The main outline of the _Liber Divinorum Operum_ is, we believe,
borrowed from the work of Bernard Sylvestris of Tours, _De mundi
universitate libri duo sive megacosmus et microcosmus_.[79] In this
composition by a teacher at the cathedral school of Chartres,[80] the
gods and goddesses of the classical pantheon flit across the stage,
for all the world as though the writer were a pagan, and the work
might be thought to be the last one from which our pious authoress
would borrow. The _De mundi universitate_ is alternately in prose
and verse and betrays an acquaintance with the classics very rare at
its date. ‘The rhythm of the hexameters is clearly that of Lucan,
while the vocabulary is mainly of Ovid.’[81] The mythology is founded
mainly on the _Timaeus_. The eternal _seminaria_ of created things are
mentioned, and it has been conjectured that the work exhibits traces
of the influence of Lucretius,[82] but the general line of thought is
clearly related to Neoplatonic literature. Thus the _anima universalis_
of Neoplatonic writings can be identified with the _Nous_ or _Noys_
of Bernard. This principle is contrasted with primordial matter or
_Hyle_. The parallel character of the _Liber Divinorum Operum_ and
the _De mundi universitate_ can be illustrated by a few extracts from
the latter. It will be seen that although the general setting is
changed, yet Hildegard’s figure of the spirit of the macrocosm is to be
identified with Bernard’s _Noys_. _Hyle_, on the other hand, becomes
in Hildegard’s plan the monstrous form, the emblem of brute matter, on
which the spirit of the universe tramples.
[Illustration: From BIBL. NAT. MS. LAT. 5543 fo. 136 r
Plate XIV. DIAGRAM OF THE RELATION OF HUMAN AND COSMIC PHENOMENA IXth
Century]
‘In huius operis primo libro qui Megacosmus dicitur, id est
maior mundus, Natura ad Noym, id est Dei providentiam, de primae
materiae, id est hyles, confusione querimoniam quasi cum lacrimis
agit et ut mundus pulchrius petit. Noys igitur eius mota precibus
petitioni libenter annuit et ita quatuor elementa ab invicem
seiungit. Novem ierarchias angelorum in coelo ponit. stellas
in firmamento figit. signa disponit. sub signis orbes septem
planetarum currere facit. quatuor ventos cardinales sibi invicem
opponit. Sequitur genesis animantium et terrae situs medius....
‘In secundo libro qui Microcosmus dicitur, id est minor mundus,
Noys ad Naturam loquitur et de mundi expolitione gloriatur et in
operis sui completione se hominem plasmaturam pollicetur. Iubet
igitur Uraniam, quae siderum regina est, et Physin, quae rerum
omnium est peritissima, sollicite perquirat. Natura protinus
iubenti obsequitur et per caelestes circulos Uraniam quaeritans eam
sideribus inhiantem reperit. eiusque itineris causa praecognita
se operis et itineris comitem Urania pollicetur.... Subitoque ibi
Noys affuit suoque velle eis ostenso trinas speculationes tribus
assignando tribuit & ad hominis plasmationem eas impellit. Physis
igitur de quatuor elementorum reliquiis hominem format et a capite
incipiens membratim operando opus suum in pedibus consummat....
‘Noys ego scientia et divinae voluntatis arbitraria ad
dispositionem rerum, quem ad modum de consensu eius accipio, sic
meae administrationis officia circumduco....
‘(Noys) erat fons luminis, seminarium vitae, bonum bonitatis
divinae, plenitude scientiae quae mens altissimi nominatur. Ea
igitur noys summi & exsuperantissimi Dei est intellectus et ex
eius divinitate nata natura.... Erat igitur videre velut in
speculo tersiore quicquid generationi quicquid operi Dei secretior
destinarat affectus.’[83]
Hildegard’s conception of macrocosm and microcosm, which was thus
probably borrowed from Bernard Sylvestris, has analogies also to those
well-known figures illustrating the supposed influence of the signs of
the zodiac on the different parts of the body.[84] Such figures, with
the zodiacal symbols arranged around a figure of Christ, may be seen
in certain MSS. anterior to Hildegard,[85] while the influence of the
‘Melothesia’, to give it the name assigned by Porphyry, has been traced
through its period of efflorescence at the Renaissance (Plates XV,[86]
XVI,[87] and XVII,[88] compare with Plates VII and VIII) right down
to our own age and country, where it still appeals to the ignorant and
foolish.[89]
Hildegard often interprets natural events by means of a peculiarly
crude form of the doctrine, as when she describes how ‘if the excess of
waters below are drawn up to the clouds (by the just judgment of God
in the requital of sinners), then the moisture from the _aer aquosus_
transudes through the _fortis et albus lucidusque aer_ as a draught
drunk into the urinary bladder; and the same waters descend in an
inundation’.[90]
Again, events in the body of man are most naively explained on the
basis of the nature of the external world as she has pictured it.
‘The humours at times rage fiercely as a leopard and again they are
softened, going backwards as a crab;[91] or they may show their
diversity by leaping and goring as a stag, or they may be as a
wolf in their ravening, and yet again they may invade the body of
man after the manner of both wolf and crab. Or else they may show
forth their strength unceasingly as a lion, or as a serpent they
may go now softly, now violently, and at times they may be gentle
as a lamb and at times again they may growl as an angered bear,
and at times they may partake of the nature of the lamb and of the
serpent.’[92]
Having completed her general survey of the macrocosm (Vision II),
and having investigated in detail the structure of man’s body, the
microcosm, in terms of the greater universe (Vision III), and discussed
the influence of the heavenly bodies on terrestrial events (Vision IV),
Hildegard turns to the internal structure of the terrestrial sphere
(Vision V). This vision is illustrated by the figure in the Lucca MS.
reproduced in Plate XI.
[Illustration: Fig. 5. From Herrade de Landsberg’s _Hortus deliciarum_,
after Straub and Keller.]
Upon the surface of the earth towards the east stands the building
which symbolizes the _aedificium_ of the church, a favourite conception
of our authoress. This church is surmounted by a halo, whence proceed
a pair of pinions which extend their shelter over a full half of the
earth’s circumference. As for the rest of the earth’s surface, part
is within the wide-opened jaws of a monster, the Destroyer, and the
remainder is beneath the surface of the ocean. Within the earth are
five parts analogous, as she would have us believe, to the five senses.
An eastern clear arc and a western clouded one signify respectively
the excellence of the orient where Zion is situated, and the Cimmerian
darkness of the occidental regions over which the shadow of the
dragon is cast. Centrally is a quadrate area divided into three zones
where the qualities of heat and cold and of a third intermediate
‘temperateness’ (_temperies_) are stored. North and south of this are
two areas where purgatory is situate. Each is shaped like a truncated
cone and composed also of three sectors. Souls are seen suffering in
one sector the torment of flame, in another the torment of water, while
in the third or intermediate sector lurk monsters and creeping
things which add to the miseries of purgatory or at times come forth to
earth’s surface to plague mankind. These northern and southern sections
exhibit dimly by their identically reversed arrangement the belief in
the antipodean inversion of climate, an idea hinted several times in
Hildegard’s writings, but more definitely illustrated by a figure of
Herrade de Landsberg (Fig. 5).
[Illustration: From BIBL. NAT. MS. LAT. 7028 fo. 154 r