This book is an edition, translation, and philosophical commentary on Hildegard of Bingen's Unknown Language, a list of the things of her twelfth-century world recast in words of her own creation. Plates xi Acknowledgments xiii Abbreviations xv Part I The Lingua Ignota and its Place Within a History of Language Invention Introduction: Hildegard's Language as Vineyard and Edifice 3 One An Unknown Language by a Visionary Woman 13 Two Glossolalia and Glossographia 35 Three Medieval Language Philosophy 51 Four Fifteenth- to Nineteenth-Century Language Inventions 63 Five Play and Aesthetic in Contemporary Language Invention 79 Six Greening Language: Hildegard's Monastery Garden 101 Notes to Part I 113 Part II Manuscripts, Edition, and Translation of the Lingua Ignota Manuscript Information 145 Notes to Manuscript Information 159 The Riesencodex Lingua Ignota with Additions from the Berlin MS 161 Notes to the Translation 189 Hildegard's Lingua Alphabetized 205 Bibliography 231 Index 239