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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I don't think that during Hildegard's time the knowledge of the distillation of spirits had reached Europe yet; but the passage still strikes me as perhaps being generally informed by alchemical concepts if not distillation in particular. There's a great scene in The Lion in Winter where Philip Augustus explains distillation and the resulting newfangled drink called brandywine to the future Richard I, boasting about it as an achievement of French alchemists (the film takes place in 1183). A little bit after that an aging Henry II helps himself to some of it from Philip's table, saying "More brandywine?" Philip expresses surprise that Henry had heard of it, to which the old lion replies "They were boiling it in Ireland before the snakes left." Like so much else in that wonderful movie, it's completely anachronistic, but it's still one of my favorite cinematic retorts (excuse the alchemical pun).


MP


Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2016 00:18:46 -0500
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] spirits dyring out
To: [log in to unmask]

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I'm really too ignorant of the subject to comment but I will venture a question. Could this passage be a tongue in cheek allusion, in bad Latin, to the evaporation into the air of spirits of the liquid kind? Could it be a veiled suggestion that the old gal was prone to indulging in 'holy libations' to the point of hallucinating holy visions?

Actually, that was two questions.

Richard J Legault


On Sun, Jan 24, 2016 at 6:12 PM, Paul Chandler <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
You might try Victoria Sweet, "Hildegard of Bingen and the Greening of Medieval Medicine", Bulletin of the History of Medicine 73.3 (1999): 381-403. -- Paul

On 25 January 2016 at 01:00, Cormack, Margaret Jean <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Greetings all,
I´ve run across a passage referring to the visions of Hildegard of Bingen,  which states that while many wondered whether they were from God or 'de inaquositate aeriorum spirituum, qui multos seducant'.
(from Vita S. Hildegardis, ed. Klaes, p. 28)
This was translated as 'from the drying out of airy spirits, who mislead many.'
My question: airy spirits misleading people is not a problem, but I´m intrigued by the 'drying out' part.
How is dryness related to false visions?
Meg
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