Hildegard von Bingen's Physica

At a time when few women could write and most were denied a formal education, Hildegard von Bingen became a legendary healer, visionary, musician, artist, poet, and saint. Her works include twenty-seven symphonic compositions; Scivias, a compilation of her visions; and her two major medical works, Causae et Curae, a medical compendium, and Physica, published here in English in its entirety for the first time.

Physica has a strong affinity with the Eastern medical approaches gaining great respect today. The modern reader interested in natural healing will recognise the enormous truth in the theories of this 12th-century physician, which remind us that our cures for illness depend on our natural world and our place in it.

A seminal text in the development of Western herbal medicine, it presents nine categories of healing systems: Plants, Elements, Trees, Stones, Fish, Birds, Animals, Reptiles, and Metals, and elaborates on their medicinal use. This work is closely related to Eastern medical approaches that are gaining respect today.