Würzburg, Univ., Diss., 2009.

This thesis examines the visionary writings of Elisabeth of Schönau, a nun of Schönau monastery, which was a double house in the diocese of Trier between 1152 and 1165. I argue that Elisabeth’s works dynamically engaged various religious audiences (monastic and clerical) in order to provide spiritual guidance to diverse types of people (monks, nuns, abbots, abbesses, and clerics). Elisabeth’s writings not only represent the self-reflection of a twelfth-century woman visionary, but also demonstrate the ways in which Elisabeth forged her spiritual authority by reacting to, and at times anticipating, the reception of her visions by her community. While Elisabeth rhetorically described herself as a passive receptor of divine knowledge, she actively worked to shape the practice of worship first within her monastic community and then, once her authority grew beyond Schönau, amongst a wider audience.

Music theory of Hildegard of Bingen’s era articulated a cosmological worldview, providing thinkers with a way of understanding human beings, the world, the heavens, and how they all interact with each other in musical terms. Hildegard was familiar with this music theory through her theological predecessors. This dissertation argues that a better understanding of Hildegard’s theology requires a deeper consideration of how this musical cosmology influenced her because of the way music pervades her work. Music theory is a major piece of what undergirds her Benedictine, liturgical worldview. To demonstrate this, I take up the task of explicating and illuminating Hildegard’s Christology in terms of her understanding of music and music theory. This task is different from previous scholarship which analyzes Hildegard’s writing about music in terms of her broader theology. I bridge the gap between musicologists and liturgists, on the one hand, who focus on Hildegard’s theology of music but neglect broader consideration of her theology and, on the other hand, theologians who acknowledge music as an integral part of Hildegard’s life but largely consider her theological visions in abstraction from it. I argue that Hildegard uses music theory to define and explicate Christ and Christ’s interactions with the world, sometimes explicitly, but primarily implicitly. Her theological vision centers Christ in a resounding universe. By understanding Christ as symphonia, Hildegard emphasizes the Son’s unique relationship with humanity. While readers cannot understand every aspect of Hildegard’s Christology by considering music theory, music theory helps to illuminate it in a particular way, enabling us to understand Hildegard’s theology more deeply. Thus, this study provides an example for how future scholars can continue to interpret Hildegard’s understanding of various theological loci. In addition, it submits Hildegard as an example of how to unite music/liturgy and theology in a fruitful way for both the Academy and the Church. / 2025-04-25T00:00:00Z

No description available.

Ziel der Arbeit war es die Quellenlage Hildegard von Bingens ‚Physica‘ zu beleuchten. Dazu werden die Kapitel der exotischen Gewürze (Kap. I,13-21 und I,26-27), der Duftpflanzen (Kap. I,22-25), und der heimischen Gewürze (Kap. I,63-70) mit den entsprechenden Kapiteln aus ‚Macer floridus‘ (Odo Magdunensis), ‚Circa instans‘ (Matthaeus Platearius), ‚Liber graduum‘ (Constantinus Africanus), ‚Naturalis historia‘ (Plinius der Ältere) und ‚Materia medica‘ (Pedanius Dioskurides) verglichen. Es konnten verschiedenartige Bezüge zur Tradition hergestellt werden, jedoch ist hervorzuheben, dass Hildegard dennoch in den Anwendungen eine ausgeprägte Originalität aufweist. / The object of the thesis was to clarify the sources of the Hildegard von Bingen‘s “Physica”. Chapters of the exotic spices (I,13-21 und I,26-27), plants with perfume (I,22-25) and local spices (I,63-70) were compared with correspondent chapters in “Macer floridus” (Odo Magdunensis), “Circa instans” (Matthaeus Platearius), “Liber graduum” (Constantinus Africanus), “Naturalis historia” (Pliny the Elder) and “Materia medica” (Pedanius Dioscorides). Various references to the tradition were depicted but it must be emphasized Physica’s distinct originality.

