Another week passes.

Whilst many have filled the time up with constructive activities, others have found this difficult and time lies heavily as we come to terms with the effects of lock-down.

One group of unsung heroes are the posties who bring not just invoice reminders but occasionally

news from separated friends and family. Sometimes it is a package ordered via the internet. One of

these arrived at my house this week. It contained a volume entitled Physica by Hildegard Von

Bingen.

Let me tell you about Hildegard. She was a remarkable woman who lived a cloistered life in a

Benedictine abbey near Augsburg during the first half of the twelfth century.

Her name is immediately recognisable to singers through her monophonic compositions. You can hear them on You Tube; they sound like Gregorian chant on steroids.

Apart from music she was a mystic, a scholar and a much sort after counsellor to the great and good.

She was also a practitioner of natural medicine and my latest acquisition is her classic work on health

and healing.

It is really a concise treatise on the elements needed to practice medicine at that time:

plants, stones, fish, metals, animals, trees and reptiles. All are classified according to their perceived

qualities: hot, cold, wet or dry. Each quality is associated with a 'humour:' yellow or black bile,

phlegm and blood respectively. These properties were the indicators for the curing of disease.

Although Hildegard grew healing plants in the monastery garden, the Physica describes exotic

creatures (by European standards): elephant, lion, panther and even unicorn, information on their

healing properties gleaned from the ancient monastic library.

I wonder what she would have made of Covid-19?

Rupert Bevan