Krankheitsbilder: im Liber de Plantis der Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) und im Speyerer Kraüterbuch (1456). Ein Beitrag zur medizinisch-pharmazeutischen Terminologie im Mittelalter. Vol. 1, Textband. Vol. 2, Indexband (review)

Annette Müller. Krankheitsbilder: im Liber de Plantis der Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) und im Speyerer Kraüterbuch (1456). Ein Beitrag zur medizinisch-pharmazeutischen Terminologie im Mittelalter. Vol. 1, Textband. Vol. 2, Indexband. Schriften zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, nos. 17 and 18. Hürtgenwald, Germany: Guido Pressler, 1997. Vol. 1: 239 pp. Vol. 2: 480 pp. DM 380.00.

When the history of medieval scholarship is written, the 1990s may well be labeled the Hildegardian Renaissance. Today, Hildegard of Bingen, one of the earliest women medical writers, is regarded as a holy person with an intriguing history. Globally, and most especially in the German-speaking world, her plain-speaking folk wisdom is attracting increasing attention as she is being rediscovered. Among her writings, she compiled a guide to plants that, in Annette Müller's interpretation, "offers a fullness of representations of the healing powers of plants, animals, minerals, etc. [sic], and a fullness of concepts in the areas of illness, therapy, and health" (p. 6). Because Hildegard was not a highly refined scholar by twelfth-century standards, her technical Latin was comparatively weak and her knowledge of previous medical literature comparatively limited. Much of her knowledge came directly to her via her culture. She had a distinct personality that comes through her writing and makes her all the more attractive.

Müller seeks to elucidate Hildegard's cures by a prodigious cataloging effort that uses the Speyer Herbal in Middle High German of 1456. (The Speyer Herbal is based on the German "Macer" of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which was based, in turn, on the Latin Macer herbal of the eleventh century.) She utilizes several textual versions of Hildegard: the Kaiser, 1903 edition; the Migne, 1882 editio princeps; and some manuscript readings, notably Paris, BN, MS lat. 6952. The 230 chapters of Hildegard's Liber de plantis (also known as Physica and Causae et curae) are examined with the insight provided by the Speyer Herbal's 204 alphabetically sorted chapters. The comparisons provide Müller with the opportunity to discuss in terms that relate to our period the afflictions and illnesses cataloged by Hildegard. Müller's purpose is to make Hildegard accessible to modern people. Unfortunately, she relies almost exclusively on Max Höfler's Deutsches Krankheitsname-Buch (Munich, 1899) and Dietlinde Goltz's Mittelalterliche Pharmazie und Medizin (Stuttgart, 1976), sources that are dated and less medically precise than should be expected. Also, her references are confined to those in Latin and German. Even with these limitations, however, she provides a good reference tool for medieval medical research. There are good discussions of melancholia (depression), gout, arthritis, pain, and, especially important, various women's diseases and problems, made all the more meaningful by a woman's perspective.

The first volume follows the traditional organization "from the head to the foot" and begins with "illnesses of the eye." Müller compares textual phrases, such as the Hildegard fragment in the Speyer Herbal, which has "heilt vnd klert," versus the parallel text in the Paris manuscript of Hildegard, which has "sanat et clarificat." In the index (which occupies most of volume 2), one looks under "Augen" for "eye" and sees "heilt vnd klert" with the location in the Paris manuscript, and the drug ("Drogen"), pepper, that was used to treat the eyes by healing and clearing them. The index is organized according to the affliction, with the description of the therapeutic effect, the translation in Middle German with the sources, the drug (usually a plant name in either German or Latin), and finally (but rarely) a synonym or paraphrase of the affliction. Following another example, under eyes, in volume 1 the Fehringer 1994 edition of the Speyer Herbal specifies...