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.

1150

She also composed music and invented a language.

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The event

• Hildegard of Bingen invents a languagec. 1150 · Bingen am Rhein. 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.

12th century

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