Hildegard's songs evoke an erotic and embodied devotion to a Divinity imagined as sensuous, relational, immanent and often female. These songs, written for use in her predominantly female community, are part of Hildegard's educational program to guide the spiritual development of the women in her Benedictine monastery. Hildegard's theology of music proposes that the physical act of singing enables humans to experience connection to the Living Light (Hildegard's most common address for the voice of the Holy Presence in her visions, lux vivens), and to embody this Divinity in their midst. Her songs express, in dense poetic texts set to widely-ranging chant-like melodies, her rich imaging of the fecund presence of the Divine. The singers are thus encouraged to imagine themselves in relationship with the Holy One, the Living Light, through the physical act of singing these evocative songs. This dissertation analyses four of Hildegard's songs, representing a small cross section of her musical oeuvre. The analysis elucidates the way in which the music affectively conveys the meaning and significance of the texts. Carefully incising the "flesh" from the structural "bones" of the melodies reveals underlying organising configurations which pervade the songs and deliver the texts in a distinctive manner. Hildegard professed herself to be musically uneducated because she lacked a knowledge of music notation, although she admitted to extensive experience in singing Divine Office. However, she clearly claims to be the oral composer of her songs, arranging late in her life for music scribes to notate her melodies. My analysis unravels the influence of the oral composer as it intersects with the influence of the musically trained scribes who neumed her texts. Hildegard wrote that the "words symbolize the body, and the jubilant music indicates the spirit" (Scivias 3:12:13). She claims that the music conveys the meaning of the texts with affective power, and my analysis shows ways in which the oral composer endeavors to achieve this goal. Her texts, conveyed by her melodies and thus intimately entwined with the words they deliver, are powerfully persuasive forces in the spiritual education of the women in her monastery. This dissertation uncovers significant insights which can inform the communal practice of worship of the Divine, especially where song forms part of that worship, and particularly in regard to the imagining of Divinity in ways which can nourish the diversity of all humans, all creatures, and all creation. The work of feminist theologians is brought into dialogue with Hildegard's imagery and educational purpose, thus making available ways of imagining the Divine which are especially important for contemporary women, who have suffered from being excluded from the imago Dei. Thus the dissertation unearths a rich lode of female, and creatural embodied images, which threads its way though the millennia, but now needs to be mined to uncover images that might work for contemporary Christians seeking multiple imaging of the Divine to touch the deep feminist, ecological and liberative yearnings of many hearts and spirits.

No description available.

Die vorliegende Arbeit hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt das medizinische Werk zweier ausgewählter historischer Autoren, nämlich jenes Hildegards von Bingen (1098 – 1179) und von Leonhart Fuchs (1501 – 1566), möglichst umfassend hinsichtlich der für Mittel pflanzlichen Ursprungs vergebenen Indikationen zu bearbeiten und mit modernem Wissen zu vergleichen. Mit Hilfe einer statistischen Auswertung sollte dabei festgestellt werden, ob die überlieferten Indikationen lediglich einer zufälligen Zuordnung folgen oder ob diese zielgerichtet Erfahrungswerte spiegeln. Sollte sich die Zuweisung einzelner Pflanzen zu bestimmten Indikationen nicht als zufällig erweisen, so wäre dies ein Beleg dafür, dass man bereits vor Jahrhunderten über ein Wissen verfügte, welches unseren heutigen Erkenntnissen vergleichbar wäre. Die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass entsprechende Pflanzen, die heute medizinisch nicht mehr gebräuchlich sind, von historischen Autoren jedoch empfohlen werden, die gewünschten Wirkungen zeigen, wäre demzufolge groß. Derartigen Erfolg versprechenden Pflanzen oder traditionellen Anwendungen könnte sich die weitere klinische Forschung zuwenden. Bisherige Vergleiche der historischen Verwendung von Heilpflanzen griffen in der Regel aus einer Vielzahl von Indikationen und Autoren, die zur heutigen Indikation einer bestimmten Pflanze passenden Indikationen heraus. Der Ansatz der vorliegenden Arbeit ist insofern neu, als ein möglichst umfassender Vergleich eines einzelnen historischen Autors mit den aus heutiger Sicht als belegt geltenden Indikationen angestrebt wird. Um zu zeigen, ob die von einem untersuchten Autoren vergebenen Indikationen systematisch oder rein zufällig vergeben wurden, werden die per Zufall zu erwartenden „Treffer“ mit den beobachteten „Treffern“ verglichen. Die Indikationen des historischen Autors zu jeder Pflanze wurden anhand der folgenden Schritte bearbeitet: a) Identifikation der Pflanzen und Indikationen b) Zählen der Indikationen pro Pflanze c) Vergleich mit den aus heutiger Sicht als belegt geltenden Indikationen d) Zählen der Übereinstimmungen in vier abgestuften Bewertungskategorien (beobachtete „Treffer“) e) Statistischer Vergleich Im Ergebnis wird gefolgert, dass beide historischen Autoren dem Zufall signifikant in der Zuordnung von Indikationen überlegen sind. Tendenziell entspricht die Zuordnung durch Leonhart Fuchs eher den heute als anerkannt geltenden Indikationen, wobei dies nicht zwangsläufig mit einem geringeren Wissen Hildegards gleichzusetzen ist. / The aim of this thesis is to compare the medical work of two historical authors, namely Hildegard von Bingen (1098 – 1179) and Leonhart Fuchs (1501 – 1566), with regard to the indications they awarded to herbal medicines in comparison to scientifically accepted indications of today to the farthest extend possible. A statistical analysis was included, in order to show, wether the historical indications are randomly assigned or if there is an empirical basis for these indications. If the indications are not assigned randomly, this could be seen as proof, that hundreds of years before our time, there was knowledge comparable to ours. The probability, that the respective plants, which are not used anymore in medicine today but were used historically, would show the desired effect, could be high. Such plants could be tested according to the current clinical standards to identify their medical potential. In the past, usually those indications were picked from a number of historical authors and indications, which are comparable to the ones known today for the examined plant. The method of this thesis is new in that respect, that it aimed at comparing the medical knowledge of one historical author with regard to the herbs he or she used to the indications accepted for the same herbs today. In order to show, if the awarding of indications by one author to a number of plants was done systematically or rather based on random decisions, a statistical comparison between the expected number of random hits and real hits was done. The historical indications for each plant were analysed according to the following steps: a) Identification of the plant and indications b) Counting of the indications per plant c) Comparison with the indications scientifically accepted today d) Counting of the match of indications in four tiered categories (identification of hits) e) Statistical comparison The thesis concludes, that both historical authors did award indications with a higher accuracy than random distribution of indications. This finding is statistically significant. The allocation of indications by Leonhart Fuchs tends to be more in line with the accepted indications today, but this does not mean, that the knowledge of Hildegard von Bingen was lesser.

