some misinterpretation of Aristotelianwritings.

The next zone, the umbrosa pellis orignis niger, is a narrow dark shell, whenceproceed the more dramatic meteorologicalevents. Here, following on the hints of theWisdom of Solomon (Chap. v) and theBook of Job (Chap. xxxviii), are situatedthe diagrammatically portrayed treasuriesof lightning and of hail. From here thetempestuous north wind bursts forth. Thepresence of this ignis niger suggests somecontact on the part of the authoress withthe teaching of the Meteorologica ofAristotle. The nature of this contact weshall consider later.

The outermost layer of all is a mass offlames, the lucidus ignis. Here are the sunand the three outer planets, and from herethe south wind pours its scorching breath(Figure 95).

The movements of the four outerzones around each other, carrying theheavenly bodies with them, are attributedto the winds in each zone. The seasonalvariations in the movements of the heaven-ly bodies, along with the recurring seasonsthemselves, are also determined by the


prevalent winds, which, acting as themotive-power upon the various zones,form a celestial parallelogram of forces. Inthis way is explained also why in springthe days lengthen and in autumn theyshorten, until in either case an equinox isreached.

I looked and behold the east and the southwind with their collaterals, moving the firma-ment by the power of their breath, caused it torevolve over the earth from east to west; andin the same way the west and north wind andtheir collaterals, receiving the impulse andprojecting their blast, thrust it back againfrom west to east.

I saw also that as the days began to length-en, the south wind and his collaterals gradual-ly raised the firmament in the southern zoneupwards towards the north, until the daysceased to grow longer. Then, when the daysbegan to shorten, the north wind with his col-laterals, shrinking from the brightness of thesun, drove the firmament back graduallysouthward until by reason of the lengtheningdays the south wind began yet again to raise itup. (Migne, cols. 789 to 791) (Figure 95).

Intimately bound up not only with hertheory of the nature and structure of the

universe but also with her beliefs as to theend of things is Hildegard’s doctrine of theelements. Before the Fall of Man thesewere arranged in a harmony, which wasdisturbed by that catastrophe (Figure 98),so that they have since remained in the stateof mingled confusion in which we alwaysencounter them on the terrestrial globe.This mistio, to use the mediaevalAristotelian term, is symbolized by theirregular manner in which the elements arerepresented in the central sphere of the dia-gram of the universe (Figure 95). Thusmingled they will remain until subjected tothe melting-pot of the Last Judgement(Figure 97), when they will emerge in anew and eternal harmony, no longer mixedas matter, but separate and pure, parts of thenew heaven and the new earth ( Figure 99).But the heavens and the earth which are now… are kept in store and reserved unto fireagainst the day of judgement and perdition ofungodly men.… But the day of the Lord willcome … in the which the heavens shall passaway with a great noise, and the elementsshall melt with fervent heat, the earth also andthe works that are therein shall be burnedup.… Nevertheless we, according to his


Figure 107. Departure and fate of thesoul. From a manuscript of Hildegard’sScivias, written at Bingen about 1180.

Figure 108. The days of creation andthe fall of man. From a manuscript ofHildegard’s Scivias, written at Bingenabout 1180.

promise, look for new heavens and a newearth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (2Peter iii, 7, 10, and 12)

So Hildegard, acting on a scripturalhint, is enabled to dematerialize her doc-trine of the after-things.

But, although since man’s fall the ele-ments have lost their order, and their harmo-ny on this terrestrial orb, yet is that harmonystill in part preserved in the celestial spheresthat encircle and surround our globe; andwater, air, earth, and fire have each theirrespective representatives in the four con-centric zones, the aer aquosus, the purusaether, the umbrosa pellis, and the lucidusignis (Figure 95). These are the “superiorelements” which still retain some at least oftheir individuality and primal purity. Fromeach of their spheres blows, as we have seen,one of the cardinal winds, and each windpartakes of the elemental character of thezone whence it issues, and has a correspond-ing influence on man’s body, since each ofthe four humours is specifically affected bythe element to which it corresponds.Then I saw that by the diverse quality of thewinds, and of the atmosphere as they in turnsweep through it, the humours in man are agi-tated and altered. For in each of the superiorelements there is a breath of correspondingquality by which, through the power of thewinds, the corresponding element (below) isforced to revolve in the atmosphere, and in noother way is it moved. And by one of thosewinds, with the agency of sun, moon andstars, the atmosphere which tempers theworld is breathed forth. (Migne, col. 791).(Cf. Figure 101.)

This doctrine of the relation of the vari-ous winds to the four elements and throughthem to the four humours is found in the DeRerum Natura of Isidore of Seville, and isillustrated in European manuscripts from theninth century onward, but we meet it setforth with special definiteness in the twelfthcentury in the translations from Messahalah[see below]. It is encountered also in thework of Herrade de Landsberg [see below].In and after the thirteenth century it hadbecome a common-place.

The description we have given of theuniverse was set forth by Hildegard in herfirst mystical work, the Scivias (1141 to1150). Subsequently she became dissatis-fied with the account she had given and,while not withdrawing it, she sought in herlater Liber Divinorum Operum (1163 to1170) so to modify the original presentmentas to bring it more into line with acceptedviews which treated the universe as a seriesof concentric spheres. Thus she writes:There appeared to me in vision a disk verylike that object which I saw twenty-eightyears ago of the form of an egg, in the thirdvision of my book Scivias. In the outer part ofthe disk there was as it were the lucidus ignis,and beneath it the circle of the ignis niger wasportrayed … and these two circles were sojoined as to be one circle.

There was thus one outer zone repre-senting the fire:Under the circle of the ignis niger there wasanother circle in the likeness of the purusaether which was of the same width as thetwo conjoined (outer) fiery circles. And belowthis circle again was the circle of the aer aqu-osus as wide as the lucidus ignis. And belowthis circle was yet another circle, the fortis etalbus lucidusque aer … the width whereofwas as the width of the ignis niger, and thesecircles were joined to make one circle whichwas thus again of width equal to the outertwo. Again, under this last circle yet anothercircle, the aer tenuis, was distinguishable,which could be seen to raise itself as a cloud,sometimes high and light, sometimesdepressed and dark, and to diffuse itself as itwere throughout the whole disk…. The outer-most fiery circle perfuses the other circleswith its fire, while the watery circle saturatesthem with its moisture (cf. Wisdom ofSolomon xix. 18 to 20). And from the extremeeastern part of the disk to the extreme west aline is stretched out (i.e., the equator) whichseparates the northern zones from the others(Migne, cols 403 to 414) (Figure 100, Plate II,and Figures 101, 103).

