ABSTRACT
Towards the end of the twelfth century Herrad, the abbess of Hohenbourg, embarked upon a project that would occupy her, and many of her nuns with her, for close to twenty years. By the end of her life she had produced a manuscript that later generations would celebrate both for the richness of its more than 340 magnificent illuminations and the tremendous breadth of knowledge it encompassed. Herrad’s manuscript, which she aptly titled the Hortus deliciarum, or Garden of Delights, included more than 1100 textual extracts drawn primarily from twelfth-century works of theology, biblical history and canon law, all presented within the framework of salvation history. Surviving charters concerning the monastery of Hohenbourg between 1178 and 1196 reveal Herrad as an energetic and ambitious abbess, who not only produced the magnificent Hortus deliciarum but also secured the properties of Hohenbourg and extended its interests in Alsace.
