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It Takes All Kinds: Sexuality and Gender Differences in Hildegard of Bingen's ‘Book of Compound Medicine’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Joan Cadden
Joan Cadden*
Affiliation:
Kenyon College
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Extract

Hildegard of Bingen, a twelfth-century religious visionary and head of a convent, wrote extensively and frankly about sex difference and sexual behavior in her general treatise in medicine. Gender differences, sexuality, and reproduction were subjects by no means proscribed in twelfth-century Europe. Whether we look at canon law, which prohibited various forms of sexual behavior, or vernacular literature, which sometimes celebrated them, we find no unwillingness to acknowledge the existence of human sexuality. Yet aside from tracts addressed specifically to gynecological and reproductive disorders, most works of twelfth-century naturalists and medical authors treat such matters only cursorily. Hildegard was an exception, and her treatment of sexuality was both wide-ranging and undogmatic. It is the purpose of this study to explicate Hildegard's ideas on these subjects — especially on the sexual characteristics and reproductive contributions of women and men — and to evaluate the significance of the content and extent of her exposition.

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Articles
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Traditio , Volume 40 , 1984 , pp. 149 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © The Fordham University Press 

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References

1 The Liber compositae medicinae, edited under the title Causae et curae, ed. Kaiser, Paul (Leipzig 1903; hereafter Causae et curae). The Kaiser edition contains numerous errors. For some corrigenda see reviews by Paul von Winterfeld in Anzeiger für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 29 (1904) 292–96, and Elias Steinmeyer in Jahresbericht über die Erscheinungen auf dem Gebiete der germanischen Philologie 25 (1903) 84–85 (the latter for German words, especially in Hildegard's remedies). Cf. Hildegard von Bingen, Heilkunde: Das Buch von dem Grund und Wesen und der Heilung der Krankheiten, tr. Heinrich Schipperges (Salzburg 1957; hereafter Schipperges). The text of the Liber compositae medicinae survives in a single complete manuscript, Copenhagen MS 90b. Marianne Schrader and Adelgundis Führkötter are convinced of its authenticity, and document the history of opinion on the subject: Die Echtheit des Schriftums der heiligen Hildegard von Bingen: Quellen und Untersuchungen (Cologne and Graz 1956) 4–6, 19–20, 23. The most important arguments against the authenticity of the medical works attributed to Hildegard appear in Charles Singer, 'The Scientific Views and Visions of Saint Hildegard,’ in Studies in the History and Method of Science, 2nd ed. (London 1955) I 1–55 on 12–14. These are partly answered by Hans Liebeschütz, Das allegorische Weltbild der heiligen Hildegard von Bingen (Studien der Bibliothek Warburg 16; Leipzig and Berlin 1930) 90 n. 1 and 130 n. 1. He convincingly challenges the authenticity of Book VI and of the section headings (85 n. 2 and 103 n. 1). Hildegard's views on the biological and psychological nature of women, their place in the divine plan and in society, and their roles as mates and mothers are among the subjects treated in Bernhard W. Scholz, 'Hildegard von Bingen on the Nature of Women,’ American Benedictine Review 31 (1980) 361–83. I am grateful to Valerie M. Lagorio for having brought this article to my attention. See also Paul Diepgen, Frau und Frauheilkunde in der Kultur des Mittelalters (Stuttgart 1963) especially 74–76 and 137–39. I am grateful to the National Science Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, and the Kenyon College Mellon Foundation Faculty Development Fund for research support.Google Scholar

2 Biographical and bibliographical information can be found in Adelgundis Führkötter, ed., intro., and trans., Das Leben der heiligen Hildegard von Bingen (Heilige der ungeteilten Christenheit; Düsseldorf 1968), which contains the Vita by the monks Gottfried and Theoderich; and in Schrader and Führkötter, Echtheit. See aiso Walter Pagel, 'Hildegard of Bingen,’ Dictionary of Scientific Biography VI 396–98. Singer (1–55) discusses Hildegard's natural philosophy mainly on the basis of the Scivias and Liber divinorum operum; he provides a map (3, Fig. 1). Also, on the scientific and medical aspects of her work, see Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science I–II: During the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era (corr. repr. New York 1929) II 124–54. Google Scholar

