WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



that the learned religieuse had any acquaintance whatever 

 with the writings of the old Roman naturalist. Had she 

 had, the general tenor of her work would have been quite 

 different from what it actually is. 



The mystery, then, is, what were the sources of Physica f 

 Some have fancied that Hildegard in preparing this made 

 use of the writings not only of Pliny and Virgil, but also 

 of those of Macer, Constantinus Africanus, Walafrid 

 Strabo, Isodore of Seville, and other writers who were in 

 great vogue during the Middle Ages. The general con- 

 sensus of opinion, however, of those who have carefully 

 studied this interesting problem is that the gentle nun was 

 not acquainted with any of the authors named, except, 

 possibly, Isodore of Seville, whose works were all held in 

 high esteem, especially during the period of Hildegard 's 

 greatest literary activity. 



Hildegard 's Physica has a special value for philologists, 

 as well as for students of natural history, for it contains 

 the German names of plants still used by the people of the 

 Fatherland seven hundred years after they were penned by 

 the painstaking abbess of St. Rupert's. 1 



Referring to the Saint's work entitled De Natura Ho- 

 minis, Elementorum, Diversarumque Creaturarum a trea- 

 tise on the nature of man, the elements and divers created 

 things no less an authority than Dr. Charles Daremberg 

 iln his erudite work, Geschichte der Botanik, Vol. Ill, p. 517, 

 Koenigsberg, 1856, Ernest H. F. Meyer gives in a few words his 

 estimate of the excellence of Hildegard 'a Physica: "Aber als ehr- 

 wiirdiges Denkmal des Alterthums und einer zu jener Zeit nicht 

 gemeinen Naturkentniss empfehlen sich zumal deutschen Natur- 

 f orschern ihre vier Biicher der Physica . . . Denn nicht nur der 

 deutsche Botaniker und Zoologe finden in ihrer Physik fast die 

 ersten rohen Anfange vaterlandische Naturforshung, auch dem Artzt 

 bietet sie fiir jene Zeit iiberraschende Erscheinung dar, eine nicht 

 von Dioskorides abgeleitete, sondern unverkennbar aus der Volksiiber- 

 lieferung geschb'pfte Heilmittellehre ; und der Sprachforscher stosst 

 im lateinischen Text beinahe Zeile um Zeile auf deutsche Ausdriicke 

 seltener Sprachf ormen, ' 7 