The earth lies concentrically with the aertenuis and its measurements are given thus:In the midst of the aer tenuis a globe was indi-cated, the circumference of which was every-where equidistant from the fortis et albus


lucidusque aer, and it was as far across as thedepth of the space from the top of the highestcircle to the extremity of the clouds, or from theextremity of the clouds to the circumference ofthe inner globe (Migne, col. 751) (Figure 100).

In her earlier work, the Scivias,Hildegard apparently had not realized theneed of accounting for the independentmovements of the planets other than thesun and moon. She had thus placed themoon and two of the moving stars in thepurus aether, and the sun and the threeremaining moving stars in the lucidus ignis.Since these spheres were moved by thewinds, their contained planets would besubject to the same influences. In the LiberDivinorum Operum, however, she hascome to realize how independent the move-ments of the planets really are, and sheinvokes a special cause for their vagaries.I looked and behold in the outer fire (lucidusignis) there appeared a circle which girt about thewhole firmament from the east westward. Fromit a blast produced a movement fromwest to eastin the opposite direction to the movement of thefirmament. But this blast did not give forth hisbreath earthward as did the other winds, butinstead thereof it governed the course of the plan-ets (Migne, col. 791) (Cf. Figure 101).

The source of the blast is represented inthe Lucca manuscript as the head of a super-natural beingwith a human face (Figure 101).

These curious passages were writtenat some date after 1163, when Hildegardwas at least 65 years old. They reveal ourprophetess attempting to revise much ofher earlier theory of the universe. Note that(a) the universe has become round; (b)there is an attempt to arrange the zonesaccording to their density, i.e., from with-out inwards, fire, air (ether), water, earth;(c) exact measurements are given; (d) thewater zone is continued earthward so as tomingle with the central circle. In all theseand other respects she has adapted heropinions to the general current of mediae-val science which was just beginning to bemoulded by Aristotelian works translatedfrom the Arabic. Her knowledge of the

movements of the heavenly bodies isentirely innocent of the doctrine of epicy-cles, but in other respects her views havecome to resemble those, for instance, ofMessahalah, one of the simplest and easi-est writers on the sphere. Furthermore, herconceptions have developed so as to fit inwith the Macrocosm-Microcosm schemewhich she grasped. about the year 1158.Even in her latest work, however, her the-ory of the universe exhibits differencesfrom the typical scholastic view, as exem-plified for instance by Dante (Figure 100).

Like many mediaeval writers,Hildegard would have liked to imagine anideal state of the elemental spheres inwhich the rarest, fire, was uppermost, andthe densest, earth, undermost. Her concep-tions were however disturbed by the awk-ward facts that water penetrated below theearth, and indeed sought the lowest level,while air and not water lay immediatelyabove the earth’s surface. Mediaeval writ-ers adopted various devices and expendeda vast amount of ingenuity in dealing withthis obvious discrepancy. Hildegarddevotes much space and some highlyinvolved allegory, both in the Scivias andin the Liber Divinorum Operum, to theexplanation of the difficulty, while Dantehimself wrote a treatise in high scholasticstyle on this very subject. These works oftwo mystics illustrate the essential differ-ence between mediaeval and modern sci-ence. Both writers attach a far greaterdemonstrative value to analogy than wenow allow, and the reasoning of both isalmost exclusively a priori. The vast stresson analogy and the constant use of a priorimethods are the two chief elements whichseparate the scientific thought of theMiddle Ages from that of our own time.

§3. HILDEGARD’S THEORY OF THERELATION OF MACROCOSM ANDMICROCOSM

The winds and elements of the outeruniverse, the Macrocosm, become in


Hildegard’s later schemes intimately relat-ed to structures and events within the bodyof man himself, the Microcosm, the beingaround whom the universe centres. Theterms Macrocosm and Microcosm are notemployed by her, but, in her last greatwork, the Liber Divinorum Operum, shesucceeds, in most eloquent and able fash-ion, in synthesizing into one great whole,centred around this doctrine, her theologi-cal beliefs and her physiological knowl-edge, together with her conceptions of theworking of the human mind and of thestructure of the universe. The work is thusan epitome of the science of the timeviewed, however, through the distortingmedium of this theory. In studying it themodern reader is necessarily hampered bythe bizarre and visionary form into whichthe whole subject is cast. Nevertheless, thescheme, though complex and difficult, isneither incoherent nor insane, as at firstsight it may seem. It is, in fact, a highlysystematic and skilful presentment of acosmic theory which for centuries domi-nated scientific thought.

As an explanation of the complexity ofexistence which thinkers of all ages havesought to bringwithin the range of some sim-ple formula, this theory of the essential simi-larity of Macrocosm and Microcosm held intheMiddleAges, during the Renaissance andeven into quite modern times, a positioncomparable to that of the theory of evolutionin our own age. If at times it passed into folly,fantasy, and even madness, it should beremembered that it also fulfilled a high pur-pose. It gave a significance to the facts ofnature and a formula to the naturalist, it uni-fied philosophic systems, it exercised theingenuity of theologians, and furnished aconvenient framework to prophecy, while itseemed to illumine history and to provide akey and meaning to life itself. Even now it isnot perhaps wholly devoid ofmessage, but asa phenomenon in the history of humanthought, a theory which appealed to suchdiverse scientific writers as Seneca, AlbertusMagnus, Paracelsus, William Gilbert,

William Harvey, Robert Boyle, and Leibnitzis surely worthy of attention. We may turnnow to Hildegard’s presentation of this doc-trine.

Hildegard’s Liber Divinorum Operumopens with a remarkable and beautifulvision illustrated by a no less remarkablepicture (Figure 102):I saw a fair human form and the countenancethereof was of such beauty and brightness thatit had been easier to gaze upon the sun. Thehead thereof was girt with a golden circletthrough which appeared another face as of anaged man. From the neck of the figure on eitherside sprang a pinion which swept upwardabove the circlet and joined its fellow on high.And where on the right the wing turnedupward, was portrayed an eagle’s head witheyes of flame, wherein appeared, as in a mirror,the lightning of the angels, while from a man’shead in the other wing the lightning of the starsdid radiate. From either shoulder another wingreached to the knees. The figure was robed inbrightness of the sun, while the hands held alamb shining with light. Beneath, the feet tram-pled a horrible black monster of revoltingshape, upon the right ear of which a writhingserpent fixed itself (Migne, col. 741).

