A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

258 debra l. stoudt
of life,”39 an identifijication that complements a fundamental Hildegardian
concept of viriditas, greenness, the life-giving force central to her cosmology
and her theology.40 Despite some unusual theories and occasional
unique remedies, much of what is written in the Physica and the Cause
et cure reflects norms and common beliefs from Hildegard’s time regarding
the causes of illnesses as well as recommended therapeutic measures:
bloodletting, herbal remedies, the recitation of incantations, and the use
of magic stones.41 References in both works pertaining to regional flora
and fauna, as well as the use of words in the German vernacular, suggest
that the texts were not merely copied from other sources.42 The details
provided in the descriptions suggest that the author or compiler of these
works had fijirsthand experience cultivating, gathering, and preparing
some of the natural substances employed as remedies, and had personally
observed individuals sufffering from many of the maladies described.
The nature and extent of Hildegard’s medical knowledge and experience
are not known.43 Before taking on the duties of magistra, she may
have served as an infijirmarian to members of her religious community
as well as to its lay workers and their families; Disibodenberg had both
an infijirmary and a hospice.44 Sweet hypothesizes that the nun served as
pigmentarius, the individual responsible for the care and cure of the sick
by gathering ingredients and preparing medicines.45 The external sources
from which Hildegard gleaned her medical knowledge have likewise not
been determined. It is plausible, but unproven, that she received support
from individuals who visited the Rupertsberg over the years; one such per-
39 Cannon, “The Medicine of Hildegard of Bingen,” p. 89.
40 Victoria Sweet, “Hildegard of Bingen and the Greening of Medieval Medicine,” Bulletin
of the History of Medicine 73.3 (1999): 381–403.
41 Hildegard also discusses the magical properties of certain trees in the third book of the
Physica. See the edition by Müller and Schulze, pp. 341–42, and the examples below.
42 Regarding regional names, see Mayer-Nicolai, Arzneipflanzenindikationen gestern
und heute, especially pp. 95–104. The German vocabulary in the Physica has been examined
in detail: Dirk Schreiber, Untersuchung zum deutschen Wortschatz in der “Physica” Hildegards
von Bingen, Beiträge zur deutschen Philologie 68 (Giessen, 2002). The relationship
of German and Latin in the same work is discussed by Reiner Hildebrandt, “Latein statt
Deutsch in der ‘Physica’ Hildegards von Bingen als Reflex einer Kooperation mit ihrem
Sekretär Volmar,” in Bausteine zu einer Geschichte des weiblichen Sprachgebrauchs VII, ed.
Gisela Brandt (Stuttgart, 2006), pp. 5–16.
43 Sweet, Rooted in the Earth, explores Hildegard’s possible medical training, pp. 54–56.
44 Sweet, Rooted in the Earth, p. 50. Florence Eliza Glaze, “Medical Writer: ‘Behold the
Human Creature,’” in Voice, pp. 126–27, describes how the Rupertsberg infijirmary would
have been outfijitted.
45 Sweet, Rooted in the Earth, pp. 60–63.