STUDIES IN THE HISTORY AND METHOD OF SCIENCE EDITED BY CHARLES SINGER
AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
INTRODUCTION
The record of men and of movements, History teaches us the growth and development of ideas. Our civilization is the final expression of the two great master-thoughts of the race. Seeking an explanation of the pressing phenomena of life, man has peopled the world with spiritual beings to whom he has assigned benign or malign influences, to be invoked or propitiated. To the great ‘uncharted region’ (Gilbert Murray) with its mysteries, his religions offer a guide; and through ‘a belief in spiritual beings’ (Tylor’s definition of religion) he has built an altar of righteousness in his heart. The birth of the other dominant idea, long delayed, is comparatively recent. ‘The discovery of things as they really are’ (Plato) by a study of nature was the great gift of the Greeks. Knowledge, scientia, knowledge of things we see, patiently acquired by searching out the secrets of nature, is the basis of our material civilization. The true and lawful goal of the sciences, seen dimly and so expressed by Bacon, is the acquisition of new powers by new discoveries—that goal has been reached. Niagara has been harnessed, and man’s dominion has extended from earth and sea to the air. The progress of physics and of chemistry has revolutionized man’s ways and works, while the new biology has changed his mental outlook.
The greater part of this progress has taken place within the memory of those living, and the mass of scientific work has accumulated at such a rate that specialism has become inevitable. While this has the obvious advantage resulting from a division of labour, there is the penalty of a narrowed horizon, and groups of men work side by side whose language is unintelligible to each other.
Here is where the historian comes in, with two definite objects, teaching the method by which the knowledge has been gained, the evolution of the subject, and correlating the innumerable subdivisions in a philosophy at once, in Plato’s words, a science in itself as well as of other sciences. For example, the student of physics may know Crookes’s tubes and their relation to Röntgen, but he cannot have a true conception of the atomic theory without a knowledge of Democritus; and the exponent of Madame Curie and of Sir J. J. Thomson will find his happiest illustrations from the writings of Lucretius. It is unfortunate that the progress of science makes useless the very works that made progress possible; and the student is too apt to think that because useless now they have never been of value.
The need of a comprehensive study of the methods of science is now widely recognized, and to recognize this need important Journals have been started, notably Isis, published by our Belgian colleague George Sarton, interrupted, temporarily we hope, by the war; and Scientia, an International Review of Scientific Synthesis published by our Italian Allies. The numerous good histories of science issued within the past few years bear witness to a real demand for a wider knowledge of the methods by which the present status has been reached. Among works from which the student may get a proper outlook on the whole question may be mentioned Dannemann’s Die Naturwissenschaften in ihrer Entwicklung und in ihrem Zusammenhang, Bd. IV; De la Méthode dans les Sciences , edited by Félix Thomas (Paris: Alcan); Marvin’s Living Past , 3rd ed. (Clarendon Press, 1917); and Libby’s Introduction to the History of Science (Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1917).
This volume of Essays is the outcome of a quiet movement on the part of a few Oxford students to stimulate a study of the history of science. Shortly after his appointment to the Philip Walker Studentship, Dr. Charles Singer (of Magdalen College) obtained leave from Bodley’s Librarian and the Curators to have a bay in the Radcliffe Camera set apart for research work in the history of science and a safe installed to hold manuscripts; and (with Mrs. Singer) offered £100 a year for five years to provide the necessary fittings, and special books not already in the Library. The works relating to the subject have been collected in the room, the objects of which are:
First, to place at the disposal of the general student a collection that will enable him to acquire a knowledge of the development of science and scientific conceptions.
Secondly, to assist the special student in research: (a) by placing him in relationship with investigations already undertaken; (b) by collecting information on the sources and accessibility of his material; and (c) by providing him with facilities to work up his material.
