Written work
Unknown Language and Unknown Letters
Lingua ignota / Litterae ignotae
A hierarchical list of nouns (God, angels, man, parts of the body, diseases, ecclesiastical ranks, trades, calendar, clothing, tools, plants, trees, birds) in a language of invented roots and Latin morphology. It has been read as a secret language of the community, a mystical game or an attempt to restore the Adamic tongue before Babel; whatever its function, it is the earliest known constructed language with an identified author.
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Authorship note
A glossary of about a thousand invented words with Latin and German glosses, and an alphabet of twenty-three letters, preserved in the Riesencodex and in a Berlin manuscript. Hildegard mentions it in a letter of 1153–1154 to Pope Anastasius IV. Edition and study: Higley (2007).
Editions and translations
Editions in your language first, without hiding the others. Each with its cover and its store.
English
Hildegard of Bingen's Unknown Language: An Edition, Translation, and Discussion
Palgrave Macmillan, 2007
Translation: Sarah L. Higley
ISBN 9781403976734
Deutsch
Hildegard of Bingen
Wörterbuch der unbekannten Sprache (Lingua ignota)
The Conscious LibraryWörterbuch der unbekannten Sprache (Lingua ignota)
Basler Hildegard-Gesellschaft, 1986
ISBN 9783905143188
Ed. Marie-Louise Portmann y Alois Odermatt.
Other works by Hildegard of Bingen
- Scivias (Know the Ways) · 1151
- The Book of Life's Merits (The Book of the Rewards of Life) · 1163
- The Book of Divine Works · 1174
- Physica (Book of the Subtleties of Creatures) · 1158
- Causes and Cures · 1158
- Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations · 1158
- Ordo Virtutum (The Play of the Virtues) · 1151
- Letters · 1179
- Homilies on the Gospels · 1170
- Minor Works · 1170
- Life of Saint Hildegard · 1187
- Life of Saint Disibod · 1170
- Life of Saint Rupert · 1170
- Explanation of the Rule of Benedict
- An Explanation of the Athanasian Creed
- Solutions to Thirty-Eight Questions · 1176
- On the Excellence of Saint Martin
- Pentachronon, or Mirror of Future Times · 1220
Sources
- Higley, Sarah L. Hildegard of Bingen's Unknown Language: An Edition, Translation, and Discussion. Nueva York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
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