Introduction

...had left free, so that from the beginning there remained sufficient space for later additions.

There was, therefore, an original and well-organized concept of a basic text, alongside later supplementary texts added at various intervals. These additions were written into appropriate spots within the basic text based on more or less current needs. These additions could be entire chapters, which then remained unnumbered, but were mostly just extra passages that expanded or supplemented the content of the basic text (Hildebrandt 2006, pp. 6–10). When these additions consisted of—as they frequently did—combined recipes Medical formulas involving multiple ingredients, as opposed to simple remedies using one plant., their assignment to a specific plant or animal (being only one of several ingredients) was somewhat arbitrary. However, their accumulation in the supplementary text became so noticeable that by the second generation of the original's users, this second column containing the additional text was granted its own status as the Book of Composite Medicine original: "Liber compositae medicinae". Meanwhile, the first column containing the basic text received the title Book of Simple Medicine original: "Liber simplicis medicinae".

This also means that, contrary to Hildegard’s original intention for the work to be a study of nature, her writings soon found their primary audience among physicians. The abundance and variety of the remedies Hildegard promoted clearly ensured their long-term interest. It is no coincidence, then, that the Florence manuscript was in the possession of two surgeons original: cyrurgici during the 14th century, as a note of ownership on the last page testifies: Wilhelm von Riet in Aachen, and before him Wydo (Guido), who might possibly be identical to the leading French medical authority of that time, Guy de Chauliac (Hildebrandt 2009).

Another very significant piece of evidence for the exclusive use of the supplementary text is how it was excerpted and rearranged in the middle section of a unique manuscript in Copenhagen. This manuscript became known under the later title Causes and Cures original: "Causae et curae" through a first edition in 1903 (Kaiser) and recently underwent a new edition (L. Moulinier, 2003). In previous research, this entire work was considered to be the presumed Book of Composite Medicine, even though only its third and fourth books represent a collection of Hildegard’s combined recipes. Books I, II, V, and VI, on the other hand, should be regarded as separate, smaller writings by Hildegard, which at most show brief parallel text matches or parallel lines of thought to the Physica Hildegard's primary work on natural history. or her visionary works. This also includes the so-called "Berlin Fragment" found in a collective manuscript there. Following a short text identical to the Copenhagen manuscript, it represents another independent smaller treatise by Hildegard, though the beginning has been lost. It could, however, possibly be just a stray continuation of the first book of the Copenhagen manuscript...