In spite of the absence of Dr. Singer on military duty for the greater part of the time, the work has been carried on with conspicuous success, to use the words of Bodley’s Librarian. Ten special students have used the room. Professor Ramsay Wright has made a study of an interesting Persian medical manuscript. Professor William Libby, of Pittsburg, during the session of 1915–16, used the room in the preparation of his admirable History of Science just issued. Dr. E. T. Withington, the well-known medical historian, is making a special study of the old Greek writers for the new edition of Liddell and Scott’s Dictionary. Miss Mildred Westland has helped Dr. Singer with the Italian medical manuscripts. Mr. Reuben Levy has worked at the Arabic medical manuscripts of Moses Maimonides. Mrs. Jenkinson is engaged on a study of early medicine and magic. Dr. J. L. E. Dreyer, the distinguished historian of Astronomy, has used the room in connexion with the preparation of the Opera Omnia of Tycho Brahe. Miss Joan Evans is engaged upon a research on mediaeval lapidaries. Mrs. Singer has begun a study of the English medical manuscripts, with a view to a complete catalogue. How important this is may be judged from the first instalment of her work dealing with the plague manuscripts in the British Museum. With rare enthusiasm and energy Dr. Singer has himself done a great deal of valuable work, and has proved an intellectual ferment working far beyond the confines of Oxford. I have myself found the science history room of the greatest convenience, and it is most helpful to have easy access on the shelves to a large collection of works on the subject. Had the war not interfered, we had hoped to start a Journal of the History and Method of Science and to organize a summer school for special students—hopes we may perhaps see realized in happier days.
Meanwhile, this volume of essays (most of which were in course of preparation when war was declared) is issued as a ballon d’essai.
WILLIAM OSLER.
CONTENTS
PAGE CHARLES SINGER The Scientific Views and Visions of Saint Hildegard (1098–1180) 1 J. W. JENKINSONLIST OF PLATES
PLATE FACING PAGE I. Hildegard receiving the Light from Heaven (Wiesbaden Codex B, fo. 1 r) Frontispiece II. The Three Scripts of the Wiesbaden Codex B (fo. 17 r, col. b; fo. 32 v, col. b; fo. 205 r, col. b) 4 III. Title-page of the Heidelberg Codex of the Scivias 5 IV. The Universe (from the Heidelberg Codex of the Scivias) 12 V. (a) Opening lines of the Copenhagen MS. of the Causae et Curae. (b) Opening lines of the Lucca MS. of the Liber divinorum operum simplicis hominis 13 VI. Nous pervaded by the Godhead and controlling Hyle (Lucca MS., fo. 1 v) 20 VII. Nous pervaded by the Godhead embracing the Macrocosm with the Microcosm (Lucca MS., fo. 9 r) 21 VIII. The Macrocosm, the Microcosm, and the Winds (Lucca MS., fo. 27 v) 28 IX. Celestial Influences on Men, Animals, and Plants (Lucca MS., fo. 371) 28 X. A Crucifix in the Uffizi Gallery; about the middle of the thirteenth century 30 XI. The Structure of the Mundane Sphere (Lucca MS., fo. 86 v) 32 XII. (a) Man’s Fall and the Disturbance of the Elemental Harmony (Wiesbaden Codex B, fo. 4 r). (b) The New Heaven and the New Earth (Wiesbaden Codex B, fo. 224 v) 33 XIII. The Last Judgement and Fate of the Elements (Wiesbaden Codex B, fo. 224 r) 36 XIV. Diagram of the Relation of Human and Cosmic Phenomena: ninth century (Bibliothèque Nationale MS. lat. 5543, fo. 136 r) 37 XV. An Eleventh-century French Melothesia (Bibliothèque Nationale MS. lat. 7028, fo. 154 r) 40 XVI. A Melothesia of about 1400 (from Bibliothèque Nationale MS. lat. 11229, fo. 45 v) Between 40 and 41 XVII. Facsimile from the Symbolum Apostolicorum, a GermanILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT
SCIENTIFIC VIEWS AND VISIONS OF SAINT HILDEGARD
FIGURE PAGE 1. The Hildegard Country 3 2. Hildegard’s First Scheme of the Universe (slightly simplified from the Wiesbaden Codex B, fo. 14 r) 9 3. Hildegard’s Second Scheme of the Universe (reconstructed from her measurements) 29 4. Dante’s Scheme of the Universe (slightly modified from Michelangelo Caetani, duca di Sermoneta, La materia della Divina Commedia di Dante Allighieri dichiarata in VI tavole) 31 5. Diagram of the Zones (from Herrade de Landsberg, Hortus deliciarum) 40 6, 7. Melothesiae (from R. Fludd, Historia utriusque cosmi, 1619) 41 8. The Microcosm (from R. Fludd, Philosophia sacra seu astrologia cosmica, 1628) 42 9. Diagram illustrating the relationship of the Planets to the Brain (from Herrade de Landsberg, Hortus deliciarum) 48 A STUDY IN EARLY RENAISSANCE ANATOMY 1. The first printed picture of Dissection (from the French translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, 1482) 80 2. Dissection Scene in the open air (Title-page of Mellerstadt’s edition of the Anatomy of Mondino, 1493) 