The image declares its identity inwords reminiscent of the Wisdom litera-ture or of passages in the Hermetic writ-ings, but which are, in fact, partly bor-rowed from Bernard Sylvester (see below).I am that supreme and fiery force that sendsforth all the sparks of life. Death hath no partin me, yet do I allot it, wherefore I am girtabout with wisdom as with wings. I am thatliving and fiery essence of the divine sub-stance that glows in the beauty of the fields. Ishine in the water, I burn in the sun and themoon and the stars. Mine is that mysteriousforce of the invisible wind. I sustain the breathof all living. I breathe in the verdure and in theflowers, and when the waters flow like livingthings, it is I. I formed those columns thatsupport the whole earth … I am the force thatlies hid in the winds, from me they take theirsource, and as a man may move because hebreathes, so doth a fire burn but by my blast.All these live because I am in them and am oftheir life. I am wisdom. Mine is the blast ofthe thundered word by which all things weremade. I permeate all things that they may notdie. I am life. (Migne, col. 743.)


Hildegard thus supposes that thewhole universe is permeated by a singleliving spirit, the figure of the vision. Thisspirit of the Macrocosm (Figure 102), theNous or “world spirit” of Hermetic andNeoplatonic literature, the impersonatedNature, as we may perhaps render it, is inits turn controlled by the Godhead that per-vades the form and is represented risingfrom its vertex as a second human face.Nature, the spirit of the cosmic order, con-trols and holds in subjection the hideousmonster, the principle of death and disso-lution, the Hyle or primordial matter of theNeoplatonists whose chaotic and anarchicforce would shatter and destroy this fairworld unless fettered by a higher power.

With the details of the visionary figurewe need not delay (it is outside our pur-pose to attempt a full elucidation ofHildegard’s allegory. The eagle in the rightwing signifies the power of Divine Grace,while the human head in the left wing indi-cates the powers of the natural man. To thebosom of the figure is clasped the Lamb ofGod), but we pass to the description of thestructure of the Macrocosm itself, to whichthe second vision is devoted (Figure 103).Here appears the same figure of theMacrocosmic spirit. But now the head andfeet only are visible, and the arms are out-stretched to enclose the disk of the uni-verse which conceals the body. Althoughthe Macrocosm now described is consider-ably altered from Hildegard’s originalscheme of the universe, she yet declaresthat “I saw in the bosom of the form theappearance of a disk of like sort to thatwhich twenty-eight years before I had seenin the vision, set forth in my bookScivias”(Migne, col. 751). The zones ofthis disk are then described (Figure 100).They are from without inwards:(a) The lucidus ignis, containing the three

outer planets, the sixteen principalfixed stars, and the south wind.

(b) The ignis niger, containing the sun,the north wind, and the materials ofthunder, lightning, and hail.

(c) The purus aether, containing the westwind, the moon, the two inner planets,and certain fixed stars.

(d) The aer aquosus, containing the eastwind.

(e) The fortis et albus lucidusque aer,where certain other fixed stars areplaced.

(f) The aer tenuis, or atmosphere, in theouter part of which is the zone of theclouds. All these zones are represent-ed in the accompanying plates anddiagram.From all these objects, from the

spheres of the elements, from the sun,moon, and other planets, from the fourwinds each with their two collaterals, fromthe fixed stars, and from the clouds,descend influences, indicated by lines,towards the figure of the Microcosm(Figures 101 and 103 and Plate II).

The Microcosm is then introduced:And again I heard the voice from heaven say-ing, “God who created all things, wroughtalso man in His own image and similitude,and in him He traced [signavit] all createdthings, and He held him in such love that Hedestined him for the place from which thefallen angel had been cast (Migne, col. 744).

The various characters of the windsare expounded in a set of curious passagesin which the doctrine of the Macrocosmand Microcosm is further mystically elab-orated. An endeavour is made to attributeto the winds derived from the differentquarters of heaven qualities associatedwith a number of animals (LiberDivinorum Operum, part i, visions 2 and3). The conception is illustrated and madecomprehensible by the miniatures in theLucca manuscript (Plate II and Figs. 101and 103).

An associated vision is devoted to acomparison of the organs of the humanbody, the Microcosm (Figure 103), to theparts of the Macrocosmic scheme. Some ofthese views are set forth below.

Another vision explains the influenceof the heavenly bodies and of the “superi-


or elements” on the power of nature asexhibited on the surface of the earth. It isillustrated by a charming miniature in theLucca manuscript (Plate II).I saw that the upper fiery firmament wasstirred, so that as it were ashes were casttherefrom to earth, and they produced rashesand ulcers in men and animals and fruits.

These effects are shown in the leftupper quadrant of Plate II, where the ashesare seen proceeding from the lucidus ignis,the “upper fiery firmament.” Two figuresare seen, a female semi-recumbent, wholifts a fruit to her mouth, and a male figurefully recumbent, on whose legs a rash isdisplayed. The trees also in this quadrantshow the effects of the ashes, two of thembeing denuded of fruit and foliage.Then I saw that from the ignis niger certainvapours (Nebulae) descended, which with-ered the verdure and dried up the moisture ofthe fields. The purus aether, however, resistedthese ashes and vapours, seeking to hold backthese plagues.

These vapours may be seen in theright upper quadrant of Plate II. Theydescend from the ignis niger, attenuate fora space in the purus aether, and thendescend through the other zones on to anarid and parched land. Here are two hus-bandman; one sits forlornly clasping hisaxe, while the other leans disconsolatelyupon his hoe. On the legs of the latter arash may be distinguished.And looking again I saw that from the fortis etalbum lucidusque aer certain other cloudsreached the earth and infected men and beastswith sore pestilence, so that they were sub-jected to many ills even to the death, but theaer aquosus opposed that influence so thatthey were no hurt beyond measure.

This scene is portrayed in the rightlower quadrant of Plate II. Here is a hus-bandman in mortal anguish. He has gath-ered his basket of fruit and now lies strick-en with the pestilence. His left hand is laidon his heart, while his right hangs listlesson his thigh, pointing to tokens of plague

upon his legs. Beyond lies the dead bodyof a beast on which a carrion bird has set-tled.Again I saw that the moisture in the aer tenuiswas as it were boiling above the surface of theearth, awakening the force of the earth andmaking fruits to grow (Migne, col. 807).

This happier scene is represented inthe left lower quadrant of Plate II. Here thebeneficent fertilizing influence is fallingon trees and herbs, and the happy hus-bandmen are reaping its results.

The main outline of the LiberDivinorum Operum, in which these visionsare to be found, is borrowed from the workof her contemporary Bernard Sylvester ofTours, De mundi universitate sive mega-cosmus et Microcosmus. In this composi-tion, written about 1150 by a teacher in acathedral school, gods and goddesses ofthe classical pantheon flit across the stageas though the writer were a pagan. Themythology of Bernard is founded mainlyon Plato’s Timaeus. The eternal seminariaof created things are mentioned and thegeneral line of thought is Neoplatonic.Thus the anima universalis of Neoplatonicwritings can be identified with the Nous ofBernard. This principle is contrasted withprimordial matter or Hyle. The general set-ting of Hildegard’s work is quite different,but Hildegard’s figure of the spirit of theMacrocosm is identical with Bernard’sNous. Hyle, on the other hand, becomes inHildegard’s plan the monstrous form, theemblem of brute matter, on which the spir-it of the universe tramples.