Die vorliegende Arbeit hat es sich zum Ziel gesetzt, einen Überblick über die Verwendung der beiden Arzneipflanzen Zingiber officinale ROSCOE und Alpinia officinarum HANCE in der Geschichte der europäischen Phytotherapie zu geben. Dazu wurden insgesamt fast 90 Texte untersucht und verglichen, wobei nicht nur Standardwerke, sondern auch eher unbekannte Schriften und Zeugnisse der Volkskunde und populärwissenschaftliche Bücher berücksichtigt wurden. Bereits den antiken Autoren war der Ingwer als Arzneipflanze bekannt, und er wurde für unterschiedliche Indikationsgebiete verwendet. Im Mittelalter genoss das Gewürz ebenfalls ein hohes Ansehen und findet sich bei fast allen der untersuchten Autoren wieder. Diese Tatsache ist erstaunlich, wenn man die damaligen langen und kostspieligen Transportwege von den Ursprungsländern in Südostasien bis nach Europa bedenkt. Nach dem System der Humoralpathologie wurde dem Ingwer als wärmender Arzneipflanze die Fähigkeit zugeschrieben, Krankheiten zu heilen, die durch kaltes Phlegma hervorgerufen werden. Vielfältige Indikationen, angefangen vom Einsatz bei Erkrankungen des Kopfes, der Lunge, des Magen-Darm-Traktes, von Herz und Blutgefäßen, der Leber und Milz, der Harnwege, bis hin zu Haut- und Gelenkerkrankungen sowie der Einsatz als Aphrodisiakum belegen die unterschiedlichen Nutzungsmöglichkeiten des Ingwers. Über viele Indikationen herrscht eine erstaunliche Konstanz über die Jahrhunderte, und vor allem im Bereich des Magen-Darm-Traktes gibt es auch nach modernen wissenschaftlichen Methoden nachgewiesene Wirkungen. Während der Galgant bei den griechischen und römischen Ärzten nicht bekannt war, kam die Pflanze durch den arabischen Fernhandel nach Europa und war hier erst seit dem 9. Jahrhundert verbreitet. Von den arabischen Ärzten tradiertes Wissen trug dazu bei, dass der Galgant als Heilpflanze Bedeutung erlangte und im gesamten Mittelalter bis in die Neuzeit eine sehr geschätzte Pflanze mit vielfältigen Indikationen war. Auch hier sind es vor allem die Anwendungen im Gastrointestinaltrakt, die nach modernen Forschungsergebnissen bestätigt werden. Die moderne Phytotherapie ist eine medizinische Behandlungsmethode, in der als Arzneimittel Phytopharmaka angewendet werden. Nicht zur Phytotherapie zählen die Homöopathie oder die Antroposophie. In der Phytotherapie werden Pflanzen oder Pflanzenteile als stoffliche Einheit betrachet, isolierte Stoffe werden nicht zu den Phytopharmaka gerechnet. Ebenso wie andere Arzneimittel müssen Phytopharmaka durch zuständige Behörden nach Nachweis von Qualität, Wirksamkeit und Unbedenklichkeit zugelassen werden, in Deutschland vom Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinalprodukte. / This work will give an overview of the use of two medicinal plants Zingiber Officinale ROSCOE and Alpinia Officinarum HANCE in the history of European phytotherapy. As such almost 90 texts were analysed and compared, not only standard writings, but also unknown ones and those of folklore and of popular science. Even in the times of the ancient authors ginger was known as a medicinal plant and used in a variety of indications. In the Middle Ages the spice was very popular and almost all the authors analysed describe it. This is amazing when one considers the difficulties in transporting the plant from the countries of origin in Southeast Asia to Europe. Due to the system of humoral pathology, ginger as a warming plant is able to cure diseases such as those caused by cold phlegm. There were many known indications ranging from use in disorders of the head, of the lungs, of the gastrointestinal system, heart and blood vessels, liver and spleen, urinary tract, to skin and joint disease and use as an aphrodisiac that demonstrate the many different uses of ginger. Many indications have shown a surprising constancy over the centuries, especially in the gastrointestinal tract where there have been recent scientifically proved effects. While galangal wasn’t known to the ancient Greek and Roman physicians, it came to Europe by way of long-distance trading and was known from the 9th century. The traditional knowledge of the Arabic physicians contributed to the importance galangal acquired as a medicinal plant from the Middle Ages to modern times with a variety of indications. Again, it is above all the applications in the gastrointestinal tract, which have been confirmed by modern research. Modern phytotherapy is a science where phytotherapeutics are used. Isolated extracts of plants or homeopathic or anthroposophic drugs are not included in this definition. Like other medicines, phytotherapeutics must be approved by competent authorities to demonstrate their quality, efficacy and safety in Germany by the Federal Institute for Drugs & Medical Products.

