Hildegard of Bingen with stones; imagined historical illustration.

Fire and moisture – Hildegard’s world of stones

Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) was a Benedictine nun, abbess and writer from the Rhineland. In her Physica, she describes nature as a creation whose diverse manifestations are interconnected. Within it, a stone also has a history of coming into being.[1]

The elements within solid stone

The book on stones opens with a short sentence. It already contains the idea that different forces meet within an apparently solid and self-contained object. The complete Latin opening sentence is Omnis lapis ignem et humiditatem in se habet. In English:

“Every stone contains fire and moisture.”

Hildegard of Bingen, Physica, preface to the book on stones. Our English translation.[1]

In the account that follows, precious stones arise through the interaction of the sun’s heat, mountains and water. Moisture condenses, becomes solid and is subsequently carried to other places by moving water. In this conception, the stone retains something of the conditions of its formation.[1]

An interconnected creation

For Hildegard, fire and moisture are more than opposites. Their combination offers an understanding of how something enduring may emerge from movement and change. Attention therefore turns beyond the stone’s surface towards the forces that come together within it.

This view of nature belongs to a Christian understanding of the world. For Hildegard, the properties of things form part of a meaningful order of creation and its relationships with human beings. Her descriptions combine observation, inherited ideas and religious interpretation. They are medieval natural history, rather than a modern mineralogical explanation or evidence of medical efficacy.