Hildegard’s conception of Macrocosmand Microcosm, which was thus borrowedfrom Bernard Sylvester, has analogies alsoto those well-known figures illustrating thesupposed influence of the signs of thezodiac on the different parts of the body.Such figures, with the zodiacal symbolsarranged around a figure of Christ, may beseen in manuscripts anterior to Hildegardand may be traced back to pagan sources inwhich Hercules takes the place of Christ.



The influence of the “Melothesia” — togive it the name assigned by Porphyry —has been traced through its period of efflo-rescence at the Renaissance right down toour own age and country, where it stillappeals to the ignorant and foolish, and isstill to be found in popular calendars andprophecies.

Hildegard often interprets naturalevents by means of a peculiarly crude formof the doctrine of the parallelism ofMacrocosm and Microcosm. Thus she tellsus that “if the excess of waters below aredrawn up to the clouds (by the judgementof God in the requital of sinners), then themoisture from the aer aquosus transudesthrough the fortis et albus lucidusque aeras a draught drunk transudes into the uri-nary bladder; and the same waters descendin an inundation (Migne, col. 757).

Again, events in the body of man aremost naively explained on the basis of thenature of the external world as she has pic-tured it.The humours at times rage fiercely as a leop-ard and again they are softened, going back-wards as a crab; or they may show their diver-sity by leaping and goring as a stag, or theymay be as a wolf in their ravening, and yetagain they may invade the body of man afterthe manner of both wolf and crab. Or else theymay show forth their strength unceasingly asa lion, or as a serpent they may go now softly,now violently, and at times they may be gen-tle as a lamb and at times again they maygrowl as an angered bear, and at times theymay partake of the nature of the lamb and ofthe serpent (Migne, cols. 3, 791 to 792).(These animals will be seen represented inPlate II and in Figures 101 and 103)

The word cancer is here used, but thecrab goes sideways, not backwards. Bycancer Hildegard, who had never seen thesea, means the freshwater crayfish Astacusfluviatilis, an animal common in the Rhinebasin. It is the head of a crayfish that is fig-ured in the miniatures of the vision of theMacrocosm in the Lucca manuscript.

Having completed her general surveyof the Macrocosm and having investigated

in detail the structure of man’s body, theMicrocosm, in terms of the greater uni-verse, and discussed the influence of theheavenly bodies on terrestrial events,Hildegard turns to the internal structure ofthe terrestrial sphere (Figure 94).

Upon the surface of the earth towardsthe east stands the building which symbol-izes the aedificium of the church, afavourite conception of our authoress. Thischurch is surmounted by a halo, whenceproceed a pair of pinions which extend theshelter over a full half of the earth’s cir-cumference. As for the rest of the earth’ssurface, part is within the wide-openedjaws of a monster, the Destroyer, and theremainder is beneath the surface of theocean. Within the earth are five parts anal-ogous, as she holds, to the five senses ofman. An eastern clear arc and a westernclouded one signify respectively the excel-lence of the Orient where Zion is situated,and the Cimmerian darkness of theOccidental regions over which the shadowof the dragon is cast. Centrally is aquadrate area divided into three zoneswhere the qualities of heat and cold and ofa third intermediate “temperateness” (tem-peries) are stored. North and south of thisare two areas where purgatory is situated.Each is shaped like a truncated cone, andcomposed also of three sectors. Souls suf-fer the torment of flame in one section, thetorment of water in another, while in thethird or intermediate section lurk monstersand creeping things which add to the mis-eries of purgatory or at times come forth toearth’s surface to plague mankind (Figure94). These northern and southern sectionsexhibit by their reversed arrangement thebelief in the antipodean inversion of cli-mate, an idea hinted at several times inHildegard’s writings, but more definitelyillustrated by a figure of Herrade deLandsberg (Figure 96).

Macrocosmic schemes of the typeillustrated by the text of Hildegard and bythe figures of the Lucca manuscript, had agreat vogue in mediaeval times, and were

passed on to later ages. Some passages inHildegard’s work read curiously likeextracts from Paracelsus (1491 to 1541),and it is not hard to find a link betweenthese two difficult and mystical writers.Trithemius, the teacher of Paracelsus, wasabbot of Sponheim, an important settle-ment almost within sight of Hildegard’sconvents on the Rupertsberg andDisibodenberg. Trithemius studiedHildegard’s writings with great care andattached much importance to them, so thatthey may well have influenced his pupil.

The influence of mediaeval theories ofthe relation of Macrocosm and Microcosmis encountered among numerousRenaissance writers beside Paracelsus. Butas knowledge accumulated, the difficulty inapplying the details of the theory becameever greater. Facts were strained and muti-lated more and more to make them fit theProcrustean bed of an outworn theory,which became untenable when the helio-centric system of Copernicus, Kepler, andGalileo replaced the geocentric and anthro-pocentric systems of an earlier age. Theidea of a close parallelism between thestructure of man and of the wider universewas gradually abandoned by the scientific,while among the unscientific it degeneratedand became little better than an insaneobsession. As such it appears in the inge-nious ravings of the English follower ofParacelsus, the Rosicrucian, Robert Fludd,who reproduced, often with fidelity, the sys-tems which had some novelty five centuriesbefore his time.As a similar fantastic obses-sion this once fruitful hypothesis still occa-sionally appears in modern works of per-verted learning.

§ 4. HILDEGARD’S VIEW OFTHE STRUCTURE OF MAN, THEMICROCOSM

One of the visions of the LiberDivinorum Operum is devoted to adescription of man’s body according to thetheory of the Macrocosm and Microcosm.

An investigation of her account revealsthe fact that she is making an independentattempt to fit the anatomical knowledge ofher day into her favourite theory. To under-stand her results we must know somethingof the material on which she is drawing, aswell as of the theory into which she is try-ing to fit it.

The list of works containing anatomi-cal descriptions that was available to aGerman writer of the twelfth century is notlong. A perusal of them reduces her sourcesof information to three. One of these wasthe book On the Nature of Man byConstantine the African (died 1087). Thisbook was translated by him about 1085, atthe Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino,from some unknown Arabic original. Theother anatomical work to which Hildegardwas able to refer was a series of five dia-grams representing respectively the arteries,veins, bones, nerves, and muscles (Figure104). These diagrams were very widespreadduring the Middle Ages and were copied inthe most servile fashion for centuries. Heraccount of the structure of the body wasalso in part derived from the work of Hughof St. Victor On the Members and Parts ofMan. On this, however, her dependence isless direct than upon the other two. Theresultant is a curious visionary system ofanatomy, physiology, and pathology, whichwe set forth in an abbreviated translation:

The humours may pass to the liver, wherewisdom is tested, having been already tem-pered in the brain by the strength of the spirit,and having absorbed its moisture so that nowit is plump, strong, and healthy.

