(C) This MS. is at the University Library at Heidelberg. It also
contains only the _Scivias_, and it is the only known illuminated
MS. of that work except the Wiesbaden Codex B. The Heidelberg MS.
was prepared with great care in the early thirteenth century, only a
little later than its fellow, but its figures afford little aid in the
interpretation of the text. Thus, for instance, the Heidelberg diagram
of the universe (Plate IV) is of a fairly conventional type which quite
fails to illustrate the difficult description. The obscurities of the
text are, however, at once explained by a figure in the Wiesbaden
Codex B (Fig. 2): we thus obtain further indirect evidence of the
personal influence of Hildegard in the preparation of that MS. The
representation of Hildegard in the Heidelberg MS. (Plate III) shows no
resemblance to those in the Wiesbaden Codex B (Plate I) or in the Lucca
MS. (Plates VI to IX), which will now be described.
(D) is an illustrated codex of the _Liber divinorum operum simplicis
hominis_ at the Municipal Library at Lucca. It contains ten beautiful
miniatures, some of which are here reproduced (Plates VI to IX and XI),
as they are of special value for the interpretation of Hildegard’s
theories on the relation of macrocosm and microcosm.
This Lucca MS. was described and its text printed in 1761 by Giovanni
Domenico Mansi,[16] a careful scholar, who was himself sometime
Archbishop of Lucca. Mansi concluded that it was written at the
end of the twelfth or the beginning of the thirteenth century. On
palaeographical grounds a slightly later date would nowadays probably
be preferred (Plate V _b_).
The work consists of ten visions, each illustrated by a figure.
The date, character, and meaning of these miniatures raise special
problems to which only very superficial reference can here be made.
Unfortunately but little work has been done on early Italian schools of
miniaturists, and it is not a subject on which any exact knowledge can
yet be said to exist.[17]
Of these ten miniatures we may dismiss the last five in a few words.
The sixth to the tenth visions are of purely theological interest, and
the miniatures illustrating them are by a different hand to the rest.
They are all relatively crude products, which appear to us to resemble
other Italian work of the period at which the MS. was written. We shall
concentrate our attention on the first five miniatures.
The first three miniatures of the Lucca MS. (Plates VI to VIII) may be
attributed to the same hand on the following grounds:
1. All have a very similar inset figure of the prophetess below the
main picture.
2. The character of the principal figure of the first miniature
(Plate VI) is almost identical with the curious universe-embracing
double-headed figure of the second miniature (Plate VII).
3. The features and draughtsmanship of the central figure of the second
miniature (Plate VII) are identical with those of the third (Plate
VIII).
4. The beasts’ heads arranged round the second miniature (Plate VII)
are exactly reproduced in the third miniature (Plate VIII).
Now although these three miniatures are in some respects unique, they
contain elements enabling us to date them with an approach to accuracy.
These elements are to be found especially in the central figure of the
second and third miniatures (Plates VII and VIII).
About the middle of the thirteenth century, as Venturi has shown,[18]
there was a well-marked change in Northern Italy in the traditional
representation of the form on the Cross. This change was followed with
almost slavish accuracy, and the new form is well represented by a
painting in the Uffizi Gallery (Plate X). It is this figure of Christ
which is reproduced by our miniaturist. The central figure of Plates
VII and VIII resembles that of the Uffizi crucifix, for instance, in
the general pose of the body, in the position of the legs and of the
arms, in the treatment of the abdominal musculature, in the method of
outlining the muscles of the legs and of the arms, and in a minute and
very constant detail by which the outline of the left side is continued
with the fold of the groin, thus giving an impression of the left thigh
being advanced on the right. Furthermore, the somewhat Byzantine cast
of countenance of the figure can be closely paralleled from Northern
Italian work of the same period. We therefore regard these first three
miniatures of the Lucca MS. as dating from about the middle of the
thirteenth century.
The remaining two miniatures (Plates IX and XI) offer special
difficulties. Plate XI (illustrating the fifth vision) presents us with
no complete human figures, except the small and probably copied inset
of the prophetess below the miniature. The faces bear some resemblance
to those of the last five miniatures; the wings, on the other hand, to
those of the first miniature (Plate VI). It is perhaps possible that
this miniature was the work of an early thirteenth-century artist, and
that the wings and some other details were added by a later hand. The
abnormal orientation, east to the left and south above, suggests that
we have here to do with some special influence.
The most anomalous of all is, however, the beautiful fourth
miniature (Plate IX). This picture has a general feeling of the
early Renaissance, though it is hard to find in it any definite
humanistic element. The nude female figure in the upper left quadrant
is especially striking. No parallel to it is to be found in the
thirteenth-century Italian miniatures that have so far been reproduced,
and it appears to us difficult to date the miniature anterior to the
fourteenth century at the very earliest. It is, in any event, by a
different hand to the others. The rashes on the patients in the two
upper and the right lower quadrants are perhaps an attempt to render
the fatal ‘God’s tokens’ of those waves of pestilence that devastated
the Italian peninsula in the fourteenth century.
Whatever the date of these miniatures, however, they reproduce the
meaning of the text of the _Liber divinorum operum_ with a convincing
certainty and sureness of touch. This work is the most difficult
of all Hildegard’s mystical writings. Without the clues provided by
the miniatures, many passages in it are wholly incomprehensible. It
appears to us therefore by no means improbable that the traditional
interpretation of Hildegard’s works, thus preserved to our time by
these miniatures and by them alone, may have had its origin from
the mouth of the prophetess herself, perhaps through another set of
miniatures that has disappeared or has not yet come to light.[19]