The Greenest Branch

The Greenest Branch is the first book in a duology by P. K. Adams on Germany's first female physician Hildegard of Bingen.  The title is taken from one of the many chants that Hildegard composed "o veridissima virga."

The story begins the night before Hildegard's enclosure to the convent at St. Disibod in the year 1115.  While her parents are following the custom of tithing their tenth child to the church, they are awake all night discussing whether it's the right time. Her mother feels that at age 10 she is too young to leave home for the restricted environment of an anchorite convent. Anchorites stay secluded in one building and never leave.  Hildegard's father seems more concerned with saving money by giving his daughter to a smaller monastery.  Hildegard has only been told that monasteries are places of learning and since she wants an education she is excited about her prospects. When her parents leave her there the next day she is shocked by her fate. She is not allowed to take monastic classes nor is she allowed to use the library.

A few months later Hildegard succumbs to one of her spells, probably migraines, which lands her in the infirmary for two months. Abbott Kuno and Brother Wigbert, a physician trained in Salerno, decide that the rigors of being an anchoress are too harsh for her young years and she is allowed to remain in the infirmary and work as Wigbert's assistant. There she thrives. By asking to be taught Latin and to read medical texts she begins to be educated as a physician in her own right.  However, none of that happens without the constant interference from the prior Helenger. He does not approve of her working in the infirmary, reading anything other than the psalter, or even being let outside the convent.

I loved this novel and learned so much about church history as well as Hildegard herself. I did not know that the Holy Roman Empire and the Church were ruled by different emporers, popes and anti-popes simultaneously or that any of them were German.  Many changes in these offices occurred during our heroine's life that it was dizzying. The author's knowledge of the Middle Ages is incredible and she was able to give the reader her knowledge with an expert blend of narration and dialogue.

I was rather surprised that couples tithed children to the church and I think that surprised me more than how much Hildegard was able to accomplish as a woman for the era that she lived in. Obviously she was a money machine for the monastery. Still, she was doing a man's job in a man's world in the twelfth century.

I only wish I had read this book before. Book number two is on my kindle and I am starting it...now!