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Hildegard's Healing Plants: From Her Medieval Classic Physica
Medieval saint, mystic, healer, and visionary-Hildegard von Bingen has made a comeback. She is now popular in natural healing circles, in medieval and women's studies, and among those interested in investing the everyday with the spiritual.
Hildegard's Healing Plants is a gift version and new translation of the 'Plant' section of Physica, Hildegard's classic work on health and healing. Hildegard comments on 230 plants and grains-most of which are still grown in home gardens and sold at local health food stores. In one of many entries on women's health, Hildegard writes, 'Also if a pregnant woman labors much in childbirth, let someone cook pleasant herbs, such as fennel and assurum, in water with fear and great moderation, squeeze out the water, and place them while they are warm around her thighs and back, tied gently with a piece of cloth, so that her pain and her closed womb is opened more pleasantly and easily.'
Whether read for the sheer enjoyment of Hildegard's earthy, intelligent voice ("Let a man who has an overabundance of lust in his loins cook wild lettuce in water and pour it over himself in a sauna") or for her encyclopedic and often still relevant understanding of natural health, Hildegard's Healing Plants is a treasure for gardeners, natural healing enthusiasts, and Hildegard fans everywhere.
Hildegard's Healing Plants includes 230 plants and grains-most of which are still grown in home gardens and sold at local health food stores.
Hildegard's Healing Plants is a gift version and new translation of the 'Plant' section of Physica, Hildegard's classic work on health and healing. Hildegard comments on 230 plants and grains-most of which are still grown in home gardens and sold at local health food stores. In one of many entries on women's health, Hildegard writes, 'Also if a pregnant woman labors much in childbirth, let someone cook pleasant herbs, such as fennel and assurum, in water with fear and great moderation, squeeze out the water, and place them while they are warm around her thighs and back, tied gently with a piece of cloth, so that her pain and her closed womb is opened more pleasantly and easily.'
Whether read for the sheer enjoyment of Hildegard's earthy, intelligent voice ("Let a man who has an overabundance of lust in his loins cook wild lettuce in water and pour it over himself in a sauna") or for her encyclopedic and often still relevant understanding of natural health, Hildegard's Healing Plants is a treasure for gardeners, natural healing enthusiasts, and Hildegard fans everywhere.
Hildegard's Healing Plants includes 230 plants and grains-most of which are still grown in home gardens and sold at local health food stores.
210 pages, Paperback
First published May 17, 2001
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397 people want to read
About the author
Hildegard von Bingen
316 books272 followersborn circa 1098
People revered Saint Hildegard von Bingen, German nun, composer, and a visionary, during her own lifetime; she set her poems to music and also wrote works on medicine and natural history.
People also knew this philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, and polymath as Sibyl of the Rhine. Her fellows elected her as a magistra in 1136; she founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. The Ordo Virtutum exemplifies early liturgical drama.
Her theological and botanical texts, letters, liturgical songs, and arguably the oldest morality play, well survive; she meanwhile supervised brilliant miniature Illuminations.
People revered Saint Hildegard von Bingen, German nun, composer, and a visionary, during her own lifetime; she set her poems to music and also wrote works on medicine and natural history.
People also knew this philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, and polymath as Sibyl of the Rhine. Her fellows elected her as a magistra in 1136; she founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. The Ordo Virtutum exemplifies early liturgical drama.
Her theological and botanical texts, letters, liturgical songs, and arguably the oldest morality play, well survive; she meanwhile supervised brilliant miniature Illuminations.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 12, 2020
really cool herbal remedies, gonna start using these instead of trusting BIG PHARMA
October 14, 2019
It has been a very useful resource in writing my current historical fiction project which involves quite a bit of traditional dietary and medicinal uses of plants.
March 23, 2014
An interesting look at the understanding of herbal healing from the middle ages. However, don't expect to learn about remedies.
July 3, 2014
I find myself facinated with Hildegard von Bingen and her amazing story. This little book is an excellent illustration of how ahead of her time she was.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews