Hildegard's Natural Science

This likely serves as a definitive indication that Hildegard’s secretary, Volmar, generally had the ambition to replace the mistress’s German words with Latin ones as often as he was able. In the later books, he no longer did this by appending his new versions of entire chapters as supplements; instead, he simply added the Latin term in the margin—presumably with Hildegard’s tolerance—alongside Hildegard’s German word during dictation (Hildebrandt 2006, pp. 11–14). This is the only way to explain why subsequent copyists, down to the manuscript witnesses preserved today, transmitted either the German or the Latin word at their discretion, or even both by linking them with the formula that is original: "id est" (as is frequently seen, for example, in the Brussels manuscript).

In the text edition presented here, these bilingual word alternatives have been incorporated into the text with a slash. Only in exceptional cases are two alternative German words found; these can only be explained by the second word being based on a deliberate exchange of synonyms (heteronyms) by a later copyist.

The assumption that the first phase of work consisted only of the book on plants and a general appendix likely also extends to the chapters of the later Book II original: "Liber II" On the Elements original: "De elementis", as the division of the final work into nine books cannot be verified by the existing manuscript witnesses. Only the Paris (P) and Vatican (V) manuscripts provide a numbering of the books, and they count only eight instead of nine; that is, they do not yet grant the later Book II its own status as a book. Only the Wolfenbüttel manuscript (W) follows this numbering in a single instance and begins the book on stones (Book IV) with the entry: Third Book original: "Liber tercius". The title On the Elements (found also in the Florence manuscript F) may therefore be secondary, as this is not truly a doctrine of the elements. After two initial chapters on air and water, the focus of several chapters lies on the sea, lakes, and some German rivers, ending with three chapters on various types of earth. There is no mention of fire; instead, the clear model for Hildegard’s text is her textbook, the Henry’s Summary original: "Summarium Heinrici", which likewise did not intend to present a doctrine of elements. Rather, Hildegard simply followed the organizational principles found there (specifically in Redaction A), which proceed from the dualism of the animate and inanimate world. In this system, there is a transitional link between the animate—meaning the animal world ("everything that lives, feels, and discerns" original: "omne quod vivit, sentit atque discernit") and the plant world ("those things which live through greenness" original: "haec quae vivunt per viriditatem," a reference to Hildegard's concept of 'viriditas' or life-force)—and the inanimate world: the moving but inanimate natural phenomena ("everything that moves but is not made alive" original: "omne quod movetur sed non vivificatur")...