Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen
Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."

Updated 08-16-09
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)

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"...A BLAZING MIND LONGING TO SOAR ABOVE THE CLOUDS."
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Hildegard was the tenth child of of a noble German family. At the age of 8, she was sent to live with Jutta,
the sister of a count whom Hildegard's father served as a knight. When Hildegard was 14, she, Jutta, and one
or two others, were enclosed as anchorites. At some point Jutta's anchorhold grew into a Benedictine
monastery, connected to the adjacent male monastery of St. Disibod. The number of nuns grew to about 10
at Jutta's death in 1136 and to about 20 twelve years later.
After Jutta's death, Hildegard was named prioress, leader of the nuns but under the authority of the abbot of
St. Disibod. Within a few years, Hildegard told her confessor of visionary experiences; he had her write them
down and showed them to the abbot. The abbot and the local archbishop ordered Hildegard to continue
writing. After some resistance, Hildegard agreed and began the ten-year task of writing what would
become Scivias,
a report of 25 visions that would sum up Christian doctrine on the
history of salvation.
In 1147, Hildegard was still concerned, not about the truth of her visions, but about whether they should
be published, so she wrote to Bernard, abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Clairvaux. He responded
favorably, and when Hildegard's archbishop showed part of Scivias
to Pope Eugenius,
Bernard encouraged his fellow Cistercian to approve it.
While Hildegard was still working on Scivias
(and writing hymns --- some of her songs
were apparently known in Paris by 1148), she decided to leave St. Disibod with her nuns and establish a
separate foundation some miles away, near Bingen. The abbot of St. Disibod was not happy about the move,
but with the help of the archbishop, the foundation of St. Rupert's monastery was made by 1151, the year
before the completion of Scivias.
The early 1150's were a time of privation at St. Rupert's, but gradually Hildegard was able to enlarge
and consolidate the new monastery's holdings. She also wrote a series of non-visionary works:
Ordo virtutem
(Play of the virtues) a play which grew out of a passage at
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Hildegard of Bingen
the end of Scivias;

a medical encyclopedia,
Liber simplicis medicinae
(later
called Physica);
and notes for a medical handbook,
Liber compositae medicinae
(later
This was also apparently the period
called Causae et Curae).
in which Hildegard first collected her songs as Symphonia
armonie
(Symphony of the
celestium revelationum
harmony of heavenly revelation).
Around 1158 Hildegard began to write the second of her visionary works,
Liber vitae meritorum
(Book of life's merits), a work
of moral instruction. She also began a series of travels that would, over the next 13 years, take her to men's
and women's monasteries and to urban cathedrals to preach to religious and secular clergy. We know of these
trips because of the extensive correspondence Hildegard carried on until her death.
As soon as Hildegard completed Liber
in about 1163, she began to write her last
vitae meritorum,
major work, Liber divinorum operum
(Book of the
divine work), on the relationship of humans to God and to each other. This work took over ten years to
complete and seems to represent her most mature thought (it has not yet been fully translated).
We know little of Hildegard's last years. She completed her final preaching tour in about 1171, when she was
73 years old. Her long-time secretary died in 1173, but she said in a 1175 letter that she was continuing to
write regularly, despite the press of monastery affairs. (St. Rupert's had grown to include some 50 nuns,
plus servants and laborers; a new foundation with about 30 nuns had been had been made in 1165, and
Hildegard continued to supervise that as well.)
New critical editions of Hildegard's works are being prepared; until all of these are translated into English,
the reader can use what is currently available to hear Hildegard's distinctive voice.
On this page you'll find:
Links to helpful sites online.
Excerpts from and information about translations in print:
Scivias
Ordo virtutum
Symphonia armonie
celestium revelationum
Hildegard of Bingen
Liber simplicis
medicinae
Liber compositae
medicinae /Causae et curae
Lingua ignota
Explanatio regulae
Sancti Benedicti
Liber divinorum operum
Correspondence
Vita sanctae
Hildegardis
auctoribus Godefrido
et Theodorico monachis
/Physica
Information about:
Selections.
Secondary sources.
========================================================================
Online
1. Complete works:
(a) Ordo Virtutum,
in the original Latin and in a translation "based on"
that of Peter Dronke. (At another site, with a description of the play, a link to a PDF file of another translation,
by Linda Marie Zaerr.)
(b) Hugh Feiss' introduction to and translation of Explanatio
regulae Sancti Benedicti,
Hildegard's response to a c.1160 request by a men's monastery for help in following the Benedictine rule
(for excerpts, see below, under "In print").
(c) Thomas M. Izbicki's 2005 introduction to and translation of the
c.1170 Explanation of the Creed
of Saint Athanasius to
a Gathering of Her Sisters
,
in which Hildegard first reminisces about the founding of St. Rupert's and then uses the image of fire to explain
the concept of the Trinity to her non-theologian nuns. In an appendix Izbicki translates Hildegard's letter
Hildegard of Bingen
to theologians that introduced her vita of St. Rupert.