82 3. Dissection Scene (from the 1495 edition of ‘Ketham’) 83 4. The first picture of Dissection in an English-printed book (from the English translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, 1495) 85 5. A Lecture on Anatomy (from the 1535 edition of Berengar of Carpi’s Commentary on Mondino) 85 6. Diagrams of the Internal Organs (after Bodleian MS. Ashmole 399, of about 1298) 88 7. A Female Figure laid open to show the Womb and other Organs (from the 1493 edition of ‘Ketham’) 91 8. The Abdominal Muscles (from Berengar of Carpi’s Commentary on Mondino, 1521) 96 9. The first printed Map of England (from the 1472(?) Bologna Ptolemy, edited by Manfredi and others) 100 10. Facsimile of the last page of Manfredi’s Prognosticon ad annum 1479 102 11. Diagram showing the ten Layers of the Head, the Cerebral Ventricles and Cranial Nerves, and the Relation of the Nerves to the Senses (from M. Hundt, Antropologium, 1501) 112 12. The Layers of the Head (from the Anatomia of Johannes Dryander, 1537)THE SCIENTIFIC VIEWS AND VISIONS OF SAINT HILDEGARD (1098–1180)
By Charles Singer
PAGE I. Introduction 1 II. Life and Works 2 III. Bibliographical Note 6 IV. The Spurious Scientific Works of Hildegard 12 V. Sources of Hildegard’s Scientific Knowledge 15 VI. The Structure of the Material Universe 22 VII. Macrocosm and Microcosm 30 VIII. Anatomy and Physiology 43 IX. Birth and Death and the Nature of the Soul 49 X. The Visions and their Pathological Basis 51I. Introduction
In attempting to interpret the views of Hildegard on scientific subjects, certain special difficulties present themselves. First is the confusion arising from the writings to which her name has been
But a fourth and more vital difficulty is the attitude that she adopts towards phenomena in general. To her mind there is no distinction between physical events, moral truths, and spiritual experiences. This view, which our children share with their mediaeval ancestors, was developed but not transformed by the virile power of her intellect. Her fusion of internal and external universe links Hildegard indeed to a whole series of mediaeval visionaries, culminating with Dante. In Hildegard, as in her fellow mystics, we find that ideas on Nature and Man, the Moral World and the Material Universe, the Spheres, the Winds, and the Humours, Birth and Death, and even on the Soul, the Resurrection of the Dead, and the Nature of God, are not only interdependent, but closely interwoven. Nowadays we are well accustomed to separate our ideas into categories, scientific, ethical, theological, philosophical, and so forth, and we even esteem it a virtue to retain and restrain our thoughts within limits that we deliberately set for them. To Hildegard such classification would have been impossible and probably incomprehensible. Nor do such terms as parallelism or allegory adequately cover her view of the relation of the material and spiritual. In her mind they are really interfused, or rather they have not yet been separated.
Therefore, although in the following pages an attempt is made to estimate her scientific views, yet the writer is conscious that such a method must needs interpret her thought in a partial manner. Hildegard, indeed, presents to us scientific thought as an undifferentiated factor, and an attempt is here made to separate it by the artificial but not unscientific process of dissection from the organic matrix in which it is embedded.
The extensive literature that has risen around the life and works of Hildegard has come from the hands of writers who have shown no interest in natural knowledge, while those who have occupied themselves with the history of science have, on their side, largely neglected the period to which Hildegard belongs, allured by the richer harvest of the full scholastic age which followed. This essay is an attempt to fill in a small part of the lacuna.
II. Life and Works
Hildegard of Bingen was born in 1098, of noble parentage, at Böckelheim, on the river Nahe, near Sponheim. Destined from an early age to a religious life, she passed nearly all her days within the walls of Benedictine houses. She was educated and commenced her career in the isolated convent of Disibodenberg, at the junction of the Nahe and the Glan, where she rose to be abbess. In 1147 she and some of her nuns migrated to a new convent on the Rupertsberg, a finely placed site, where the smoky railway junction of Bingerbrück now mars the landscape. Between the little settlement and the important mediaeval town of Bingen flowed the river Nahe, spanned by a bridge to which still clung the name of the pagan Drusus (see Fig. 1). At this spot, a place of ancient memories, secluded and yet linked to the world, our abbess passed the main portion of her life, and here she closed her eyes in the eighty-second year of her age on September 17, 1180.