In the right of man is the liver and its greatheat, so that the right is swift to act and towork (An idea that occurs in Aristotle, Partsof Animals, ii, c. 2, but is rejected by Galen)… the vessels of the liver, affected by the agi-tation of the humours, trouble the venules ofthe ear of man and sometimes confound theorgan of hearing….

I saw also that sometimes the humours seekthe navel, which covers the viscera as a cap, andholds them in, lest they be dissipated, and main-tains their course and preserves the heat both ofthem and of the veins….


And the same humours go to the vessels ofthe reins and of other members, and pass intheir turn to the vessels of the spleen, and thento the lungs and to the heart; and they meet theviscera on the left where they are warmed bythe lungs, but the liver warms the right-handside of the body. And the vessels of the brain,heart, lung, liver, and other parts carry strengthto the reins, whose vessels descend to the legs,strengthening them; and returning along withthe leg vessels, they unite with the virile organor with the womb as the case may be.

Again, the muscles of the arms, legs, andthighs contain vessels full of humours; andjust as the belly has within it viscera contain-ing nourishment, so the muscles of arms, legs,and thighs have both vessels and the (con-tained) humours which preserve man’sstrength…. But when a man runs or walksquickly, the nerves about the knees and thevenules in the knees become distended. Andsince they are united with the vessels of thelegs, which are numerous and intercommuni-cated in a net-like manner, they conduct thefatigue to the vessels of the liver, and thusthey reach the vessels of the brain, and sosend the fatigue throughout the body.

The humours in man are distributed in justmeasure. But when they affect the veins of theliver, his humidity is decreased and also thehumidity of the chest is attenuated; so thatthus dried, he falls into disease of such anature that the phlegm is dry and toxic andascends to the brain. There it producesheadache and pain in the eyes and wasting ofthe marrow, and thus if the moon is in defaulthe may develop the falling evil (epilepsy).

The humidity also which is in the umbili-cus is dispersed by the same humours, andturned into dryness and hardness, so that theflesh becomes ulcerated and scabby as thoughhe were leprous, if indeed he do not actuallybecome so. And the vessels of his testicles,being adversely affected by these humours,are dried up within them; and thus, thehumours being withdrawn, impetigos mayarise … and the marrow of the bones and thevessels of the flesh are dried up, and so theman becomes chronically ill, dragging out hisdays in languor.

But sometimes the humours so affectbreast and liver … that various foolishthoughts arise … and they ascend to the brainand infect it and again descend to the stomachand generate fevers there, so that the man islong sick. Yet again they vex the minor ves-sels of the ear with superfluity of phlegm; orwith the same phlegm they infect the vesselsof the lung, so that he coughs and can scarce

breathe and the phlegm may pass thence intothe vessels of the heart and give pain there, orthe pain may pass into the side, excitingpleurisy; under such circumstances also, themoon being in defect, the man may lapse intothe falling sickness (Migne, cols. 792-3).

Sometimes Hildegard’s visionaryanatomical ideas can be paralleled amongher contemporaries. Thus the followingpassage on the relationship of the planetsto the brain is well illustrated by a diagramof Herrade de Landsberg.

From the summit of the vessel of thebrain to the extremity of the foreheadseven equal spaces can be distinguished.Here the seven planets are designated, theuppermost planet in the highest part, themoon in front, the sun in the middle, andthe other planets distributed among theother spaces (Figure 105).

§ 5. BIRTH AND DEATH AND THENATURE OF THE SOUL

The method by which the soul entersthe body is set forth in a very striking visionin the Scivias and is illustrated in theWiesbaden Codex by a no less remarkableminiature (Figure 106). The soul, whichcontains the element of wisdom, passes intothe infant’s body, while yet within the moth-er’s womb. The Wisdom of God is represent-ed as a four-square object, with its angles setto the four quarters of the earth, this formbeing the symbol of stability. From it a longtube-like process descends into the mother’swomb. Down this there passes into the childa bright object, described variously as“spherical” and as “shapeless,” which “illu-mines the whole body,” and becomes ordevelops into the soul.

The birth scene is strikingly portrayed.In the foreground lies the mother with thehead and shoulders supported and the rightarm raised. In her womb is the infant in theposition known to obstetricians as a “trans-verse presentation.” Around the child maybe distinguished clear traces of the uterinemembranes. Near the couch are ranged a


group of ten figures who carry vessels con-taining the various qualities of the child.Above and to the left the Evil One may beseen pouring some noxious substance intoone of these vessels, or perhaps abstractingsome element of good. The whole scenesuggests the familiar fairy story in which,while all bring pleasant gifts to the child’sbirth, there comes at last the old witch orthe ill-used relative who adds a quota ofspitefulness.

The scene is described and expoundedas follows:

Behold, I saw upon earth men carryingmilk in earthen vessels and making cheesestherefrom. Some was of the thick kind fromwhich firm cheese is made, some of the thin-ner sort from which more porous [tenuis]cheese is made, and some was mixed withcorruption (tabes) and of the sort from whichbitter cheese is made. And I saw the likenessof a woman having a complete human formwithin her womb. And then, by a secret dis-position of the Most High Craftsman, a fierysphere having none of the lineaments of ahuman body possessed the heart of the form,and reached the brain and transfused itselfthrough all the members….

And I saw that many circling eddies pos-sessed the sphere and brought it earthward,but with ever renewed force it returnedupward and with wailing asked, “I, wandererthat I am, where am I ?” “In death’s shadow.”“And where go I ?” “In the way of sinners.”“And what is my hope?” “That of all wander-ers” (Migne, col. 415).

The vision is then further explained asfollows:Those whom thou seest carrying milk inearthen vessels are in the world, men andwomen alike, having in their bodies the seedof mankind from which are procreated thevarious kinds of human beings. Part is thick-ened because the seed in its strength is welland truly concocted, and this produces force-ful men to whom are allotted gifts both spiri-tual and carnal …. And some had cheeses lessfirmly curdled, for they in their feeblenesshave seen imperfectly tempered, and theyraise offspring mostly stupid, feeble, and use-less …. And some was mixed with corruption…. for the seed in that brew cannot be rightlyraised, it is invalid and makes misshapen men

who are bitter, distressed, and oppressed ofheart, so that they may not lift their gaze tohigher things (Migne, col. 421).… And oftenin forgetfulness of God and by the mockingdevil, a mistio is made of the man and of thewoman, and the thing born therefrom isdeformed, for parents who have sinnedagainst me return to me crucified in their chil-dren (Migne, col. 424). [CompareConstantine,De humana natura, sections “Deperfectione” and “De impeditione”.]

