Hildegard of Bingen invents a language
A 12th-century nun creates an 'unknown language'
Abbess, composer and healer, Hildegard compiled a glossary of over a thousand words in her Lingua ignota, 'unknown language', and devised a 23-letter alphabet for it. Why is unclear — perhaps for mystical purposes; the language has no known grammar.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 12th century
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The first known reference to hops as a beer preservative is thought to come from a nun: Hildegard of Bingen, in her 12th-century book on healing plants. She also composed music and invented a language. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1136 The Novgorod Republic — 14 years earlier
Africa
- 1147 The Almohads take Marrakesh — 3 years earlier
Asia
- 1127 The Jingkang incident — 23 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Saladin (aged 13)
- Hildegard of Bingen (aged 52)
- Yuri Dolgoruky (aged 51)
- Andrey Bogolyubsky (aged 39)
- Averroes (Ibn Rushd) (aged 24)
- Henry II (aged 17)
- Minamoto no Yoritomo (aged 3)
- Anna Komnene (aged 67)
- Li Qingzhao (aged 66)
- Conrad III (aged 57)