A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

266 debra l. stoudt
As an amulet, the sardius is used to cure insanity; God is invoked to remove
the disease from the affflicted person just as he cast the sinful angel from
heaven.78 In this form it also is employed to stimulate childbirth and is
to be rubbed on the thighs of a pregnant woman as well; in this instance
both the stone and the unborn child are called upon to lessen the pain
and ensure a successful delivery.79 In addition, it can be used to combat
pustules, fever, and jaundice; in each case the illness is adjured.80 Likewise,
topaz is used in several ways with verbal formulas, serving to cast offf
fevers as well as to incur God’s blessing.81 The magnesian stone (magnes)
is to be rubbed on the head of a person who is mad; the insanity is to be
subdued in the same manner that God used in curbing the strength of
the devil.82
Several incantations are used to battle unnatural conditions. The
cypress tree, strong and hot, has the ability to ward offf the devil: when
a person is “ensnared by the devil or by magic” (a dyabolo vel per magica
irretitus est), he should be given water that has been poured through a
piece of cypress wood through which a hole has been bored; while pouring
the water, words should be recited that beseech the water to provide
strength to the affflicted individual and “destroy the misfortunes within
him” (ut in eo destituas omnes contrarietates que in ipso sunt).83 An individual
“bewitched by delusions or by magic words” (per fantasmata aut
per magica verba vergogelit ist/bezaubert est) is aided by the jacinth, used
Sister of Wisdom, pp. 148–50. Ursula Fuchs examines the relationship of Hildegard’s lapidary
to her visionary works in “Der Stein im Rad des Kosmos. Hildegards ‘Steinbuch’ als
Verbindungsglied zwischen ‘Scivias’ und ‘De operatione Dei,’” in Hildegard von Bingen.
Prophetin durch die Zeiten, pp. 466–74.
78 Physica, 4.7, p. 239: “sicut deus primum angelum in abissum deiecit, ita insaniam
hanc de te, N, abscidat, et bonam scientiam tibi reddat.”
79 Ibid., 4.7, p. 240: “Sicut tu lapis iussione dei in primo angelo fulsisti, sic tu infans
procede fulgens homo et manens in deo,” and “Aperite vos vie et porta in apparitione illa
qua Christus deus et homo apparuit, et claustra inferni aperuit, ita et tu infans ad portam
istam exeas, absque morte tua et absque morte matris tue.”
80 Ibid., 4.7, pp. 239–40: “Ego umbestrichen te pustulam in splendore illo qui per voluntatem
dei in primo angelo fulsit, et iterum in deum refulsit, ut tu in homine isto cadas et
recedas, sicut etiam splendor lapidis huius a primo angelo propter superbiam eius cecidit.”
Much of the second formula is borrowed verbatim from the fijirst, and for jaundice the
reader is directed to use the words in the previous incantation.
81 Ibid., 4.8, p. 241: “Ego inspicio me quasi in speculo illo in quo cherubin et seraphin
deum aspiciunt, ita quod deus has febres de me abiciat,” and p. 242: “Deus qui super omnia
et in omnibus magnifijicatus est, in honore suo me non abiciat, sed in benedictione me
constituat et confijirmet.”
82 Ibid., 4.18, p. 253: “Tu furens malum cede in virtute illa qua deus virtutem de celo
ruentis dyaboli in bonitate hominis mutavit.”
83 Ibid., 3.20, p. 205.