Herrad of Landsberg
Herrad of Landsberg (Latin: Herrada Landsbergensis; c. 1130 – July 25, 1195) was a 12th-century Alsatian nun and abbess of Hohenburg Abbey in the Vosges mountains.
Born about 1130 at the castle of Landsberg, the seat of a noble Alsatian family, she entered Hohenburg Abbey in the Vosges mountains, about fifteen miles from Strasbourg, at an early age.
Hohenburg Abbey, also known as Mont St Odile, was run by Abbess Relinda, a nun sent from the Benedictine monastery of Bergen in Bavaria.
Many of these are symbolical representations of theological, philosophical, and literary themes; some are historical, some represent scenes from the actual experience of the artist, and one is a collection of portraits of her sisters in religion.
After having been preserved for centuries at Hohenburg Abbey, the manuscript of Hortus deliciarum passed into the municipal library of Strasbourg about the time of the French Revolution.
Selfportrait from Hortus deliciarum , c. 1180. The description in Latin reads: "Herrat hohenburgensis abbatissa post Rilindam ordinata ac monitis et exemplis eius instituta" . These are the initial words of the description from the last miniature (fol. 322–323) of the Hortus deliciarum .
