Table of Contents
This lecture says that Hildegard of Bingen composed in an unknown language now called the Lingua Ignota. The speaker says she was born into an aristocratic family around 1098 and was offered by her family to religious life. A glossary, in this account, groups about a thousand words by class of being, starting with divine creatures and ending with kinds of sinners. The growth of that list is placed at roughly 1150 through 1158, the same years as her main scientific writings, and the timing is treated as meaningful. Terms for trees, plants, and insects are said to sit close to that natural study. One song text is said to appear more than once in that codex, in one case with Latin written over the unknown words. A Paleo Hebrew reading of the letters is rejected, and links to other old scripts are left unsettled. Speech the person does not already know is compared with Elizabeth of Schonau and with Pentecostal practice. Some entries name things medieval authors called shameful, which is taken as evidence of a broad catalog.
Key points
- The lecture says Hildegard was given by her family to religious life after a birth around 1098.
- The unknown vocabulary is described as a classified list of about a thousand words, from divine beings down to sinners.
- The list is dated to about 1150 through 1158 and set beside her scientific writings.
- Words for plants, trees, and insects are treated as part of that natural study.
- A song in the language is said to survive with Latin written above it, while a Paleo Hebrew origin for the letters is rejected.
- Unknown speech is compared with Elizabeth of Schonau and with Pentecostal practice, and some entries are said to name things medieval writers found shameful.
Short quotes
Hildegard was already experiencing Visions as a child often accompanied by excruciating headaches
ESOTERICA, Hildegard of Bingen and the Lingua Ignota
The presenter says her visions began in childhood and came with severe headaches. Watch at 4:21
all of those thousand plus words are said to have flowed through a medieval woman from a mystical or Divine source
ESOTERICA, Hildegard of Bingen and the Lingua Ignota
He says the glossary’s thousand words are described as having come through her from a divine source. Watch at 6:49
it can't really strictly speaking be a language it's just a list of basically definite nouns
ESOTERICA, Hildegard of Bingen and the Lingua Ignota
His point is that the surviving word list is not yet a full language. Watch at 9:37
Video by ESOTERICA. Watch on YouTube.