3 On women's religious communities and their status in the Church, see Sally Thompson, 'The Problem of Cistercian Nuns in the Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries,’ in Derek Baker, ed., Medieval Women (Studies in Church History, Subsidia I; Oxford 1978) 227–52; and Brenda M. Bolton, 'Mulieres sanctae,’ in Susan Mosher Stuard, ed., Women in Medieval Society (Philadelphia 1976) 141–58. Google Scholar

4 von Bingen, Hiidegard, Briefwechsel, trans. and annot. Führkötter, Adelgundis (Salzburg 1965).Google Scholar

5 Liber simplicis medicinae, also known as Physica, ed. Anton Reuss, Friedrich, PL 197. 1117–1353; and Liber compositae medicinae, see above, n. 1. The two works together (and, in Reuss's edition, the Physica alone) are also known as the Liber subtilitatum diversarum naturarum creaturarum. Google Scholar

6 See Singer ('Scientific Views'); and Schipperges' introduction, especially the section on Weltbild. Google Scholar

7 Causae et curae 1 (1–33 Kaiser). Hildegard's discussion of lunar and astral influence (ibid. [19–20 Kaiser]; cf. 2 [77–81 Kaiser]), is consistent both with Singer's perception of a developing notion of macrocosm-microcosm correspondence (Singer, ‘Scientific Views’ 30–43), and with the judgment that the later chapters containing a more sophisticated astrological doctrine are spurious (Liebeschütz, Weltbild 85 n. 2).Google Scholar

8 For Hildegard and her contemporaries the study of the soul had a psychological as well as theological aspect. Hildegard is concerned with the former here. Google Scholar

9 The systematic enumeration of specific ailments and their cures is reserved for the final, properly medical sections of the treatise, with which we will not be concerned here: Causae et curae 2–4 (90–235 Kaiser). Google Scholar

10 See Vern Bullough, 'Medieval Medical and Sceintific Views of Women,’ Viator 4 (1973) 485–501; and Marie-Thérèse d'Alverny, 'Comment les théologiens et les philosophes voient la femme,’ Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale 20 (1977) 105–29. Google Scholar

11 Singer suggests various philosophical sources, most notably Bernard Sylvester's De mundi universitate, and two likely medical sources, Constantine the African's De humana natura and a series of anatomical drawings. Liebeschütz sees a Galenic strain coming from Constantine and a Hippocratic influence. Hildegard's views on reproduction and sexuality are not influenced by Bernard. While consistent on many points with Constantine and Hippocratic traditions (of which Trotula, cited in notes below, is an early medieval representative), they cannot be said to follow either fully. Google Scholar

12 Schipperges 43–45. Google Scholar

13 D'Alverny, , ‘Théologiens et philosophes’ 123–125. The nature of woman plays a minor role in an important debate about the rational interpretation of Genesis, in which the symbolic Eve appears to have prevailed over the natural Eve. Ibid. 124–25. On William of Conches see Helen Rodnite Lemay, 'William of Saliceto on Human Sexuality,’ Viator 12 (1981) 165–81 at 172.Google Scholar

14 Trotula, , De passionibus mulierum, in Israel Spach, Gynaeciorum … (Strassburg 1597) 42–60. See also Paul Delany, ‘Constantinus Africanus’ De coitu: A Translation,’ Chaucer Review 4 (1969) 55–65 (hereafter Constantine, De coitu); and Constantinus Africanus, Pantegni in Isaac [Israeli], Opera omnia (Lyons 1515) Practica 8, fois. 115ra–118 vb (2nd foliation) et passim. The thirteenth century enjoyed a dramatic increase in the availability, number, and range of philosophical and medical sources on these subjects in Latin.Google Scholar