Hildegard thus supposes that the qual-ities and form of a child are inherited fromits parents, but that two factors, the form-less soul from the Almighty and the cor-rupt fluid instilled by the devil, also con-tribute to the character of offspring. This isthe usual mediaeval view and is broadlyportrayed in the figure.

The strange conception of the bodybeing formed from the seed as cheese isprecipitated and curdled from milk, isdoubtless derived from a passage in theBook of Job:Hast thou not poured me out as milk, And cur-dled me like cheese?

Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh,

And knit me together with bones and sinews.,(Job x. 10, 11) [The Aristotelian writings alsocompare the transformation of the materialhumours into the child’s body with the solidi-fication of milk in the formation of cheese.]

When the body has thus taken shape thereenters into it the soul, which, though at firstshapeless,graduallyassumes the formof itshost,the earthly tabernacle; and at death the souldeparts through themouthwith the lastbreath, asa fully developed naked human shape, to bereceived by devils or angels as the case may be(Figure 107).

During its residence in the body thesoul plays the part usually assigned to it inthe earlier mediaeval psychology.Hildegard regards the brain as having threechambers or divisions, corresponding to thethree parts of man’s nature, an idea encoun-tered in the writings of St. Augustine.Parallel to these there are, she tells us:


Three elements in man by which he showslife; to wit, soul (anima), body (corpus), andsense (sensus). The soul vivifies the body andinspires the senses; the body attracts the souland reveals the senses; the senses affect thesoul and allure the body. For the soul rules thebody as a flame throws light into darkness,and it has two principal powers or limbs, theintellect (intellectus) and the will (voluntas)… For the intellect is attached to the soul asthe arms to the body; for as the body is pro-longed into arms with fingers and handsattached, so the intellect is produced from thesoul by the operations of its various powers(Migne, col. 425).

We need follow Hildegard no furtherinto her maze of micro-cosmology, inwhich an essential similarity and relation-ship is discovered between the qualities ofthe soul, the constitution of the externalcosmos, and the structure of the body, athought which appears as the culminationof her entire system and provides the clueto the otherwise incomprehensible whole[Especially in the Liber DivinorumOperum, pars I, vis. iv. ]

§6. THE PATHOLOGICAL BASIS OFTHE VISIONS

For the physical accompaniments andphenomena of Hildegard’s visions we havethree separate lines of evidence: her ownaccount; the statements of her contempo-rary biographers, Theodoric and Godefrid;and the miniatures of theWiesbaden Codex,probably prepared under her supervision.

It is clear that despite the length andactivity of her life Hildegard did not enjoynormal health. From a very early age shewas the subject of trances and visions, andfrom time to time she was prostrated withprotracted illness.

God punished me for a time by laying meon a bed of sickness so that the blood wasdried in my veins, the moisture in my flesh,and the marrow in my bones, as though thespirit were about to depart from my body. Inthis affliction I lay thirty days while my bodyburned as with fever, and it was thought thatthis sickness was laid upon me for a punish-ment. And my spirit also was ailing, and yet

was pinned to my flesh, so that while I did notdie, yet did I not altogether live. And through-out those days I watched a procession ofangels innumerable who fought with Michaeland against the Dragon and won the victory… And one of them called out to me, “Eagle,Eagle, [The eagle is frequently in mediaevalwritings a symbol of the power of DivineGrace] why steepest thou? … All the eaglesare watching thee.… Arise I for it is dawn,and cat and drink” … And then the wholetroop cried out with a mighty voice … “Is notthe time for passing come? Arise, maiden,arise!” Instantly my body and my senses cameback into the world; and seeing this, mydaughters who were weeping around me lift-ed me from the ground and placed me on mybed, and thus I began to get back my strength.

But the affliction laid upon me did notfully cease; yet was my spirit daily strength-ened.… I was yet weak of flesh, timid ofmind, and fearful of pain … but in my soul Isaid, “Lord, Lord, all that Thou puttest uponme I know to be good … for have I not earnedthese things from my youth up?” Yet was Iassured He would not permit my soul to bethus tortured in the future life (Migne, col.110).… Thus was my body seethed as in a pat… yet gave I thanks to God, for if this afflic-tion had not been from Him I had surely notlived so long. But although I was thus tor-tured, yet did I, in supernal vision, oftenrepeat, cry aloud, and write those thingswhich the Holy Spirit willed to put before me.

Three years were thus passed duringwhich the Cherubim thus pursued me with aflaming sword … and at length my spiritrevived within me and my body was restoredagain as to its veins and marrows, and thus Iwas healed (Migne, col. 111).

This illness of Hildegard was thelongest and most typical but by no meansthe only one through which she passed.She describes her affliction as continuingfor long periods, but there can be littledoubt, from her history, that during muchof the time she was able to carry on someat least of her functions as head of a reli-gious house.

The condition from which she was suf-fering was clearly a functional nervous dis-order; this is sufficiently demonstrated byher repeated complete recoveries, her activ-ity between the attacks, and the great age towhich she lived. At first sight the long pro-


cession of figures and visions suggests thatshe might have been the victim of a condi-tion similar to that of which Jerome Cardanhas left us so complete a personal record.But on reading the books of visions thereader will easily convince himself that weare not here dealing with a dream-state.The visions are indeed essentially vivid.“These visions which I saw,” she repeated-ly assures us, “I beheld neither in sleep, norin dream, nor in madness, nor with my car-nal eyes, nor with the ears of the flesh, norin hidden places; but wakeful, alert, withthe eyes of the spirit and with the inwardears, I perceived them in open view andaccording to the will of God. And how thiswas compassed is hard indeed for humanflesh to search out “ (Migne, col. 384).

Nevertheless, though the visionsexhibit great originality and creativepower — the reader will often be remind-ed of William Blake — all or nearly allpresent certain characters in common. Inall a prominent feature is a point or a groupof points of light, which shimmer andmove, usually in a wavelike manner, andare most often interpreted as stars or flam-ing eyes (Frontispiece). In quite a numberof cases one light, larger than the rest,exhibits a series of concentric circular fig-ures of wavering form (Plate XI); andoften definite fortification figures aredescribed, radiating in some cases from acoloured area (Plates XII, XIII). Often thelights gave that impression of working,boiling, or fermenting, described by somany visionaries, from Ezekiel onwards.

