A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

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works in his comprehensive copies of Hildegard’s texts; however, he does
include them, with incipits, in his bibliographic compendia. Proof that
manuscript losses have to be accepted and accounted for appears in the
library catalogue written in 1372 by a certain Augustine of York, which
cites the Tractatus simplicis medicine secundum Hildeg., which is currently
missing. Another lost Liber simplicis medicinae is indicated by the catalog
of the library in Durham. A volume listed at the University Library in
Heidelberg, a Summa Hildegardis de infijirmitate causis et curis in uno volumine,
attested in 1438, is likewise missing. The famous doctor, alchemist,
astrologer, and mystic Paracelsus (Philippus Theophrastus Bombast von
Hohenheim, c.1493–1541) mentions a dream of Hildegard, but there is no
evidence as to which text or vision this remark references.33
Any influence that Hildegard’s medical texts may have exerted on academic,
university medicine is demonstrated only within a very limited
region. The medical specialists at the University of Heidelberg employed
her works, for example. Otherwise, it can be assumed that Hildegard’s
medical arts were used in the context of dietary, surgical, and practical
circumstances, albeit in a rather scattered fashion. Independent of university
applications, usage within monastic infijirmaries during the Middle
Ages can be postulated, but not described with any degree of exactitude.
This monastic use was probably both the high point and the conclusion
of the employment of Hildegard’s medical expertise.
Hildegard’s commentary on the Regula Sancti Benedicti contains a
number of medical provisions, particularly dietary ones. In addition,
there arose outside of the medical corpus an autochthonous, specialized
transmission of Hildegard’s works, which took the form of blessings and
demonic incantations. Evidence appears in the form of a blessing to stop
blood flow for Sibylle of Lausanne, which is transmitted in the Vita Hildegardis
(III.10, p. 51) and in the Epistolarium. This blessing also appears in
a German translation from the 15th century, and was then back-translated
into Latin by John Weyer (1516–1588) in his work De praestigiis daemonum,
which appeared in 1563. In the following century, a German verse
translation appeared, as well as an English translation.
33 Paracelsus, Bücher und Schriften, ed. Johannes Huber, Vol. 9 (Basel, 1591), p. 457.
“Warumb der Hildtgarten sey dieses traumpt/ vnnd eim andern ein anders: Jst die Vrsach/
warinn der Geist der Hildtgarten Liebe hatt/darinnen wird er erleucht: Also hatt die ein
Lust gehabt/ zu dienen ohn Abgötterey.” I would like to thank Prof. Urs Leo Gantenbein
(Paracelsus-Project, University of Zürich) for his kindness in providing this reference.