15 D'Alverny, , ‘Théologiens et philosophes’ 112–23.Google Scholar

16 Genesis 2.21–24. Hildegard does not discuss issues arising from Genesis 1.26–27 in this work. D'Alverny, ‘Théologiens et philosophes’ especially 118–20, 122; and Scholz, ‘Hildegard’ 367–69. Google Scholar

17 '… de viriditate virilis terrae …’: Causae et curae 2 (46 Kaiser). Google Scholar

18 Ibid. (47).Google Scholar

19 Besides more strength, men have more heat than women: ibid. (33). The relationship between the biblical specification that Adam was made from earth and the natural philosophical commonplace that men were of a warmer nature than women is problematic, since earth was thought of as cold and dry. At one point, Hildegard links cold with dry and links heat with the fertility of the earth, saying that generation proceeds from heat and cold. Ibid. (33). Google Scholar

20 Ibid. (59). A man's head is a unified whole.Google Scholar

21 '… aerem mentem …’; ibid. (46). Google Scholar

22 '… vir mutatus est de limo in carnem, et ideo est propria causa et dominator creaturae. Atque terram operatur, ut fructus pariat… . Mulier autem mutata non est, quia de carne sumpta caro permansit, et ideo datum est ei artificiosum opus manuum …’: ibid. (59). Cf. Hildegard, Liber divinorum operum simplicis hominis 3. vision 3.3 (PL 197. 963). Google Scholar

23 Causae et curae 2 (35 Kaiser).Google Scholar

24 Unlike later authors, Hildegard is not much concerned with challenges to free will posed by the apparent determinism of such theories of parental influence. Elsewhere, however, she does distinguish between human and animal reproduction by pointing out that humans decide about the timing of procreation and about their partners: ibid. (59–60, 77–78). And when attending to the influences of the moon, she cautions that it is not a god: ibid. (19). Google Scholar

25 The debate about the existence of a female seed becomes heated only in the centuries after Hildegard's death. Sometimes she speaks as though a woman has no seed — semen (ibid. [60]); sometimes she attributes to her a small amount of weak seed — like a crumb to his loaf (ibid. [76]). Elsewhere when Hildegard is giving a naturalistic version of the biblical 'one flesh,’ blood, foam, and sweat are more prominent than seed. Ibid. (67–68). Google Scholar

26 Ibid. (60). For 'vas viri,’ a common image, see also (77).Google Scholar

27 Ibid. (18, 97) (moon); (97) (air).Google Scholar

28 Ibid. (35–36). See George W. Radimersky, 'The Heredity Factor in the Works of Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179),’ Kentucky Foreign Language Quarterly, 13 (1966) 95–102 on 98–99.Google Scholar

29 See below, pp. 159–66 and Table 1. Google Scholar

30 Causae et curae 2 (36 Kaiser). Aristotle of course allows for resemblance to the mother by default. Generation of Animals 4.3, especially 768a3-bl5.Google Scholar

31 Causae et curae 2 (68 Kaiser). Hildegard here offers a biblical analogy. These parents have lied to God by betraying their marriage vows, so their children will suffer, just as Adam and Eve's children suffer as a result of their parents' lies. On rationalitas in Hildegard's thought, see F. Vernet, 'Hildegard (Sainte),’ DThC 6.2477.Google Scholar

32 Causae et curae 3 (68–69 Kaiser). In her Scivias Hildegard says the mother of the Antichrist, pictured as the antithesis of the Virgin Mary, fornicated with several very bad men and thus conceived her terrible son. Hildegardis Scivias, ed. Führkötter, Aldegundis in collaboration with Angela Carlevaris (CCL CM 43–43 a; Turnhout 1978) 3. vision 11.25, lines 513–518 (590 Führkötter).Google Scholar

