These curious passages were written at some date after 1163, when
Hildegard was at least 65 years old. They reveal our prophetess
attempting to revise much of her earlier theory of the universe,
and while seeking to justify her earlier views, endeavouring also to
bring them into line with the new science that was now just beginning
to reach her world. Note that (_a_) the universe has become round;
(_b_) there is an attempt to arrange the zones according to their
density, i.e. from without inwards, fire, air (ether), water, earth;
(_c_) exact measurements are given; (_d_) the watery zone is continued
earthward so as to mingle with the central circle. In all these and
other respects she is joining the general current of mediaeval science
then beginning to be moulded by works translated from the Arabic.
Her knowledge of the movements of the heavenly bodies is entirely
innocent of the doctrine of epicycles, but in other respects her
views have come to resemble those, for instance, of Messahalah, one
of the simplest and easiest writers on the sphere available in her
day. Furthermore, her conceptions have developed so as to fit in with
the macrocosm-microcosm scheme which she grasped about the year 1158.
Even in her latest work, however, her theory of the universe exhibits
differences from that adopted by the schoolmen, as may be seen by
comparing her diagram with, for example, the scheme of Dante (Fig. 4).
[Illustration: Fig. 4. DANTE’S SCHEME OF THE UNIVERSE
Slightly modified from Michelangelo Caetani, duca di Sermoneta, _La
materia della Divina Commedia di Dante Allighieri dichiarata in VI
tavole_, Monte Cassino, 1855.]
Like many mediaeval writers, Hildegard would have liked to imagine an
ideal state of the elemental spheres in which the rarest, fire, was
uppermost, and the densest, earth, undermost. Such a scheme was, in
fact, purveyed by Bernard Sylvestris and by Messahalah. Her conceptions
were however disturbed by the awkward facts that water penetrated
below the earth, and indeed sought the lowest level, while air and not
water lay immediately above the earth’s surface. Mediaeval writers
adopted various devices and expended a great amount of ingenuity in
dealing with this discrepancy, which was a constant source of obscurity
and confusion. Hildegard devotes much space and some highly involved
allegory both in the _Scivias_ and in the _Liber Divinorum Operum_ to
the explanation of the difficulty, while Dante himself wrote a treatise
in high scholastic style on this very subject.[70]
[Illustration: Plate X. A CRUCIFIX IN THE UFFIZI GALLERY