A central focus of this thesis is the word-music relationship in the devotional-song-repertory of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). Surrounding this focus is an examination of aspects of her life and work that relate to the production of her seventy-seven monophonic songs. This examination commences with a review of biographical sources, collation and discussion of parchment sources of her music, and identification of her music scribes. The theme of Hildegard’s music scribes is then developed, including their influence upon the liturgical genres in which her songs are cast and the melodic behaviour of her music. It is argued that, as a result of the rendering of her melodies on the medieval gamut, the surviving sources of her songs represent corruptions of orally produced chant. / The word-music relationship in Hildegard’s songs is then introduced. Her views on the role of music and her own role as monastic preacher form the basis of an examination of the relationship between rhetoric and her songs. This examination draws on contemporary modes of rhetorical criticism, and an approach which treats her songs as musically articulated rhetorical discourse is developed. A selection of her songs is then examined through this approach, and particular attention is given to songs which preserve unusual melodic behaviours. It is argued that her songs represent iubilatio responses to both the grammatical and rhetorical syntagms of her song texts, and melodic characteristics which suggest traces of her pre-redacted melodies are identified. / As a codicil to this study, a critique of ‘new’ and ‘unusual’ monastic practices in Germany by Anselm of Havelberg (c.1100-1158) forms a point of departure for discussion of a small number of surviving songs which surrounded the production of Hildegard’s music - the five monophonic songs comprising the Epithalamia to the Speculum virginum (c.1140), and a twelfth-century canticle setting emanating from the monastic home of her music scribes. This examination points towards a tradition of ‘new’ and ‘unusual’ musical practices in Southern Germany during the twelfth century and provides one possible context for Hildegard’s devotional-song repertory.