33 Causae et curae 2 (99–100, 102 Kaiser). See below, at n. 84. Cf. Scholz, ‘Hildegard’ 368.Google Scholar

34 Trotula 11 (46–47 Spach). See also Constantine, Pantegni, Theorica 1.22 fol. 4rb for a brief general comparison of the sexes based on the four qualities. In the Pantegni he takes up the functions and dysfunctions of both sexes, though he treats sterility largely as a female affair. Ibid. Practica 2.28 fol. 117 ra.Google Scholar

35 This description of sexual pleasure is derived from two passages on the subject: Causae et curae 2 (69–70 and 76–77 Kaiser). See Scholz, ‘Hildegard’ 376. The vocabulary, often biblical, is not very precise. Hildegard uses the word 'ventus' both when she employs a storm metaphor and when she does not. ‘Marrow’ (medulla) is probably something more general than bone marrow — perhaps a person's core or innermost part. The word lumbi ('loins') may, as Kaiser implies (following the MS), be identified with the kidneys (Causae et curae 2 [70 Kaiser]), but there is no specific authorization for such a view, so I have preferred the vaguer and more biblical translation. See Singer, ‘Scientific Views’ 46 n. 2. ('De renibus' in the rubric may be an example of the sort of anachronism Schipperges points to, 41.) Hildegard uses stirps for ‘penis’ rather than virga, the word preferred by medical authors, e.g., Constantine the African. Both lend themselves to arboreal imagery. I have translated libido as ‘desire’ and delectatio as 'pleasure.’ Google Scholar

36 'Venae autem, quae in iecore et in ventre masculi sunt, in genitalibus eius sibi occurrunt. Et cum ventus delectationis a medulla masculi egreditur, in lumbos eius cadit et gustum delectationis in sanguine movet': Causae et curae 2 (69 Kaiser). Google Scholar

37 'Sed cum ventus delectationis ex medulla feminae egreditur, in matricem, quae umbilico adhaeret, cadit et sanguinem mulieris ad delectationem movet, et quia matrix circa umbilicum mulieris amplum et velut apertum locum habet, ventus ille in ventrem eius se dilatat, et ideo lenius, quamvis prae humiditate sua saepius, ibi in delectationem ardet, et ideo etiam aut prae timore aut prae pudore facilius quam vir a delectatione se continere valet …’: ibid. (76). See Paul Diepgen, 'Die Lehre von der leibseelischen Konstitution und die spezielle Anatomie und Physiologie der Frau im Mittelalter,’ Scientia 84 (1949) 97–103 and 132–34 on 134. Hildegard gives a related account for men and women in Liber divinorum operum 1. vision 3.1 (PL 197.792; trans. Singer, , ‘Scientific Views’ 46).Google Scholar

38 'Ventus quoque qui in lumbis eorum est, magis igneus quam ventosus est; qui duo tabernacula sibi subdita habet, in quae flat ut in follem. Et haec tabernacula stirpem omnium virium hominis circumdant et ei in adiutorium sunt, ut aliqua parva aedificia iuxta turrim posita, quae illam defendunt. Ac ideo duo sunt, ut tanto fortius praedictam stirpem circumdent et solident ac teneant, et ut tanto fortius et aptius praefatum ventum excipiant et ad se trahant, et ut aequaliter eum emittant, velut duo folles, qui aequaliter flant in ignem. Unde etiam cum eandem stirpem in virtute sua erigunt, earn fortiter tenent, et ita eadem stirps frondet in prolem': Causae et curae 2(70 Kaiser). Hildegard is here discussing choleric men, who are characterized by exceptional sexual vigor, but we may take the structures and functions, if not the emphatic virility, as universal among men. The bellows metaphor neatly unifies the idea of wind with the usual association of desire with heat. In keeping with this theme, she calls the loins a workshop (fabrica), ibid. (76). Google Scholar

