A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

298 michael embach
Jacobus de Guisia: Annales historiae illustrium principum Hanoniae
(composed c.1400–1414). (MGH SS 30) Hannover, 1896, pp. 44–334,
dated here as 1165, see p. 221, ll. 9–14.
Thomas Eberndorfer (1388–1464): Chronica Pontifijicum Romanorum
(composed c.1458–1464). (MGH SS Rerum Germanicarum. N.S. vol. 16).
Munich, 1994, dated here as 1148/1152, see: p. 384, ll. 9–16.
Medical and Scientifijic Works
In her Liber vite meritorum, Hildegard mentions only a single medical or
scientifijic text, the Liber subtilitatum diuersarum naturarum creaturarum.
This work, for which there is no textual evidence from the author’s lifetime,
apparently was divided between 1179 and c.1220 into two separate
texts. It is possible that the division resulted from effforts to represent Hildegard
with a more subtle profijile as a healer within the context of the
planned canonization proceedings. In any case, the Acta canonisationis
and the Pentachronon both cite two, separate works: the Liber simplicis
medicinae (Physica) and the Liber compositae medicinae (Cause et cure
[Cause]). Hildegard herself referred to the Liber subtilitatum diuersarum
as a visio, thereby elevating it to the same status as her visionary works.
In contrast to the visionary texts, no manuscripts of the scientifijic works
exist that can be closely linked with the author herself: the earliest extant
manuscripts were written in the second half of the 13th century. These
include the manuscripts in Copenhagen (Kongelike Bibliotek, Ny kgl. 90b
2° [Cause]) and Florence (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Ashb. 1323
[Physica]). Both manuscripts originated in Trier: the Cause was copied
in St Maximin’s abbey, while the Physica was created in the abbey of
Sts Eucharius and Matthias. As has already been demonstrated in the
copious transmission of the visionary texts, Trier and its important Benedictine
monasteries appear again as a powerful center for the cultivation
of Hildegard’s auctoritas.
There are, however, diffferences: the Cause contains more non-Hildegardian
material than the Physica, and the medical and scientifijic works
have a far more sparsely documented manuscript transmission. The Physica
exists in fijive complete texts and eight fragments, while the Cause is
attested in one complete and one fragmentary manuscript.32 A connection
32 Individual citations can be found in: Embach, Die Schriften Hildegards von Bingen,
pp. 307–62 and 374–85.