(c)
2. From Scivias:
(a) At the left of the page, link to Columba Hart's and Jane Bishop's translation (and the original Latin) of
two sections: the work's opening "declaration that these are true visions"; and to Book 2, Vision 5, on the
three orders of the church (monastic, clerical, and lay). You can also link to a hymn ("O Fiery Spirit, Paraclete")
and to a letter (to Guibert of Gembloux) in both English and Latin.
(b) An essay on Hildegard's treatment of the story of Adam and Eve, with five excerpts from 1: 2, translated
by Bruce Hozeski.
(c) A passage from 1: 4, on the "whirlwinds," the various temptations undergone by the soul, translated by
Hart and Bishop.
(d) An excerpt from 2: 2, on Hildegard's vision of the Trinity, translated by Hart and Bishop.
(e) Most of the first half of 2: 7, on the devil (with the appropriate illumination), in Hart and Bishop's translation.
(f) The opening of 3: 11, on the "last days" of the world, translated by James Opp.
3. From Symphonia
(you'll find alternative versions of the same hymn):
(a) Links to 27 hymns, given in the original Latin and in Norma Gentile's translation.
(b) Eleven hymns, in the original and in the translation of Kate Brown.
(c) In the appendix to a 1997 essay by Krista Scott, "Ego
Paupercula Feminea Forma:
Hildegard
of Bingen and the Re/Visionary Feminine," eight hymns, both in Latin and in Sabina Flanagan's translation.
(d) Seven hymns (either whole or parts) by various translators; at the end you can link to the Latin originals.
(e) Two hymns, in Latin and in Rupert Chappelle's translation; for both, you can also link to the music score.
(f) Another two, translated by Stephen D'Evelyn.
(g) Translations by Barbara Newman: "Spirited light!" ("O gloriosissimi lux"); "You, all-accomplishing Word of
the Father" ("O Verbum Patris"). (For other Newman translations, see "In print.)
(h) "Stem and diadem of regal purple," a translation of "O virga ac diadema" by Nick Flower.
(i) A translation by Barbara L. Grant of "Caritas habundat in omnia": "Love overflows into all things."
, all of the last section
4. From Liber divinorum operum
of the first part of the work, Hildegard's commentary on the opening of the New Testament's Gospel of John,
which Hildegard describes elsewhere as the core of Liber
; the translation is by Barbara Newman and is
divinorum operum
prefaced by an introduction in which Newman discusses the importance of John's prologue to Hildegard's view
of humanity.
Hildegard of Bingen
5. From other (or multiple) works:

(a) In her substantial entry on Hildegard in the 1995 German
Writers and Works of
the Early Middle Ages,
part of
the Dictionary of
Sabina Flanagan
Literary Bibliography,
translates passages from the major works and the letters, including passages not found in her 1996
study Secrets of God
(for information on that, see
under "Collections"); at the bottom of the page, you can link to a partially annotated bibliography of
manuscripts, editions and studies.
(b) Part of the earliest extant letter from Hildegard, written to Bernard of Clairvaux in 1147, translated by Joseph
L. Baird and Radd K. Ehrman. The letter is followed by excerpts from Scivias
and Liber vitae meritorum,
and a translation of
the hymn "O clarissima mater" ("Radiant mother of sacred healing!").
(c) A letter to Elisabeth of Schonau, written in the early 1150s, translated by Joan Ferrante; the original Latin
is also given.
(d) Use your browser's search function to go to "Hildegard" for, after two brief passages
a pre- 1158 letter of encouragement to Bertha-Irene, the Germanfrom Scivias,
born Byzantine empress, who badly needed the birth of a son to assure her position at the court of her
husband, Manuel I; the translation is by Ron Miller.
and to an 1175 letter to the monk Guibert of
(e) Links to the opening of Scivias
Gembloux, 25 years younger than Hildegard and an enthusiastic admirer. Also given are the two letters by
Guibert to which she is responding. (Guibert had written to her from his monastery in Belgium, praising her
and asking her very specific questions about her visions; when Hildegard didn't respond immediately, he wrote
to her of his disappointment --- and added a few new questions. Comparing Guibert's letters to
Hildegard's response highlights the straightforwardness of her style.) The translations are by Abigail Ann Young.
(f) In a translation by Christina van Tets, the complete entry from
Liber simplicis medicinae
,
on the plant mandrake, illustrating the organization of all the
or Physica,
entries: Hildegard always gives the item's qualities, value, and application.
for the first, go to "Hildegard" for several
(g) Briefer excerpts from Physica:
passages from Book 1 on the uses of a sauna; then, at another page of the same site, click on "water rinse"
for a brief passage from Book 2 on oral hygiene. The translator of both is Priscilla Throop.
(h) At the top of each page, two other passages from Book 2 of Throop's version
on the property of water, and on the caution needed when using water
of Physica:
from the river Rhine; for both excerpts you can link to the Latin original.
(i) From a 2004 essay by Gehres Paschal on the modern relevance of Hildegard's knowledge of medicine,
excerpts from Liber
compositae medicinae,
or
Hildegard of Bingen
Causae et Curae:
after a passage from her preface, a passage
on the treatment of madness, and a passage on difficulties of menstruation and childbirth. The translations are
by Margret Berger.
(j) Go to "Hildegard" for a passage from the last book of Liber
vitae meritorum,
on virgins in heaven who produce unique
music, translated by Hozeski.
(k) Six passages from various works in which Hildegard describes the working of the Holy Spirit and Wisdom;
the translations are by Newman, but "modified."
prepared
6. Some of the 35 illuminations from a facsimile of the original manuscript of Scivias
at St. Rupert's in the 1160s or 1170s under Hildegard's supervision. There is some repetition, but variations in
size and color are of interest:
(a) Five illuminations, with commentary by Deborah Voss on the use of color and shape.
(b) Near the end of an illustrated essay on Romanesque art by Charles Bergengren, six illuminations,
accompanied by Bergengren's commentary.
(c) Six illuminations.
(d) In a collection, four (each can be enlarged).
7. Illuminations from a manuscript of Liber
divinorum operum
from the early 1200s; some scholars believe
manuscript prepared under Hildegard's direction:
these to be based on an earlier
(a) In a 5-page 1998 essay by Mark Vornhusen on the possible meteorological origin of Hildegard's visions,
four illuminations, from Visions 1, 2, 5, & 7; Vornhusen also gives his translations of several passage from the work.
(b) A detail from an illumination in Vision 1, showing Hildegard receiving and writing (and perhaps also dictating)
a vision.
(c) An illumination from Vision 3, on human nature.
(d) A page from the manuscript, showing an illuminated initial; and at the same site, a detail of
another illumination in the same manuscript.
from
8. Not supervised by Hildegard, but of interest: an illustrated manuscript of Scivias
before 1220. At the top you can go through the work page by page; at the left you can link to some
illuminated pages and to later text sections.
9. Essays:
(a) "The Cosmic Vision of Hildegard of Bingen" (2000), by Stephanie Roth, discusses the views on creation
revealed in Hildegard's texts; Roth most frequently quotes
Hildegard of Bingen
Liber divinorum operum,