39 'Nam quemadmodum in magnis undis, quae de fortibus ventis et procellis in fluminibus assurgunt, navis periclitatur, ita quod vix interdum contineri et subsistere potest, sic etiam in procella delectationis natura viri difficile compesci et contineri valet. Sed in undis, quae de leni vento surgunt, et in procellis, quae de lenibus turbinibus ascendunt, navicula quamvis per laborem contineri poterit; et sic est natura mulieris in delectatione, quia facilius compesci potest quam natura delectationis viri': ibid. (69–70). See also (76) and Liber divinorum operum 1. vision 3.1 (PL 197.792) where the metaphor of a storm (procella) reappears. Google Scholar

40 'Delectatio autem in muliere soli comparatur, qui blande et leniter et assidue terram calore suo perfundit, ut fructus proferat, quia si earn acrius in assiduitate incenderet, fructus magis laederet quam eos produceret': Causae et curae 2 (76 Kaiser). Cf. the picture of the fulfilled sanguine man, cited below n. 78. Google Scholar

41 Causae et curae 2 (77, 76 Kaiser).Google Scholar

42 Ibid. (76), quoted above n. 37. Cf. the silver lining of Eve's fall, above at n. 18. Continence is not always the healthiest behavior according to Hildegard (see below, following n. 75), but it is important to be able to abstain, for abstinence is morally required in certain situations.Google Scholar

43 See the treatment of adultery, above at n. 31. Google Scholar

44 Causae et curae 2 (78–79 Kaiser).Google Scholar

45 Ibid. (86–87).Google Scholar

46 Ibid.: men (70–76); women (87–89). The intervening pages treat a variety of natural processes, including the ebb and flow of blood according to the moon's waxing and waning, the stages of life, sleep, and exercise. It is possible that the order of the treatise has been disrupted by interpolation or in some other way. I have, however, no evidence for this, and am inclined in this case to accept the text as it is.Google Scholar

47 Hildegard herself does not apply the system of four qualities explicitly to the temperaments. Google Scholar

48 Klibansky, Raymond, Panofsky, Erwin, and Saxl, Fritz, Saturn and Melancholy: Studies in the History of Natural Philosophy and Art (London 1964), passim. Google Scholar

49 For page references for these and subsequent details of Hildegard's discussion of types of women and men, see Table 1. Google Scholar

50 Liebeschütz, , Weltbild 130 n. 1 and Schipperges 41.Google Scholar

51 The exception is in the text on ‘sanguine’ women, who may be subject to melancholy as a result of menstrual disorders. Earlier (Causae et curae 2 [37–38 Kaiser]), Hildegard used the terms ‘melancholy’ and ‘phlegmatic’ in their pathological sense; here we are concerned with them as dispositions. Cf. Liber divinorum operum 1. vision 3.1 (PL 197.794). See Klibansky et al. 67 et passim. Google Scholar

52 In addition, the vocabulary of temperaments from classical and early medieval sources tabulated by Klibansky et al. 62–63, does not appear in Hildegard's text. Google Scholar

53 Liebeschütz, , Weltbild 130 n. 1.Google Scholar

54 The author of the section headings cannot be said to have been an especially attentive reader: several titles are clearly inappropriate. Schipperges (41) has suggested the rubrics were influenced by the newly translated Arabic medicine, which might suggest a tendency to comply with increasingly fashionable systems. But the author of these titles cannot be accused of having oversystematized Hildegard's text. Google Scholar

55 '… habent et muliebrem colorem in facie …’ and 'Et carnes in corpore suo ad sufficientiam sibi habent et molles secundum carnes feminarum …’: Causae et curae 2 (75 Kaiser); '… aliquantem virilem animum tenent …’: (87–88). This construction suggests that there are, for Hildegard, some traits which are masculine and some which are feminine. Although she does not directly address the issue, she seems to have some opinions (or at least assumptions) about it. See below, pp. 167–70. Google Scholar

