The Garden of Delights: Reform and Renaissance for Women in the Twelfth Century (review)

By compiling the Hortus deliciarum, Herrad of Landsberg, abbess of the Augustinian community of Hohenbourg (Ste. Odile) in Alsace in the late-twelfth century, created one of the most complex medieval teaching books—a work that provided instruction on faith, theology, biblical history, ecclesiastical matters, canon law, and nature through words, images, and music. Today, the illuminated and glossed manuscript that was destroyed by fire in 1870 can be reconstructed only from tracings from the original.

Griffiths’s examination of the Hortus deliciarum aims at “a new reading” (p. 9) of renaissance and reform in the twelfth century. According to her, monastic women’s active engagement both in the intellectual developments and in the reform movement during the period have not been sufficiently appreciated. As a monument of female authorship the Hortus deliciarum seems to be particularly suitable for Griffiths’s project of reevaluation. Her study presents a meticulous analysis of the manuscript regarding its production, contents, structure, the functions, and reception. A vivid picture is painted of the workshop at Hohenbourg where Herrad, together with scribes and artists, worked for several decades planning, preparing, and executing the project. The manuscript conveys some reasonable conclusions concerning the working conditions at Hohenbourg: for example, that Herrad seems to have had access to a well-equipped library, that she obviously worked with full copies of her sources, and that the costly provision of parchment and ink may explain why work on the manuscript took so long. The way Herrad selected, extracted, shaped, and organized her sources is convincingly interpreted as a creative act of composition that cannot be viewed as a mere compilation. There are intriguing observations on the functions of the images. They helped to structure the book, could serve as finding tools, or even worked as “an early animation” (p. 112) as in the case of Lucifer’s downfall visualized on several subsequent pages. Unlike some other works of the period written by or for religious women, the Hortus deliciarum is essentially a “textbook of theology” (p. 14) without any affective or visionary traces. In the framework of salvation history Herrad offers a solid theological education on the level of university knowledge. We may thus assume that women actually had access to the same intellectual ideas and debates as male students—“the school and the cloister were less distinct than modern scholarship has assumed” (p. 18). With her theological training Herrad at least in part intended to copy (or even to substitute) the lectures of priests. When priests were unable or unwilling to provide pastoral care, the women at Hohenbourg accessed essential monastic and scholastic works of influential reformers. Reforming texts and images such as the psychomachia cycle encouraged female readers to be critical against the clergy’s potential offenses such as avarice and simony. Deeply concerned with the state of the contemporary Church, Herrad thus propagated the reforming ideals within her convent. Regarding the audience, the reception, and the use of the Hortus deliciarum, Griffiths emphasizes that the book is addressed to advanced students who have already mastered the trivium, are competent in Latin, and are well trained in the different levels of scriptural interpretation. The large size of the book and the cycle of illuminations indicate that the Hortus deliciarum was not designed for individual reading. It was intended for display within the community and for group performances that included viewing, reading, discussing, memorizing, and singing. Surprisingly, according to Griffiths, the Hortus deliciarum “is not gendered female” (p. 216) despite its explicit dedication to women. Herrad obviously did not differentiate between the spiritual needs of women and men in the religious life. Griffiths must admit, however, that Herrad did not excise misogynous comments from her sources. Still, she does not blame Herrad for “strong negatives” concerning women (cf. Karl F. Morrison), but stresses that “Herrad’s most stinging criticisms were...