[345] Citing Preyer, Gesch. d. deutsch. Mystik. 1874; Hauck, Kirchengesch, Deutsch. IV, 398; Von Winterfeld, Neue Archiv, XXVII, 297.
[346] Migne, 101, quaedam de natura hominis et elementorum, diversarumque creaturarum. Singer, taking the words as an exact title of one work, tries to deny that they apply even to the Subtilitates; but the writer of the Vita is obviously simply giving a general idea of the subjects treated by Hildegard.
[347] In what is so far the only known extant copy, a thirteenth century MS at Copenhagen, which Jessen discovered in 1859 and called attention to in 1862 (Act. Acad. Vindob., XLV, i. 97-116), the Titulus is Causae et curae (shown in facsimile by Singer (1917), Plate 5a.)
[348] Pitra, 7-8, “Et ego testimonio hominis illius quem ut in prioribus visionibus praefata sum occulte quaesieram et inveneram et testimonio cuiusdam puellae mihi assistentis manus ad ascribendum posui.”
[349] Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum historiale, XXVII, 83, and other actors cited from the Acta Sanctorum in Migne, col. 197.
[350] This may be a further explanation of the use of German words in some of her works and their absence in others.
[351] Migne, 17, 19-20, 73-74, 93, 101.
[352] It is, however, the order in at least one of the MSS, Wolfenbüttel 3591, 14th century, fols. 1-174, except that the second book is called Of rivers instead of, Of elements: “B. Hildegardis Physica seu liber subtilitatum de diversis creaturis, scilicet f. 2 de herbis, f. 62 de fluminibus, f. 67 de arboribus, f. 90 de lapidibus preciosis, f. 106v de piscibus, f. 120 de volatilibus, f. 141 de animalibus, f. 162 de vermibus, f. 168 de metallis.”
[353] It was, however, subdivided into three parts, treating respectively of fish, fowl, and other animals.
[354] The variety and confusing order of its contents may be best and briefly indicated by a list of chapter heads (pp. 33-52): De Adae casu, de spermate, de conceptu, quare homo hirsutus est, de reptilibus, de volatilibus, de piscibus, de conceptus diversitate, de infirmitatibus, de continentia, de incontinentia, de flegmaticis, de melancholis, de melancholice morbo, de elementorum commixtione, de rore, de pruina, de nebula, quod quatuor sunt elementa tantum, de anima et spiritibus, de Adae creatione, de capillis, de interioribus hominis, de auribus, de oculis et naribus, quod in homine sunt elementa, de sanguine, de carne, de generatione, de Adae vivificatione, de Adae prophetia, de animae infusione, de Adae somno, de Evae malitia, de exilio Adae, quare Eva prius cecidit, de diluvio, quare filii Dei, de lapidum gignitione, de iri, de terrae situ, quod homo constat de elementis, de flegmate diversitate, de humoribus, de frenesi, de contractis, de stultis, de paralysi.