56 Klibansky, et al. 111, know of nothing like Hildegard's discussion. See also Scholz, ‘Hildegard’ 377, and Diepgen, Frau und Frauheitkunde 76.Google Scholar

57 Causae et curae 2 (97 Kaiser). Elsewhere Hildegard says that while a man's head (caput) is whole, a women's is divided (so the child in her womb can get air): ibid. (59).Google Scholar

58 'Qui si coniunctionem feminarum habent, tunc sani et laeti sunt; si autem eis caruerint, tunc in semet ipsis arescunt et quasi moribundi vadint, nisi aut ex superfluitate somniorum aut cogitationum aut perversitate alterius rei spumam seminis sui de se excutiant, quia in tanto ardore libidinis sunt, quod etiam interdum ad aliquam insensibilem creaturam, quae non vivit, accedunt et se illi ita contorquent, quod se ab eodem ardore quasi defendendo et alleviando spumam seminis emittunt in illa libidine et poena ardoris, quae in ipsis est, fatigati, quoniam ipsis continentia gravis est': ibid. (71); see also above n. 38. Google Scholar

59 'Et cum idem ventus et ignis in istorum duo tabernacula interdum cadunt, omnia officia sua in honore et sobrio amore perficiunt, ita quod etiam stirps eorum in florem honorifice frondet, quoniam isti aureum aedificium in recta amplexione dicuntur, quia rationalitas sentit in eis, unde sit, ac ideo moderatio in eis fit et humani gestus': ibid. (72). Google Scholar

60 'Et ventus, qui in lumbis eorum est, in tribus modis exsistit, ita quod igneus est et ventosus ac fumo melancoliae permixtus, et ideo, rectam dilectionem ad nullum habent; sed amari et avari et insipientes sunt et superflui in libidine ac sine moderatione cum mulieribus velut asini; unde si de hac libidine interdum cessaverint, facile insaniam capitis incurrunt, ita quod frenetici erunt': ibid. (73) And '… suggestio diaboli in libidine virorum istorum ita furit, ut, si possent, feminam in coniunctione hac mortificarent, quoniam nulla opera caritatis et amplexionis in eis sunt': (74). Google Scholar

61 'Ventus autem, qui in lumbis eorum est, modicum ignem habet, ita quod modice calet, velut aqua, quae vix calida est. Et duae domus eius, quae ut duo folles esse deberent ad excitandum ignem, derelictae sunt in defectione nec vires habent, ut stirpem erigant, quoniam plenitudinem ignis in se non continent. Et isti in illa amplexione amari possunt, quod et viris et feminis cohabitare valent et quod fideles sunt; ita quod homines mortifero odio non habent, sed et in corporibus suis modicum gustum primae creaturae, ubi Adam et Eva sine carnali amplexione processerunt, cum tamen isti in illa et in ista genitura deficiant': ibid. (75); see also (70–71). Google Scholar

62 'Quod si in coniunctione maritorum sunt, castae sunt et fidem uxorum illis servant atque cum eis sanae sunt in corpore, et si maritis cauerint, dolebunt in corpore, et debiles erunt tarn de hoc, quod nesciunt, cui homini femineam fidem servare possint, quam de hoc, quod maritos non habent': ibid. (88–89). Cf. Winterfeld 294. Google Scholar

63 'Quod si a viris se continere volunt, se continere a coniunctione eorum possunt, nec inde multum quamvis parum debilitantur. Sed tamen, si viros in coniunctione devitaverint, difficiles et graves in moribus suis erunt, si autem cum viris fuerint, ita quod se a coniunctione eorum continere noluerint, incontinentes et superfluae secundum viros in libidine erunt': Causae et curae 2 (88 Kaiser). Google Scholar

