I took members from our Book Club and our Women’s group to see the ‘Medieval Women: In Their Own Words’ exhibition at the British Library, October 2024. We had planned it from our work around IWD (International Women’s Day). This exhibition covered the campaign theme of ‘Inspire Inclusion’: “When we inspire others to understand and value women’s inclusion, we forge a better world. And when women themselves are inspired to be included, there’s a sense of belonging, relevance, and empowerment. Collectively let’s forge a more inclusive world for women.”
I was particularly interested in Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) as there is much speculation that she was on the neurodivergent spectrum. In line with being a 12th century nun, there were two themes; that Hildegard experienced disabilities that meet the criteria for ASD and the impact of Medieval Monasticism. Whilst I’m sceptical about posthumous diagnosis, it was still interesting to consider where Hildegard fitted in the medical canon of women, medieval times and being a nun.
The exhibition provided a voice for Medieval women. It demonstrated that they had active and varied lives. The chosen women demonstrated the female impact and influence across their private lives, public personas and spiritual realms. This exhibition focused on Europe from roughly 1100 to 1500, a period in which there was strong cultural interconnection across the continent. While most medieval sources from the period were written by and about men, women’s surviving testimonies offer insight into their contributions to Medieval socioeconomic life, culture. politics, In addition were the women running convents etc. and the often overlooked religious culture for/by women., and the vibrancy of female religious culture.
And finally, it was also nice to see a mention of Syon Abbey. The nuns in the abbey received an English translation of Catherine of Siena’s ‘The Dialogue of Divine Providence’. Whilst it wasn’t quite the erotic prose of the Welsh Gwerful Mechain ‘Cywdd y Cedor’, it still turned heads and demonstrated that fine line perception that women can only worship a god as either a virgin or whore. The Madonna complex was already alive and kicking in Medieval Europe. But this exhibition shows that women were kicking back. A perfect ending for our ‘Women’s Group’ as we’re still kicking back about women being late diagnosed.
Medieval women’s words also speak to the power of the female body, and the skill of female medical practitioners in a society in which healthcare provision was generally informal and domestic. This is where Hildegard comes into it. She was also known as the Sibyl of the Rhine. She was a German Benedictine abbess and active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, a polymath and as a medical writer and practitioner. There are more surviving chants by Hildegard than by any other composer from the entire Middle Ages, and she is one of the few known composers to have written both the music and the words. She is noted for the invention of a constructed language known as Lingua Ignota.( It consists of vocabulary with no known grammar; the only known text is individual words embedded in Latin. To write it, Hildegard used an alphabet of 23 letters denominated Litterae Ignotae; Latin for "unknown letters").
In terms of being on the spectrum, there is evidence from her childhood where she is described as having 'impairments’ in verbal and nonverbal communication as well as developmental delays in social communication before the age of three years. She was also demonstrating restricted or repetitive interests and behaviours. How much of that is due to her being her parents' 10th child is obviously unknown.
Guibert of Gembloux [1124/25-1213] wrote that the young Hildegard 'was in truth completely set apart, since from her infancy she made herself a stranger to all the cares and all the children of the world'. He also noted that she 'shrank from the embarrassment and was slow to obey', a trait that endured well into her adulthood. As an adult, she was known for her silence and few words. Few words does not mean a limited vocabulary. During her early adulthood she had a 'fear of people at the time' in her own writings, which she dictated to a scribe, since she herself had difficulty with learning to write and yet would later be a prolific writer, composer etc.. She also seemed to have episodes of obsessive behaviour, during which she 'received the heavenly command to change her place of dwelling…Sometimes she would suddenly rise from her bed and walk around all the corners and rooms of the anchor hold, all the while unable to speak'.
These behaviours are easily recognisable if you’re on the spectrum. Aspects of her childhood and adulthood are behaviours that I actively engage in. She also clearly demonstrates the three main Autism Thinking Styles; Visual, Musical and Verbal, as evidenced by her large canon of works.
When you consider the monastic element, here too there is evidence of it meeting her needs as a neurodivergent person. Living in a monastery enabled a structured lifestyle. For example having a low teacher/student ratio, hierarchical relationships, intense engagement and a systematic teaching style. In addition, the 'scheduled periods of silence’ would be heavenly without the divine interpretation. Sidebar, but the exhibition would have greatly benefitted from a Quiet Area and/or a SEND time slot. We booked the first slot at 10am and it was already too many people. Despite that, we loved this exhibition, and loved the interactive elements i.e. Are you a witch? It also felt incredibly empowering. For me especially, the written word. I left there with a book list to add to my reading pile.
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