in passages translated
by Cunningham.
(b) "Forward to the Past: Hildegard of Bingen and Twelfth-Century Monastic Reform" (2000), by Jo
Ann McNamara, first describes the restrictive changes in women's monasticism through the 1100s and
then discusses Hildegard's resistance to those changes; quoted passages (mostly from the letters) are
in McNamara's own translation.
(c) "The Monastic Context: Hildegard von Bingen's
Ordo Virtutum"
(1992), by Audrey Ekdahl Davidson, discusses not
the play itself, but the monastic history that underlies it.
(d) "Saints and Sybils: Hildegard of Bingen to Teresa of Avila" (1990), by Benedicta Ward, compares the
two writers' attitudes (and those of their contemporaries) towards visionary experiences.
(e) "Divine Power Made Perfect in Weakness: St. Hildegard on the Frail Sex," (1987), by Barbara
Newman, describes Hildegard's presentation of herself as a woman preaching and writing; Newman gives her
own translations of passages from various works.
(f) A brief 1958 essay, by W.J.A. Manders (translated by Don Harlow), on one of Hildegard's most puzzling
(Unknown language), a glossary of over 1000
works, Lingua ignota
new terms that describe the world, including body-parts and illnesses; Manders gives the original of the one
hymn that makes use of such terms, "O orzchis Ecclesia." (At another site, from an 1100's manuscript, an image
of the 23 letters of Hildegard's created alphabet,
Litterae ignotae,
used in the writing
of Lingua Ignota.)
(g) At Lina Eckenstein's book, Woman Under
Monasticism
(1896), link to the chapter, "St Hildegard of Bingen and St Elisabeth
of Schonau." In the first paragraphs Eckenstein gives useful historical background; then she summarizes all
of Hildegard's works that had been published by 1896 and give her translations from several.
(h) The abstract of a 2007 article by Dennis Doyle, "Vision Two of Hildegard of Bingen's
Book of Divine Works:
A Medieval Map for a
Cosmic Journey"; you can download the article as a PDF file (441 KB). In the article Doyle sees the text (and
the illumination from the 1200s manuscript of Liber
divinorum operum)
as showing the human being to be a
divine work, and as opposing the dualist views of those sometimes called Cathers.
(i) The manuscript history of Hildegard's letters is briefly described in an English-language review of the
third volume (2001) of Lieven Van Acker's and Monika Klaes-Hachmoller's edition
of Epistolarium.
(j) An English-language review by Thomas Izbicki of the 2007 edition
of Hildegardis Bingensis:
Opera minora,
which includes De
regula sancti
Benedicti, Explanatio
symboli sancti
Hildegard of Bingen
Athanasii,
Expositiones
evangeliorum, Symphonia,
and Ordo virtutum.
10. At the site of the International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies, links to PDF files of of issues of
Qualelibet
;
each issue (600-800 KB) contains an essay
the periodical,
and abstracts. At the same site, a 2008 Hildegard FAQ, with information on recent research.
11. Reviews (for excerpts from or information on the translations, see "In print"; for information on the
other books' treatment of Hildegard, see "Secondary sources"):
(a) Stephen D'Evelyn on the third and final volume of The Letters
of Hildegard of Bingen
(2004), translated
by Joseph L. Baird and Radd K. Ehrman. At other sites, Barbara Newman on
Volume II (1998), and Lawrence S. Cunningham on
Letters,
Letters,
Volume I (1994).
(b) Sarah Foot on Baird's 2006 selection from the above three volumes,
The Personal
Correspondence of
Hildegard of Bingen
(c) Benedek Lang on Sarah L. Higley's 2007 translation of Lingua
Ignota.
Hildegard of
Bingen's Unknown Language.
(d) Helen Barrow on Columba Hart's and Jane Bishop's 1990 translation, Scivias.
(e) Andrew Breeze on the 2005 essay collection,
The Representation of
Women's Emotions in
Medieval and Early
Modern Culture.
(f) Newman on Maud Burnett McInerney's 2003 study,
Eloquent Virgins from
Thecla to Joan of Arc;
elsewhere, another
review, this by Robert J. Hauck.
(g) McInerney on Bruce Holsinger's 2001 study, Music,
Body, and Desire in
Medieval Culture:
Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen
to Chaucer;
and another review, by Warren Ginsberg; and still another, by
Leah Morrison.
(h) Joanna Griffiths on Fiona Maddocks' 2001 study, Hildegard
of Bingen: The Woman of
Her Age;
and another review, by Elise A Feyerherm.
(i) Barbara S. Oncay on Anne H. King-Lenzmeier's 2001 study, Hildegard
of Bingen: An
Integrated Vision.
(j) Jo Ann McNamara on the 1998 essay collection, Voice of
the Living Light:
Hildegard of Bingen and
her World;
and another review, by Nicholas Watson.
(k) Lesley Smith on the 1998 collection, The Tongue of the
Fathers: Gender and
Ideology in Twelfthcentury Latin.
(l) Brian Griffith on John A. Broadwin's 1997 translation of Heinrich Schipperges'
study, Hildegard of
Bingen: Healing and
the Nature of the Cosmos.
12. On Hildegard's music:
(a) A page from the earliest manuscript (c.1175) of Symphonia,
(with the
antiphons "Hodie aperuit," "Quia ergo femina" and "Cum processit factura").
(b) Click on the boxes marked "gif" to see transcriptions of an "Alleluia" and four hymns ("O magne Pater,"
"O pastor animarum," "O quam mirabilis," and "O vis eternitatis"), from the
Reisenkodex.
(c) "Hildegard on Trial: A Note Regarding the Narrow Reception of a Medieval Abbess-Composer" (2007), an
essay by Daniel DiCenso, reviews some recent studies of Hildegard's compositions and warns against viewing
those compositions as expressions of gender frustration.
(d) "The Music of Hildegard von Bingen" (2003), an essay by Olivia Carter Mather, discusses the sources
; Mather also provides
and imagery of the hymns and the manuscript history of Symphonia
a list of all of the hymns and an annotated bibliography.
(e) After a biography and general description of Hildegard's writing, Antonio Ezquerro's 1998 essay (translated
by Yolanda Acker) discusses her distinctive musical style.
(f) A 1999 essay by composer Christos Hatzis on his choral setting of the antiphon "O gloriosissimi lux
vivens angeli."
Hildegard of Bingen
(g) A musical analysis of "Columba aspexit," by Victorine Fenton.

