El panal de Herrada: sabiduría, imagen y formación femenina en el Hortus deliciarum

Maximiliano Calderón-Gómez; Alonzo Loza-Baltazar

doi:10.22201/fesa.26832917e.2026.8.1.556

Authors

Maximiliano Calderón-Gómez National Autonomous University of Mexico (MX) https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0237-6626
Alonzo National Autonomous University of Mexico. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas. Facultad de Estudios Superiores Acatlán (MX) https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2173-1174

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22201/fesa.26832917e.2026.8.1.556

Keywords:

Herrad of Hohenbourg, Hortus deliciarum, wisdom, gender, visual pedagogy

Abstract

This essay examines Herrad of Hohenbourg’s Hortus deliciarum as a practice of composing and transforming wisdom for a twelfth-century female community. Taking as its starting point Herrad’s own metaphor of the bee, it considers the selection, reorganization, and transmission of theological, philosophical, and visual materials as a medieval form of authorship. The essay situates this practice within the reform context of Hohenbourg and within a broader tradition of visual pedagogy that includes Hrabanus Maurus’s carmina figurata and Hugh of Saint Victor’s mnemonic and contemplative practices. Finally, through an analysis of the Ladder of Virtues, it argues that the visual arrangement of knowledge could transform doctrinal transmission into an exercise of memory, comparison, and discernment for the canonesses of Hohenbourg.

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Author Biographies

Maximiliano Calderón-Gómez, National Autonomous University of Mexico

He is a researcher in the history of medieval philosophy, image theory, and medieval aesthetics. His work has focused primarily on Hugh of Saint Victor’s philosophy, the relation between pedagogy, visuality and memory; as well as, the philosophical dimension of architecture and the visual culture of twelfth century. Currently, he is developing a study about Hugh of Saint Victor’s Mystic Ark and its relation with spiritual formation and gothic architecture.
Alonzo, National Autonomous University of Mexico. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas. Facultad de Estudios Superiores Acatlán

He holds a PhD in philosophy by the Universidad Iberoamericana, and he is professor in the Licenciatura en Filosofía at the Facultad de Estudios Superiores Acatlán in the Universidad Nacional autónoma de México (UNAM). He is conducting postdoctoral research at the Investigaciones Estéticas in the UNAM. His lines of investigation include history of medieval and Early Modern philosophy, political theology, theory and history of image, visual culture. His recent study explores the relation between images, vision instruments, knowledge and mediation in medieval and Early Modern contexts.

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