48 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



Schoolmen, and write that Hildegard is Sententiarum 

 Magistra Mistress of the Sentences and that "in her 

 works the words are not human but divine' '? Has any 

 woman writer ever received higher praise, and from one 

 so competent to express an opinion as the scholarly divine 

 of Auxerre? 



Herrad, the gifted abbess of Hohenburg in Alsace, was 

 a contemporary of Hildegard, and, like her, was noted for 

 her culture and wide range of knowledge. She is chiefly 

 known for her Hortus Deliciarum, a remarkable work, en- 

 cyclopaedic in character, which she wrote for the nuns of 

 her convent and which was designed to embody in words 

 and in pictures the knowledge of her age. 



Nothing that time has bequeathed to us gives us a clearer 

 conception of the manifold activities of a mediaeval nun- 

 nery, of the industry, talents and enthusiastic love of learn- 

 ing of its inmates, than Herrad 's wonderful Garden of De- 

 lights. Nor is there any other work that gives us a better 

 knowledge of the manners, customs and ideals of the 

 twelfth century, or one that, in its particular sphere, is of 

 more value to the student of art, philology and archgeology. 

 It exhibits Herrad 's intense interest in the intellectual 

 advancement of her nuns and pupils as well as her supe- 

 rior talent and acquirements. Unfortunately the manu- 

 script copy of this work was destroyed at the time of the 

 bombardment of Strasburg by the Germans in 1870, and 

 our knowledge of it is limited to portions of it which had 

 previously been transcribed or to accounts left of it by 

 those who had examined it before its destruction. Of such 



St. Augustine. For in his commentary, De Genesi ad Litteram, 

 Lib. 9, Cap. 13, the learned bishop of Hippo writes : ' ' Quia igitur viro 

 nee domina nee ancilla parabatur, sed socia, nee de capite, nee de 

 pedibus, sed de latere fuerat producenda, ut juxta se produeendam 

 cognosceret, quam de suo latere sumptam didecisset." Again the 

 same illustrious doctor declares that woman was formed from man's 

 side in order that it might be manifest that she was created to be 

 united with him in love in consortium creabatur dilectionis. 