(h) "Hildegard on 34th Street: Chant in the Marketplace" (2004), by Jennifer Bain, which discusses both the
made in the 1980s and 1990s and the marketing
records of hymns from Symphonia
strategy used to sell them.
hymns.
(i) A 2009 discography of Symphonia
13. A brief profile of St. Rupert's monastery (from here you can link to profiles of St. Disibod's and of Eibingen,
the daughter community of St. Rupert's).
========================================================================
In print
Scivias
[Columba Hart and Jane

Bishop have translated
the three books of
6 visions of Book 1, the
7 of Bk. 2, and the 13
of Bk. 3). Barbara
Newman offers a
helpful introduction
that analyzes each part
of the work; there are
also drawings by
Placid Dempsey based on
the original
illuminations.
the book's table of
contents online.)
Scivias (the
(See
:]
Scivias / Hildegard of Bingen; translated by Columba Hart and Jane Bishop; introduced by Barbara J.
Newman; preface by Caroline Walker Bynum (The Classics of western spirituality). New York: Paulist Press,
c1990. (x, 545 p.)
LC#: BV5080 .H5413 1990; ISBN: 0809104318, 0809131307
Includes bibliographical references (p. 537-539) and indexes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------"...new secrets and mystical truths, heretofore hidden in books."
Hildegard of Bingen
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[It is because the

Scriptures and the books
of the Doctors of the
Church are not followed
that this new book,
is needed. The speaker
here is God:]
Scivias,
But now the Catholic faith wavers among the nations and the Gospel limps among the people; and the
mighty books in which the excelling doctors had summed up knowledge with great care go unread from
shameful apathy, and the food of life, which is the divine Scriptures, cools to tepidity.
For this reason, I now speak through a person who is not eloquent in the Scriptures or taught by an
earthly teacher; I Who Am speak through her of new secrets and mystical truths, heretofore hidden in books,
like one who mixes clay and then shapes it to any form he wishes.
[Bk. 3: Vision 11, p.499]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------"...the captivity unjustly inflicted on him without his consent."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
[In Book 2, Vision 5,

on religious life, God
and Hildegard warn
parents against
forcing children
into monasteries:]
If you offer your child to me when discerning intellect is not in him, but all his understanding lies undeveloped,
and that offering is against his will because you have not sought his consent to it, you have not acted rightly....
And if you, O human, confine that child with such great strictness of bodily discipline that he cannot free
himself from the pressure of his soul's repugnance, he will come before Me arid and fruitless in body and
soul because of the captivity unjustly inflicted on him without his consent....
If I comfort him by miracle so that he may remain in the spiritual life, that is not for humans to look into; for
I want his parents not to sin in this oblation, offering him to me without his will.
[2:5, pp.227-28]
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Hildegard of Bingen
"...not knowing whether I am salted with wisdom or insipid, sweet or bitter."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Neither God nor

Hildegard have any
illusions about the
motives of some who
join religious communities:]
For some undertake the religious life renouncing not their own will but only their secular clothes, because
they have experienced misery and poverty instead of riches in the world; they leave the world because they
cannot have it as they wish.
Others are foolish and simple about the world and, being unable to guide themselves, are contemptible to
people; so they flee from the world because they are mocked by it.
Others labor greatly under the calamities of sickness and bodily weakness, and so leave the world not for My
sake but to remedy these afflictions more easily.
Yet others suffer such great anguish and oppression from the temporal lords to whom they are subject that
they withdraw from the world for fear of them, not so as to obey My precepts but only so that those lords can
no longer have power over them.
So all these come to the religious life not for the sake of celestial love but for the sake of the earthly troubles
they have, not knowing whether I am salted with wisdom or insipid, sweet or bitter, a dweller in Heaven or
on earth.
[2:5, pp.224-25]
===================================================================
[Caution: this
1986 translation by
Bruce Hozeski omits about
one-third of the whole;
the effect is frequently
to leave the
meaning unclear.
the book's table of
contents online.)
(See
:]
Hildegard von Bingen's Mystical visions: translated from Scivias by Bruce Hozeski; introduced by Matthew
Hildegard of Bingen
Fox. Santa Fe, N.M.: Bear & Company, c1995. (xxxiii, 430 p.)
LC#: BV5080 .H5413 1995; ISBN: 1879181290
[Originally published as: Scivias, with forewords by Matthew Fox and Adelgundis Fuhrkotter. Santa Fe, N.M.:
Bear, c1986. ISBN: 093968022X ]
===================================================================
Ordo virtutum
[Peter Dronke's
collection includes
his translation
of Hildegard's play,
virtutum. Dronke also gives
the Latin original, and
his introduction to
the translation includes
a thorough analysis.
(See the book's table
of contents online.)
Ordo
:]
Nine medieval Latin plays / translated and edited by Peter Dronke (Cambridge medieval classics: 1).
Cambridge [England]; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994. (xxxv, 237 p.: ill.)
LC#: PA8165 .N56 1994; ISBN: 0521395372
Includes bibliographical references (p. 236-237).
------------------------------------------------------------"God created the world... I only want to enjoy it!"
-------------------------------------------------------------
[At the start of the play,