This outline of the visions Hildegardherself variously interpreted. We giveexamples from the more typical of thesevisions, in which the medical reader or thesufferer from migraine will, we think, eas-ily recognize the symptoms of “scintillat-ing scotoma.” Some of the illuminations,here reproduced in their original colours,will confirm this interpretation.I saw a great star most splendid and beautiful,and with it an exceeding multitude of fallingsparks which with the star followed south-

ward. And they examined Him upon Histhrone almost as something hostile, and turn-ing from Him they sought rather the north.And suddenly they were all annihilated, beingturned into black coals … and cast into theabyss that I could see them no more (Scivias,lib. iii, vis I; Migne, col. 565) (Frontispiece).

This vision, illustrated by the beautifulfigure of stars falling into the waves, is inter-preted by her as signifying the Fall of theAngels.

The concentric circles appear innumerous visions, and notably in that ofthe Days of the Creation of the World andthe Fall of Man, illustrated by what is per-haps the most beautiful of all the minia-tures of the Wiesbaden Codex (Figure108). It is in this concentric form thatHildegard most frequently pictures theAlmighty, and the idea again appears in theeleventh miniature, here reproduced in itsoriginal colours, which she describes as “amost shining light and within it the appear-ance of a human form of a sapphire colourwhich glittered with a gentle but sparklingglow” (Plate XI). Appearances of this typeare recorded again and again.

The type with fortification figures isencountered in a whole series of visions, ofwhich we reproduce the account and illu-mination of the Zelus Dei (Plate XIII, andSedens Lucidus, Plate XII).

I looked and behold, a head of marvellousform … of the colour of flame and red as fire,and it had a terrible human face gazing north-ward in great wrath. From the neck downward Icould see no further form, for the body was alto-gether concealed … but the head itself I saw,like the bare form of a human head. Nor was ithairy like a man, not indeed after the manner ofa woman, but it was more like to a man than awoman, and very awful to look upon.

It had three wings of marvellous lengthand breadth, white as a dazzling cloud. Theywere not raised erect but spread apart one fromthe other, and the head rose slightly abovethem … and at times they would beat terriblyand again would be still. No word uttered thehead, but remained altogether still, yet nowand again beating with its extended wings.

From the head extended a series offortification lines, and this peculiar form of


vision is reproduced on several occasionsand variously interpreted (Plate XIII). It isunited with similar visions in what weregard as a reconstructed conception ofexceedingly complex structure. This sheclaims to see separately, and she interpretsit as the aedificium of the city of God(Plate XIV). Such reconstructed visionsare clearly of a different type and origin tothe simple group in which a shining lightor group of lights is encountered and inter-preted as a speaking figure.

Hildegard’s visions, perhaps withoutexception, contain this element of a blind-ing or glittering light, which she interpretsin a more or less spiritual manner. We ter-minate our account with the passage inwhich she sums up her experiences of it:

“From my infancy up to the present time,I being now more than seventy years of age, Ihave always seen this light in my spirit andnot with external eyes, nor with any thoughtsof my heart nor with help from the senses. Butmy outward eyes remain open and the othercorporeal senses retain their activity. The lightwhich I see is not located but yet is more bril-liant than the sun, nor can I examine itsheight, length, or breadth, and I name it the“cloud of the living light.” And as sun, moon,and stars are reflected in water, so the writ-ings, sayings, virtues, and works of men shinein it before me. And whatever I thus see invision the memory thereof remains long withme. Likewise I see, hear, and understandalmost in a moment and I set down what Ithus learn.…

But sometimes I behold within this lightanother light which I name the “Living Lightitself” … And when I look upon it every sad-ness and pain vanishes from my memory, sothat I am again as a simple maid and not as anold woman (Migne, col. 18).

And now that I am over seventy years oldmy spirit, according to the will of God, soarsupward in vision to the highest heaven and to thefarthest stretch of the air and spreads itselfamong different peoples to regions exceedingfar from me here, and thence I can behold thechanging clouds and the mutations of all createdthings; for all these I see not with the outwardeye or ear, nor do I create them from the cogita-tions of my heart … but within my spirit, myeyes being open, so that I have never sufferedany terror when they left me (Migne, col. 18).

§7. SOURCES OF HILDEGARD’SSCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

In our discussion we have oftenreferred to works consulted by Hildegard.In this section we have to consider hersources in more general terms. Her imagi-native power and mystical tendency makean exhaustive search into the origin of herideas a difficult task. Unfortunately, shedoes not herself refer to any of her sourcesother than the Biblical books; to have citedprofane writers would have involved theabandonment of her claim that her knowl-edge was derived by immediate inspirationfrom on high. Nevertheless, it is possibleto form some idea, on internal evidence, ofthe origin of many of her scientific con-ceptions.

The most striking point concerning thesources of Hildegard’s mystical writings isnegative. There is no German linguisticelement distinguishable, and the writingsshow little or no trace of native Germanfolk-lore. She claims to be a simpleunlearned woman, unskilled in the Latintongue; but with the testimony before us ofthe writings themselves, and of her use ofLatin, the statement may be set down to amere literary formula, accentuated by thedesire to magnify the element of inspira-tion. So far from her having been illiterate,we perceive that not only the form —which might have been modified by a con-temporary editor — but also the structureand details of her writings betray muchpainstaking study of the works of others.

Hildegard lived at rather too early adate to drink fully at that broad stream ofnew knowledge that was soon to flow intoEurope through Paris from its reservoir inMoslem Spain. Such drops from thatsource as may have reached her must havetrickled in either from Italy, with the worksof Constantine the African (died 1087), orperhaps from the Jews who had settled inthe Upper Rhineland.

Her science is primarily of the usualdegenerate Greek type, of the earlier


Middle Ages. We may distinguish in it dis-integrated fragments of Aristotle andGalen, coloured and altered by the custom-ary mediaeval attempts to bring theory intoline with scriptural phraseology, though adegree of independence is at timesobtained by the visionary form in whichher views are set. Hildegard exhibits, likeall mediaeval writers on science, theAristotelian theory of the elements, but herstatement of the doctrine is illuminated byflashes of her own thoughts and iscoloured by suggestions from St.Augustine, Isidore of Seville, BernardSylvester, and from writings attributed toBoethius.

