Herrade de Landsberg
v. 1130-1195 12th century
Patiently gathering what you have received, in order to hand it on.
Who was Herrade de Landsberg?
Abbess of Hohenbourg, on Mount Sainte-Odile, she spent years compiling for her canonesses a book with no equal: the Hortus deliciarum, an illustrated encyclopaedia holding Scripture, theology and the liberal arts together across more than three hundred painted leaves. In it she describes herself as a bee gathering nectar. The manuscript burned in the bombardment of Strasbourg in 1870; it survives only through copies made before the fire.
In their own words
I make known to you that this book, which is called Hortus deliciarum, I gathered from the various flowers of holy Scripture and of philosophical writing, like a little bee under God's inspiration, and put it together into a single honeycomb.
O snowy flowers, giving off the scents of virtue, resting always in divine contemplation: scorning the dust of earth, run to heaven, where you may see the Bridegroom who is now hidden.
O you whom on earth this prison shuts in, this sadness breaks, this labour weighs down, this exile wears out, this pain and this burning consume: in heaven seek Me as light, hope in Me as rest, know Me as homeland, hold Me as remedy, call on Me as shade.