This is my hand-printed 11" x 14" lino block print of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), surrounded by plants and a mineral she touted as medical treatments, her invented alphabet and model of the universe, on lovely ivory Japanese washi paper. Her writings preserve not only her own knowledge and theories but the nature of institutional medicine and folk healing of her day (which she deftly combined). While she might be best remembered today as a composer of seventy Gregorian chants and musical dramas (and as a Catholic saint, author of biblical commentaries, three books on her visions and two biographies) she is also recognized as the progenitor of natural history in German-speaking lands and authored a medical textbook and natural history text. She even invented her own script and language!
Born the tenth child in her rural Rhineland family, her religious parents raised her, intending for her to be a tithe to the church, and she entered the double-monastery at Disibodenberg at 14. Her well-respected magistra Jutta (1092-1136) became her mentor and teacher, and it is believed Hildegard was assigned to the infirmary, where she would have been responsible for, in particular for but likely not limited to, the health of the women at the monastery and adjoining community. She would also have had access to the books and knowledge of her male counterpart, who was responsible in particular for the health of the men. After Jutta's death, Hildegard was elected magistra and she lead the Disibodenberg nuns until 1148, when inspired by a vision, she moved them all to a new monastery at Rupertsberg at Bingen. She immediately began writing her medical text Causae et curae, presumably to ensure that her replacement in the infirmary had all the knowledge she would need. She lived in the new monastery until her death at 81. She was a prodigious correspondent and has been called a Medieval "Dear Abby" because of her letters to such luminaries as King Henry II of England, King Louis VII of France, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederic I Barbarossa, the Byzantine Empress Agnes of France and others. She was invited to preach at nearby cathedrals including at Cologne, Mainz and Worms. She was so respected and renowned that at age 80 she was able to simply defy the pope and he had to retract his instruction to excommunicate a man in her community.
In her time, with the exception of in Salerno, those practicing medicine were not university educated, but either working in monasteries and infirmaries or were folk healers using herbal folklore. The rise of universities actual lead to greater exclusion of women from medical practice. Hildegard's contemporary woman in medicine Trota of Salerno was formally educated in the medical school there, and is a notable exception. Hildegard developed a holistic understanding of medicine and was systematic and scientific in her approach within her Christian worldview. She is believed to have access to ancient Greco-Roman medical sources, typically available at monasteries and shared between monasteries, including the works of Hippocrates, Galen and Pendanius Dioscoride. Humorism, or the Classical humoral theory was central to medicine until the 17th century relating humors, or the vital bodily fluids: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile, according to Hipocrates, to human health and behaviour. She likely also had access to texts by pioneering Arab and Persian physicians. She would have been trained in nursing, diagnosis, prognosis, pharmacy and treatment by her monk colleague in the infirmary at Disibodenberg. She herself wrote about how the infirmarian was responsible for the infirmary garden and the "spices and medicinally active herbs," thus, she became expert at gardening and botany too. Since in addition to Latin terms, Hildegard includes German names for plants she could not name in Latin, scholars believe she also incorporated knowledge from the folk herbalist and medical tradition - and importantly, she synthesized these disparate sources of knowledge.
In fact, her philosophy of medicine was deeply influenced by her experience in the garden and she gives a special focus on "viriditas" or the greening power of plants, expanding on Galen and Hippocrates' four humors, connecting plants to human health, and viewing this greening force as also vital within the human body. She ties viriditas directly to fertility and vigor and describes it as humor that can dry up. She approaches medicine the way a gardener nurtures a garden. Her approach in all things was quite holistic, and she believed spiritual health complemented physical health. She begins her text Causae et curae with the creation of the cosmos and connects the human person as microcosm to the macrocosm of the universe. Her work documents causes of disease, sexuality, psychology, physiology, diagnosis, treatments and prognosis.
She invented her own alternate alphabet or secret code with symbols for each letter and applied it to her own Lingua ignota (Unknown Language), which consisted of 1000 invented words for a list of nouns. Scholars are divided on her intentions; was this a secret language to increase solidarity within nuns in her order, or was this intended for anyone? Modern conlangers (aficionados of constructed languages) view her as a Medieval precusor.
My portrait includes some of her prescribed treatments which we can now confirm do have medical benefits (or at least effects). Clockwise from the top, she is surrounded: by tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) which has antibacterial and toxic contents; common comfrey (Symphytum officinale) is sometimes used on the skin to treat wounds and reduce inflammation from sprains and broken bones, it roots and leaves contain allantoin, a substance that helps new skin cells grow, along with other substances that reduce inflammation and keep skin healthy; mandrake (species in the genus Mandragora, either Mandragora officinarum or Mandragora autumnalis) which contain deliriant hallucinogenic tropane alkaloids which are poisonous; sulfur for skin ailments does indeed act as a fungicide; lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) which has been shown to have some calming effects, some antibacterial properties and positive effects on indigestion; and quince (Cydonia oblonga), which while understudied, there is some early evidence that it may help prevent stomach ulcers. Above and below Hildegard is the alphabet along with her own alternate alphabet Litterae ignotae which she used for her own Lingua ignota (Unknown Language). The scroll in her hand also shows medieval musical notation to represent her compositions. Her model of the universe in illustrated on her.
