ABSTRACT
Lexical studies add to our knowledge in two ways: they contribute to the biography of a word or concept, and they shed an oblique light on the authors in question. For this volume on affectus, I have chosen to compare the two largest corpora produced by women writing in Latin. The works of St Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) include three substantial tomes of visionary theology—Sciuias, Liber uite meritorum, and Liber diuinorum operum—as well as an extensive correspondence. A little more than a century later, the nuns of Helfta in Saxony produced two significant works of mystical theology, the Liber specialis gratiae (c. 1291–1299) and Legatus divinae pietatis (1289–c. 1302). These are based, respectively, on the revelations of Mechthild of Hackeborn and her protégée, St Gertrude the Great, but the authorship of both is collective and largely anonymous. I will look here at the Liber specialis gratiae, which had a far wider dissemination and greater influence in the late Middle Ages. 1
