Note 105 — THE SCIENTIFIC VIEWS AND VISIONS OF SAINT HILDEGARD (1098–1180)

Early mediaeval writers held that the lumbus, which we have rendered loin, was intimately connected with the sexual faculties. Thus Hugh of St. Victor (1095–1141), De bestiis et aliis rebus, iii. 60 ‘Lumbi a libidinis lascivia dicti, quia in viris causa corporeae voluptatis in ipsis est, sicut in umbilico feminis. Unde et ab Iob in exordio sermonis dictum est, accinge sicut vir lumbos tuos, ut in his esset resistendi praeparatio, in quibus est libidinis usitata dominandi occasio.’