Of these seven sources it appears to us that (_c_) and (_f_)--the short
_De humana natura_ of Constantine, and the five-figure series--are
those on which Hildegard drew. The absence of Arabisms and the
scarcity of technical anatomical terms in her writings, her failure to
distinguish between veins and arteries, the absence of anything of the
nature of myology or osteology, together with the neglect of the spinal
marrow as an important organ, make it very unlikely that she consulted
Constantine’s longer works or the Salernitan authorities or the text of
the five-figure series. Her anatomical descriptions resemble those of
Constantine’s shorter work, on the other hand, in the description of
the three vesicles of the brain and their relations to the faculties
of the mind, in the treatment of the five senses, in the view of
the influence of the planets on the child and the emphasis laid on
epilepsy, as well as in the absence of any distinction between arteries
and veins, and in the loose doctrines of the humours and of the causes
of deformities and monstrosities. In some of these respects also her
account of the human body presents points of resemblance to the _De
hominis membris ac partibus_ of Hugh of St. Victor,[102] with whom,
however, her contact appears to be less close than with Constantine.
We may infer that Hildegard had consulted anatomical diagrams and was
accustomed to this method of representing the organs from a passage
descriptive of the microcosm, in which she says that ‘in the mouth of
the figure in whose body was the disk, I saw a light brighter than
the light of day, in the form of threads, some circular, some in
other geometrical forms, and some shaped like human members belonging
to the figure, which was clearly portrayed on the disk upright and
accurately limned’.[103] These ‘circles and geometrical figures’ fairly
describe the highly diagrammatic manner in which the five-figure series
represents the internal organs, and several points suggest that she
does indeed refer to this series. Her description of the abdominal
muscles (_umbilicus_) ‘covering the viscera like a cap’, her general
descriptions of the vessels (_venae_) and the muscles, and especially
her account of the vessels of the leg and of the intimate relations of
the main _venae_ to the organ of hearing, fits in perfectly with the
form of these remarkable diagrams (Plate XVIII).
We here render some of the most important of her general anatomical
descriptions:
‘The humours may pass to the liver, where wisdom is tested, having
been already tempered in the brain by the strength of the spirit,
and having absorbed its moisture so that now it is plump, strong,
and healthy.
‘In the right of man is the liver and its great heat, so that the
right is swift to act and to work;[104] but towards the left are
heart and lung, which fortify the body for its task and receive
their heat from the liver as from a furnace. But the vessels of
the liver, affected by the agitation of the humours, trouble the
venules of the ear of man and sometimes confound the organ of
hearing....
‘I saw also that sometimes the humours seek the navel, which covers
the viscera as a cap, and holds them in, lest they be dissipated,
and maintains their course and preserves the heat both of them
and of the veins.... But sometimes the humours seek the loins
(_lumbos_),[105] which mock, deceive, and endanger the virile
powers and which are held in place by nerves and other vessels; in
which, nevertheless, reason nourishes so that man may know what to
do and what to avoid....
‘And the same humours go to the vessels of the reins and of other
members, and pass in their turn to the vessels of the spleen, and
then to the lungs and to the heart; and they meet the viscera
on the left where they are warmed by the lungs, but the liver
warms the right-hand side of the body. And the vessels of the
brain, heart, lung, liver, and other parts carry strength to the
reins, whose vessels descend to the legs, strengthening them; and
returning along with the leg vessels, they unite with the virile
organ or with the womb as the case may be.
‘And as the stomach absorbs food, or as iron is sharpened on a
stone, so do they bring the reproductive power to those parts.
[Illustration: From WIESBADEN CODEX B, fo. 123 r