Hildegard of Bingen: Life, Medicine and Natural Knowledge

I. Life (Context, Sources, Trajectory)

A source critical outline distinguishes devotional association from canonical enclosure (1112), highlights the Trier synod (1147/48) as public legitimation, and situates the Rupertsberg foundation (1152) within monastic and property law. It traces the roles of Bernard of Clairvaux, Volmar and Guibert of Gembloux, the preaching circuits (1158–1170), the re occupation of Eibingen (1165) and the interdict (1178/79). The birthplace debate (Bermersheim vs. Niederhosenbach) remains undecidable.

II. Medicine and Natural Knowledge (C+C and Ph., Method, Language, Transmission)

Treats the corpus as a bifurcation of a Rupertsberg compilation (Liber subtilitatum) into Causae et curae and Physica. C+C integrates pathogenesis, regimen and procedures within an anthropological cosmology, while Ph. orders creation by genera; editorial layering and pragmatic bilingualism (Latin with German lemmata) explain practice oriented prose. Earliest witnesses: C+C Copenhagen + Berlin fragment; Ph. Trier fragment; later full: Florence, Wolfenbüttel, Paris (with German appendix), Rome, Brussels. Viriditas denotes operative vitality.

III. Appendix (Manuscripts, German Reception, Early Prints)

Standardises manuscript and print data: for C+C Copenhagen, the Berlin fragment and a 1438 Heidelberg attestation; for Ph. full Latin witnesses (Florence, Wolfenbüttel, Paris with German appendix, Rome, Brussels) and partial/excerpt transmission (Freiburg, Vatican Palatini, Bern, Augsburg, Trier). The 15th century German reception (Berlin mgf 817, Mainz I 525, St Florian XI 641, Moscow) evidences selective reuse with Macer/Circa instans; early prints: Strasbourg 1533 (Physica s. Hildegardis), 1544 (Experimentarius medicinae).