a rather naive soul,
Anima, wants the
radiant robe of heaven:]
Anima:
Oh, sweet divinity, oh gentle life,
in which I shall wear a radiant robe,...
[But she doesn't want
the armor which she will
Hildegard of Bingen
need to fight the battle

of life:]
Anima:
Oh, grievous toil, oh harsh weight
that I bear in the dress of this life:
It is too grievous for me to fight against my body....
Knowledge of God:
of salvation:
be steadfast, and you'll never fall.
Look at the dress you are wearing, daughter
Anim
a: I don't know what to do
or where to flee.
Woe is me. I cannot complete
this dress I have put on.
Indeed I want to cast it off....
Knowledge of God:
who has set you here.
You do not know or see or taste the One
Anima:
God created the world:
I'm doing him no injury-I only want to enjoy it!
[pp.161-163]
========================================================================
Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum
[Barbara Newman gives both

a literal prose and a
verse translation, as
well as the original
Latin, of all of the hymns
of
Symphonia; the introduction
and notes on the
individual hymns
are detailed. The
1998 edition has an
updated bibliography
and discography;
Hildegard of Bingen
other changes from the

1988 edition are
minor.
table of contents online;
it gives the Latin title
of every hymn.)
(See the book's
:]
Symphonia: a critical edition of the Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum [Symphony of the harmony
of celestial revelations] / Saint Hildegard of Bingen; with introduction, translations, and commentary by
Barbara Newman. 2nd ed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998. (xiv, 328 p.: music)
LC# BV469.H534 S9513; ISBN: 0801485479
Includes bibliographical references (p. 321-326) Discography: p. 327-328
[1st ed: 1988: ISBN: 0801420091, 0801495148]
---------------------------"...building at dawn."
----------------------------
[For Hildegard,
virgins dedicated to God
are active agents of
their king. The antiphon
"O pulcre facies":]
Exquisite
eyes fixed on God,
blithe noble virgins,
beholding him and building
at dawn:
the king saw his image
in your faces
when he made you mirrors of
all heaven's graces,
a garden of surpassing
sweetness, a fragrance
wafting all graciousness.
[p.219]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------""How naive she is! The girl has no notion what she means!"
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Hildegard of Bingen
[In 1106, a group of

bodies were unearthed in
a Cologne cemetery. It
was believed that they
were the relics of
the English martyr Ursula
and her companions, who
had fled from
unwanted marriages and
were martyred at Cologne
some 900 hundred
years before. We know
that Hildegard's
first monastery had one
of the these relics,
and Hildegard wrote
several hymns in
Ursula's honor. From
the sequence for Ursula,
"O Ecclesia" (in the
Hebrew bible, Mount
Bethel is where Jacob
talked with God and built
an altar):]
Ursula fell in love
with God's Son in a vision:
her faith was true. She rejected
her man and all the world
and gazed straight into the sun,
crying out to her beloved,
fairest of the the sons of men:
"With yearning I have yearned
to come to you and sit by you
at our wedding in heaven!
Let me race to you strangely,
chase you like a sapphire cloud
where the sky is purest."
When Ursula had spoken,
Hildegard of Bingen
all people heard her and answered:

"How naive she is! The girl
has no notion what she means!"
And they began
the mock her in harmony--until the burden of flame
fell upon her. Then they learned
how scorn for the world is like Mount Bethel.
And they discovered
the fragrance of incense and myrrh--because scorn for the world
mounts above all.
[Stanzas 2-6, p.241]
========================================================================
Liber simplicis medicinae /Physica
[Hildegard's
called
Physica when it
was printed in 1533, is
her medical
encyclopedia. Under
nine general headings,
she tells of the
basic qualities,
the medicinal value, and
the proper application
of 230 plants, 63
trees, 45 animals, etc.
This translation by
Priscilla Throop is from
Patrologia Latina, which the
the
translator points out is
far from reliable; but
until a critical edition
is translated, it will
do. The copyright
page cautions, one
hopes unnecessarily:
Liber simplicis medicinae,
Hildegard of Bingen
"The remedies...
described herein...
should not be used to
treat a
serious
ailment...."
the book's table of
contents online.)
(See
:]
Hildegard von Bingen's Physica: the complete English translation of her classic work on health and
healing / translated from the Latin by Priscilla Throop; illustrations by Mary Elder Jacobsen. Rochester, Vt.:
Healing Arts Press, c1998. (250 p.)
LC#: R128 .H5313 1998; ISBN: 0892816619
--------------------------------------------------------------------"They busied themselves in aiding his life in every way."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[From the introduction

to the first section,
on plants. Throughout
the book, all creation
is judged by its
relationship to
and usefulness to humans:]
With earth was the human being created. All the elements served mankind and, sensing that man was alive,
they busied themselves in aiding his life in every way. And man in turn occupied himself with them. The earth
gave its vital energy, according to each person's race, nature, habits, and environment....
Certain plants grow from air. These plants are gentle on the digestion and possess a happy nature,
producing happiness in anyone who eats them.... Certain other herbs are windy, since they grow from the
wind. These herbs are dry, and heavy on one's digestion. They are of a sad nature, making the person who
eats them sad....
Every plant is either hot or cold, and grows thus, since the heat of the herbs signifies the spirit, and the cold,
the body.
[pp.9-10]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Many things can be done with them---but only good, honest actions."
Hildegard of Bingen
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

to the section on stones;
on precious and nonprecious stones:]
[Precious stones] contain many powers and are effective for many needs. Many things can be done with
them---but only good, honest actions, which are beneficial to human beings, not activities of seduction,
fornication, adultery, enmity, homicide and the like, which tend toward vice and which are injurious to people.
The nature of these precious stones seeks honest and useful effects and rejects people's depraved and evil uses,
in the same way virtues cast off vices and vices are unable to engage with virtues.
Some stones... arise from other, useless things. Through them, with God's permission, it is possible for for
good and bad things to happen.
[p.138]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"They were thus created... that the soul, with them, might feel and know...."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[The opening of the

section on birds:]
As long as it is in the body, the human soul, being airy, is lifted high and sustained by air, lest it suffocate in
the body. It dwells in the human body with sensitive intelligence and stability.
Since birds are lifted by their feathers into the air, and since they dwell everywhere in the air, they were
thus created and positioned in order that the soul, with them, might feel and know the things which should
be known.
[p.177]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Human rationality says to each person, 'You are this or that animal'...."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

to the section on animals:]
Lions and similar animals show the will of a person, which he wants to bring forth in works. Panthers, and
those similar to them, show the ardent desire in the already incipient work. Other forest animals represent
full abundance and show that a person has the potential to complete both useful and useless works. The
Hildegard of Bingen
tame animals that walk on land show the gentleness of the human being, which he has through his correct
ways. And so human rationality says to each person, "You are this or that animal," since animals have in
them qualities similar to the nature of the human.
[p.205]
--------------------------------------------------------------"If you suspect there is poison in food or drink...."
---------------------------------------------------------------
[From the last

section, "Metals" (life
in the Germany of the
1100s apparently had
its risks):]
Steel is very hot and is the strongest form of iron. It nearly represents the divinity of God, whence the devil flees
it and avoids it.
If you suspect there is poison in food or drink, secretly place a hot piece of steel in moist food, such as broth
or vegetable puree. If there is poison present, the steel will weaken and disable it. If the food is dry, such as
meat, fish or eggs, place a hot piece of steel in wine and pour the wine over the food.... Also, place the hot
piece of steel in a drink---whether wine, beer, water, or any other beverage....
There is so much power in the steel that it dries up the poison, making it less able to harm the person who eats
or drinks it. It will not be powerful enough to kill a person who tastes it, even though he may swell up or
become sick for a little while.
[pp.240-41]
========================================================================
[Bruce W. Hozeski
has translated, also
from the
and longest section of
on the properties and
value of 230 plants.
There are no notes, but
an index lists the plants
by their English names.
Patrologia Latina, the first
Physica,
:]
Hildegard's healing plants: from her medieval classic Physica / translated by Bruce W. Hozeski. Boston:
Hildegard of Bingen
Beacon Press, c2001. (xv, 192 p.: ill)

