L'abbesse et les poissons : un aspect de la zoologie de Hildegarde de Bingen

Among all the animals described by Hildegard of Bingen (a German benedictine abbess of the 12th century) in her scientific work Physica, fishes seem to be what she knew and observed best. According to many scholars, her "Book of fishes" might even be the most original contribution, in this field, to the whole medieval zoology. As a matter of fact, Hildegard's knowledge of aquatic fauna may be due to biographical, geographical and historical reasons : on one hand, she inhabited and founded cloisters situated on the river Rhine bank ; on the other hand, we know that fish played a great part in the diet of monasteries living under St. Benedict's Rule, which Hildegard herself commented in detail. We owe to her one of the oldest reports on Rheingau's fishes, and certainly a first-class linguistic document : the local fauna in her writings is actually called by vernacular names which are partly still used. The double way Hildegard looked at these fishes is particularly interesting, since she looked at them not only as useful for man (i.e. good for food and medicine), but also from a precocious zoological point of view, describing fishes' spawn, habitat of food.Parmi les animaux décrits par Hildegarde de Bingen (XIIe siècle) dans sa Physica, les poissons sont incontestablement ceux qu'elle le mieux connus, et le livre qu'elle leur consacre serait même, d'après certains commentateurs, l'apport le plus original, en ce domaine, de toute la zoologie du Moyen Age. On lui doit en effet un des plus anciens témoignages sur la faune aquatique du Rheingau, vue en fonction de son utilité pour l'homme, mais aussi dans une perspective proprement "naturaliste"