64 '… in delectatione ardet …’: Causae et curae 2 (76 Kaiser). Google Scholar

65 '… sine tactu viri in delectationem movetur': ibid. (77). Google Scholar

66 See, for example, Scivias 2 vision 3.22, lines 473–482 (148 Führkötter). D'Alverny, ‘Théologiens et philosophes’ 123, sees Hildegard defending her sex on this point. D'Alverny discusses Adelard of Bath, William of Conches, William of Saint Thierry, and the Salernitan Questions on the subject, p. 124. See below at n. 90. Google Scholar

67 See above, following n. 35. Google Scholar

68 'Vir enim seminator exsistit, mulier autem susceptrix seminis est': Scivias 1. vision 2.11, lines 257–258 (20 Führkötter). Cf. ibid. 2. vision 3.22, lines 453–482 (147–48 Führkötter). Google Scholar

69 'Et ideo vir maturum tempus corporis sui inspicere debet et recta tempora lunae cum tali studio quaerere, ut ille, qui orationes suas puras offert; scilicet ut eo tempore prolem gignat, quod nati eius non pereant deficiendo': Causae et curae 2 (18 Kaiser). Google Scholar

70 Hildegard's views on marriage are not heterodox. See, for example, ibid. (33–34) and Scivias, chapters referred to in note 68 et passim. Google Scholar

71 Causae et curae 2 (70 Kaiser), cholerics, cited above n. 38; and (75), phlegmatics, cited above n. 61.Google Scholar

72 Below at n. 79. Google Scholar

73 A vivid example of the way in which woman was viewed as womb are the twelfth-century illustrations of fetal positions in which the uterus is an inverted jar (vessel) and no attempt is made to represent the woman around it. Cod. Hafniensis Gl. Kgl. Saml. N. 1653, fol. 18 in Karl Sudhoff, Studien zur Geschichte der Medizin I (Leipzig 1907), plate 15. Sudhoff documents the history of such pictures: ibid. 69–75 and plates 15–19; 'Die Leipziger Kinderslagenbilde mit deutschem Texte,’ Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin 2 (1909) 422–25 and plate 2. The convention continues in printed books, e.g., Iacobus Ruffus De conceptu et generatione hominis in Israel Spach, Gynaeciorum … (Strassburg 1597) 180–85. Google Scholar

74 Causae et curae 2 (75 Kaiser) cited above n. 61.Google Scholar

75 'Sed et plurimum sanguinem in menstruo tempore patiuntur et steriles sunt, quia delibem et fragimem matricem habent. Unde semen viri nec concipere nec retinere nec calefacere possunt. et ideo etiam saniores, fortiores et laetiores sunt absque maritis quam cum eis, quoniam, si cum maritis fuerint, debiles reddentur': ibid. (89). Google Scholar

76 Hildegard does not comment on the tension between religious vows and moral and social constraints, on the one hand, and what is natural and healthy, on the other. Perhaps this predicament is the result of the Fall: cf. ibid. (70–71 and 102–103). Hildegard herself, although she lived long, was often in ill health. Cf. Trotula 36 (53 Spach), who provides remedies for women who might have to suffer abstinence for various reasons. Google Scholar

77 Sanguine women: 'Sed tamen plurimos pueros non generant [Kaiser: generantur; corr. Winterfeld 294], et si istae absque maritis sunt, ita quod prolem non pariunt, facile dolent in corpore; si autem maritos habent, sanae sunt': Causae et curae 2 (87 Kaiser). Phlegmatic women, ibid. (88), cited above n. 63. Choleric women, ibid., cited above n. 62. Cf. Trotula 2 (43 Spach) and 4 (44–45). Google Scholar

78 men, men, Causae et curae cited above n. 58. Sanguine men: '… praedicti autem masculi, si absque mulieribus sunt, ingloriosi manent velut dies, qui sine sole est. Sed ut cum die et per diem sine sole fructus continentur, ne arescant, sic isti absque mulieribus manentes modice temperato tenore continentur; cum mulieribus autem iocundi sunt, velut dies cum sole clarus est': ibid. (73). Melancholy men (73), cited above n. 60. Cf. Constantine, De coitu 60–61. Fertile men do become a bit ill from abstinence, Hildegard says elsewhere, but not as much as women: Causae et curae 2 (77 Kaiser).Google Scholar

