In this chapter, I look more closely at three works attributed to women writing in the twelfth century. One work, the Trotula, was probably not written by a woman, at least not in its entirety. It was set firmly in the written theoretical tradition of Galen, and was copied and disseminated in various forms throughout the sixteenth century. The others are attributed to and most likely written by an abbess named Hildegard of Bingen. Her works are less firmly rooted in the Greek theoretical tradition, instead being a combination of her own view of natural philosophy and medicine informed by her own take on Christian theology. Each of these works are examined for their comments on food and diet for women, with an eye towards discovering what can be determined about their relationship to folk medicine and regional variation in food consumption patterns in terms of their treatment recommendations.

These two authors, Trota and Hildegard, might seem an odd choice for comparison, simply because there is a well-documented history of the works attributed to Trota being used extensively in the Western written medical tradition, while the same is not true of Hildegard. I have chosen the Trotula here specifically because it is one of the most accessible and widely used gynaecological texts of the time period. In searching for evidence of dietary recommendations for women's health in the medical tradition, this is a likely candidate.