The great translator from the Arabic,Gerard of Cremona (1114 to 1187), washer contemporary, and his labours atToledo made available for Latin readers avast number of scientific works which hadpreviously circulated only amongArabic-speaking peoples. Several of theseworks, notably Messahalah’s De Orbe, andthe Aristotelian De Caelo et Mundo, andparts of the Meteorologica, which containmaterial on the form of the Universe andon the nature of the elements, evidentlyreached the Rhineland in time to be usedby Hildegard. On the subject of the form ofthe earth Hildegard expressed herself defi-nitely as a spherist, a point of view morewidely accepted in the earlier Middle Agesthan is perhaps generally supposed. Sheconsiders in the usual mediaeval fashionthat this globe of ours is surrounded bycelestial spheres that influence terrestrialevents. But while she claims that humanaffairs are controlled, under God, by theheavenly cosmos, she yet commits herselfto none of that more detailed astrologicaldoctrine that was developing in her time,and came to efflorescence in the followingcenturies. In this respect she follows theearlier and more scientific spirit of suchwriters as Messahalah, rather than thewilder theories of her own age. The short-ness and simplicity of Messahalah’s tracton the sphere made it very popular. It was

one of the earliest to be translated intoLatin; and its contents would account forthe change which, as we shall see, cameover Hildegard’s scientific views in herlater years.

The general conception of the uni-verse as a series of concentric elementalspheres had penetrated to Western Europecenturies before Hildegard’s time.Nevertheless, the prophetess presents it toher audience as a new and striking revela-tion. There is another favourite mediaevalcosmic theory, however, which she devel-oped along individual lines. Hildegardexhibits in a peculiar and original form thedoctrine of the “Macrocosm andMicrocosm” (see above). Hardly distin-guishable in the Scivias (1141 to 1150), itappears definitely in the Liber VitaeMeritorum (1158 to 1162), in which work,however, it takes no very prominent place,and is largely overlaid and concealed byother lines of thought. But in the LiberDivinorum Operum (1163 to 1170) thisbelief is the main theme. The book isindeed an elaborate attempt to demonstratea similarity and relationship between thenature of the Godhead, the constitution ofthe universe, and the structure of man, andit thus forms a valuable compendium ofthe science of the day viewed from thestandpoint of this theory.

From whence did she derive the theo-ry of Macrocosm and Microcosm? In out-line its elements were easily accessible toher in Isidore’s De Rerum Natura. But thework of Bernard Sylvester, De mundi uni-versitate sive megacosmus etMicrocosmus, corresponds so closely bothin form, in spirit, and sometimes even inphraseology to the Liber DivinorumOperum, that Hildegard must have hadaccess to it. Bernard’s work can be datedbetween the years 1145 to 1153. Thiswould correspond well with the appear-ance of his doctrines in the Liber VitaeMeritorum (1158 to 1162) and their fulldevelopment in the Liber DivinorumOperum (1163 to 1170).


Another older contemporary withwhom Hildegard presents points of contactis the mystical writer Hugh of Saxony(1096 to 1141), head of the monasticschool of St. Victor at Paris. In Hugh’swritings the doctrine of the relation ofMacrocosm and Microcosm is more veiledthan with Bernard Sylvester. Nevertheless,the symbolic universe in his work TheMystic Noah’s Ark is on the lines ofHildegard’s belief, and presents many par-allels to the visions of Hildegard.

At Hildegard’s date very complexcabalistic systems involving the doctrineof Macrocosm and Microcosm were beingelaborated by the Jews, and Rabbinic mys-ticism specially flourished in her district.The famous traveller Benjamin of Tudela,who visited Bingen during Hildegard’slifetime, tells us that he found there a con-gregation of his people. It is clear from herwritings that she was familiar with Jews,and it is possible that she may have derivedsome of the very complex Macrocosmicconceptions, with which her last work iscrowded, from local Jewish students.

The Alsatian Abbess, Herrade deLandsberg (died 1195), a contemporary ofHildegard, developed the Microcosm theo-ry along similar lines. A combination ofcircumstances thus make it probable thatthe theory, in the form in which these writ-ers present it, reached the Upper Rhinelandsomewhere about the middle or latter halfof the twelfth century, and that it was con-veyed by works coloured by Neoplatonismand depending on Arabic sources.

Apart from the Biblical books, thework which made the deepest impressionon Hildegard was Augustine’s City of God,which forms the background of a large partof the Scivias. Ezekiel, Daniel, and theApocalypse among the Biblical books, theGospel of Nicodemus and the Shepherd ofHermas among Apocryphal books, containa lurid type of vision which her own spiri-tual experiences enabled her to utilize, andwhich fitted in well with her Microcosmicdoctrines. Ideas on the harmony and

disharmony of the elements she picked upfrom the Wisdom of Solomon and from thePauline writings, supplemented by Isidoreof Seville.

Her figure of the Church in the Sciviasreminds us irresistibly of Boethius’ visionof the gracious feminine form ofPhilosophy, and Boethius was very widelyread in Hildegard’s day. The visions of thepunishments of Hell which Hildegardrecounts in the Liber Vitae Meritorum bearresemblance to the work of her contempo-rary Benedictine, the monk Alberic theyounger of Monte Cassino (1101 toc.1160), to whom Dante also becameindebted.

Hildegard repeatedly assures us thatmost of her knowledge was revealed to herin waking visions. Some of these, we haveseen, had a pathological basis and she wasa sufferer from a condition that wouldnowadays probably be classified as hys-tero-epilepsy. Too much stress, however,can easily be laid on the ecstatic present-ment of her scientific views. Visions, itmust be remembered, were a common lit-erary device at the period. Her contempo-rary Benedictine sister, Elizabeth ofSchönau, as well as numerous successors,as for example Gertrude of Robersdorf,adopted the same frame-work for theirmessage. The use of the vision for this pur-pose remained popular for centuries, andwe may say of these writers, as of Dante,that the visions gave, not the genius nor thepoetic inspiration, but the form merely inwhich they were realized.

The contemporaries of Hildegard whoprovide the closest analogy to her areElizabeth of Schönau (died 1165), whosevisions are recounted in her life byEckbert, and Herrade de Landsberg,Abbess of Hohenburg in Alsace, the price-less manuscript of whose Garden ofDelights was destroyed in the siege ofStrassburg in 1870. With Elizabeth ofSchönau, who lived in her neighbourhood,Hildegard was in frequent correspondence.With Herrade she is not known to have had


direct communication; but the two werecontemporaries, lived not very far apart,and under similar political and culturalconditions. Elizabeth’s visions presentsome striking analogies to those ofHildegard, while the figures of Herrade, ofwhich copies have fortunately survived,often suggest the illustrations of theWiesbaden or of the Lucca manuscripts ofthe works of Hildegard.

In fine, Hildegard presents us with thescience of the Dark Ages just emerging

into the Arabian twilight. In spite of theextreme mystical form in which her mate-rial is cast, we can discern the Aristotelianand Neoplatonic tendencies which the newArabian science was conveying to WesternEurope.

We can perceive in Hildegard some-thing of the nature of a complete andcoherent philosophy, which separates herfrom the ages that went before her.Hildegard’s, works are heralds of the dawnof a new movement.


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