A fact from Physica (Hildegard) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 9 April 2024 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that according to Lois N. Magner, Hildegard of Bingen's Physica is "probably the first book by a female author to discuss the elements and the therapeutic virtues of plants, animals, and metals"?
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Middle Ages, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the Middle Ages on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Middle AgesWikipedia:WikiProject Middle AgesTemplate:WikiProject Middle AgesMiddle Ages articles
The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.
... that the Physica by Hildegard of Bingen was the first book on natural history composed in Germany? Source: Magner, A History of Medicine (1992), p. 109.
I'll review this. I don't see any problems with the article; it's well sourced, and I don't see anything that would suggest copyvio or a lack of neutrality. It is new enough and (albeit fairly close to the mark) long enough to qualify. Hook is fairly interesting. No access to the source, so AGF. Generalissima (talk) 04:12, 18 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
With respect, I think the objection is somewhat forced with regard to books... Perhaps "first" can become "first known" if it's really deemed necessary but in any case I think that's easily the most interesting thing about the book and it would be quite a pity to change the hook just because of some "pessimism" (which, to be sure, is more justified in other cases...). KINGofLETTUCE 👑🥬19:10, 17 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Kingoflettuce I've moved the nomination back to WP:DYKNA, but I won't be promoting this right now, and while you can wait to see if other promoters do, I will note that DYK has started to time-out nominations that are over two months old to reduce the backlog, so I would suggest another hook, just in case. ~~ AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 14:47, 20 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Kingoflettuce I don't know why this is still open given that it is well over two months old and has never had an approvable hook, but really, this would need a different hook very soon. (For what it's worth, I seldom promote hooks, but I might have been willing to promote an attributed claim, e.g. ALT1: ... that according to Lois N. Manger in 1992, Hildegard's Physica was "probably the first book by a female author to discuss the elements and the therapeutic virtues of plants, animals, and metals"?)--Launchballer22:19, 2 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
My apologies, have been ill for some time but Launchballer's ALT sounds great to me. Hopefully someone else would be willing to promote it. KINGofLETTUCE 👑🥬23:54, 2 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Overall: @Kingoflettuc: I hadn't thought there were any unreviewed hooks all the way back here because I usually scroll past if there's any comments on a nomination. I was able to verify the ALT1 hook in Magner's A A History of Medicine, and I verified content in Wallis (2021) (I AGF the remaining content, cited to offline sources to which I don't have access). I am inclined to approve the hook. However, I noticed two minor problems in the article that I would appreciate resolution of: first, the Latin title and English translation thereof are both cited to Magner (1992, 109), but the page seems to verify only the English translation of the title and doesn't mention the full Latin title. Second, "simple book of medicine" in the article is instead "a book of simple medicine" in the source (Magner [1992, 109]); I presume the article ought to match the source. Once these two matters are resolved, I'll be glad to approve ALT1. Hydrangeans (she/her | talk | edits) 08:39, 3 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Kingoflettuce: Thanks for the quick fixes. Having verified the hook fact in its source, I am happy to approve the nomination, providing the new review and approval necessary for the ALT1 written by Launchballer (reproduced below since it's sort of buried in the middle of the nomination discussion right now):
... that according to Lois N. Manger in 1992, Hildegard's Physica was "probably the first book by a female author to discuss the elements and the therapeutic virtues of plants, animals, and metals"?