Thursday 17 September 2020

umbra viventis lucis

Venerated on this day, the occasion of her death in 1179 (*1098), as one of the most accomplished and prolific scholars of the Middle Ages, Hildegard von Bingen (see also, the saint and song-writer also being one of the most recorded artists in modern times), recognised for her mysticism, scientific curiosity, leadership and musical virtuosity as a Doctor of the Church.

In addition to her numerous treaties on theology, history and botany, Hildegard also invented a constructed, auxiliary language (previously) called Lingua Ignota—that is, the unknown language written in twenty-three stylised glyphs (see also) and translated mostly by the large lexical volume of her notes and the occasional Latin or German parallel gloss.
Albeit much of this interpretation is a matter of conjecture, it further was unclear if anyone else could read her writings and whether she intended the script to be a universal and ideal one or a secret, holy language.