79 Hildegard's text does not explicitly warrant my pairing of these two processes. Although such a juxtaposition is authorized by Aristotle, and although Hildegard sometimes speaks of reproduction in terms of man's seed and woman's blood (Causae et curae 2 [103 Kaiser]), we have seen that Hildegard is not an Aristotelian. On this point in particular, she has posited the existence of female seed, albeit weak (above n. 25). The link is justified, however, by Hildegard's opinion that female seed, when not emitted in intercourse, gets combined with the menstrual blood (76–77), and by her general view of both menstruation and ejaculation as the healthy purgation of superfluities. (Menstruation [76–77]; ejaculation — especially nocturnal emissions — [82].) Cf. Constantine, De coitu 60–61 and Trotula 1 (43 Spach) et passim. Both place more emphasis on purgation than Hildegard; Trotula links menstruation with nocturnal emissions. Google Scholar

80 Causae et curae, Eve, 2 (102–103 Kaiser); Adam, 33 (70–71). See Scholz, ‘Hildegard’ 366.Google Scholar

81 Causae et curae 2 (102–104 Kaiser).Google Scholar

82 And so, for example, women require more moderate exercise than men (ibid. [86–87]). Google Scholar

83 Aristotle's comment that females per se can be seen as deformities or monstrosities (Generation of Animals 2.3.737a37–38) has commanded much scholarly interest. Equally important issues raised by medical traditions deserve attention: Are women, by their nature, sick? Are men and women, because of their different constitutions, inclined to different disorders or responsive to different treatments? These questions, beyond the scope of the present study, have been formulated by Monica Green in an unpublished paper which she kindly made available to me: “Peculiarly Their Own”: Female Physiology and Disease in Galenic and Medieval Medicine' (1981). Google Scholar

84 Causae et curae 2 (99–100 Kaiser).Google Scholar

85 Ibid. (102).Google Scholar

86 Other authors of the period recognize that either sex might be sterile: e.g., Trotula 9 (46–47 Spach). Google Scholar

87 Causae et curae 3 (35–36 Kaiser); see above, following n. 28.Google Scholar

88 In addition to the passages on the temperaments, ibid. (102–104 and 106–108) deal with menstruation. Cf. Trotula, passim. Google Scholar

89 Causae et curae 2 (77 Kaiser).Google Scholar

90 Both positions are nicely illustrated in the problematic twelfth-century work De amore libri tres: Andreas Capellanus, The Art of Courtly Love, intro. and tr. John Jay Parry (New York 1941). According to Constantine, Pantegni, Theorica 1.22, fol. 4 rb, men, because they are hot, have more hair, ardor, strength, spirit, prudence, intellect, discretion, and continence. See also d'Alverny, ‘Théologiens et philosophes’ 123.Google Scholar

91 Thirteenth-century familiarity with the texts and recognition of systematic theoretical disagreements among them are apparent in, e.g., Albertus Magnus, De animalibus, ed. Stadler, Hermann (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters 15–16 [1916–1920]) 9.2 (706–29 Stadler) (see James R. Shaw, 'Scientific Empiricism in the Middle Ages: Albertus Magnus on Sexual Anatomy,’ Clio Medica 10 [1975] 53–64), and in Aegidius Romanus' work — see M. Anthony Hewson, Giles of Rome and the Medieval Theory of Conception: A Study of the De formatione corporis humani in utero (London 1975), especially 67–146.Google Scholar

92 Vernet, , 'Hildegard' 2477 observes that although some of Hildegard's views were curious and have been dropped, she remained for the most part in the Catholic mainstream.Google Scholar

93 Causae et curae 2 (59 Kaiser), cited above n. 22.Google Scholar