LC#: RM666.H33 H55213 2001; ISBN: 0807021083
Includes index
========================================================================
Liber compositae medicinae /Causae et curae
[Liber compositae medicinae, renamed
the following
century, appears to be a
set of notes made for use
at St. Rupert's and
perhaps for the teaching
of others. The notes
were put into some kind
of order, but never
finally prepared
for circulation, so there
is quite a bit
of repetition. In Part
1, Hildegard speaks of
the external world,
but always with reference
to human health (e.g.,
the kinds of water that
are safe to drink); Part
2 is on illnesses and
their causes, Parts 3 and
4 on cures, and most of
Part 5 on symptoms to
be looked for.
Patrick Madigan
has translated the work
from a German translation
of the Latin text.
One caution: The headings
are not Hildegard's
but added at least
100 years later; they
are often
Causae et curae in
Hildegard of Bingen
seriously misleading:]
Holistic healing / Hildegard of Bingen; Manfred Pawlik, translator of Latin text; Patrick Madigan, translator
of German text; John Kulas, translator of foreword; Mary Palmquist and John Kulas, editors of English
text. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, c1994. (xxii, 223 p.)
LC#: R128 .H513 1994; ISBN: 0814622240
Includes index.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------"The soul often sees the future by means of its prophetic powers."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[On the human soul and

its power. Hildegard
does not see her
own prophetic role as unique:]
Man contains the entire creation within himself, and the breath of life that never dies is within him....
As waters flow over certain places, so the soul penetrates the body and is more noble than it. Even when
our external eyes are closed, the soul often sees the future by means of its prophetic powers because it
already knows it can live without the body.
[p.41]
---------------------------------------------------------------------"...wondering if it should leave the body or remain in it. "
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[The soul's interaction

with the body can be
a worrisome one for the
soul; here
Hildegard describes a
serious illness marked
by high fever, brought
about by an imbalance of
the good and bad
humors within the body:]
Then the soul lies depressed in the body and waits, wondering if it should leave the body or remain in it. So
it continues until the seventh day because it cannot yet free itself from its foul humours.
Hildegard of Bingen
However, if it notices that the intensity of these humours, through the grace of God, is beginning to
recede somewhat, it then does come to the realization that it can free itself from these humours. And so it
gathers its forces again and by sweating it drives these foul humours out of its body. In this manner, the
person regains his health.
However, it often happens that because of their excessive heat and cold, the soul cannot completely drive
out these humours by sweating. Rather, the soul, gripped by fear because of happiness or sadness, anger
or anxiety, draws back and closes it self up in silence....
[pp.144-45]
------------------------------------------------------------"Either they will heal the person or he will die...."
-------------------------------------------------------------
[At the start of Part

3, which begins
the description of
poultices and medicines
to help the illnesses
that the book has
already described,
Hildegard makes a
prudent disclaimer:]
The medicament given below were prescribed by God to be used against the above named ailments. Either
they will heal the person or he will die if God does not will that he be healed.
[p.147]
--------------------------------------------------"If he has no oil, a little vinegar will do."
---------------------------------------------------
[The directions for

cures --- for pain of
all kinds, for sterility
or infertility, for anger
or melancholy, etc.
--- follow a
general pattern:
The directions are
spelled out clearly,
possible alternatives
are usually given, and
Hildegard of Bingen
the reason is
explained. Here is a
typical set of
instructions, this one
to cure a headache:]
If a depression conditioned by various fever attacks cause a person headaches, he should take mallow and
twice that amount of sage, crush these into a pulp in a mortar and pour a bit of olive oil on it. If he has no oil,
a little vinegar will do.
He should then apply it over the skull from the forehead to the neck and wrap a cloth over it. He should do this
for three days. During these three days he should add fresh olive oil or fresh vinegar in the evening and
continue this until he gets better.
For mallow juice releases the bile; however, the sap of the sage dries it up, the olive oil anoints the afflicted
head, and the vinegar draws out the bitterness from the bile.
[p.147]
========================================================================
[Margret Berger
has translated a
substantial portion of
Curae (medieval spelling:
Cure); however, the
sections are
arranged thematically
rather than as they were
in the original.
Berger's introduction
places Hildegard's work
among contemporary
medical treatises; she
also provides an
interpretive essay
which describes sources
and analyzes
various passages. The
notes are minimally
helpful, but the
bibliography is
thorough.
Causae et
Cause et
(See the
Hildegard of Bingen
book's table of
contents online;
there "K'"refers to the
sole manuscript, "CC" to
the edition used):]
Hildegard of Bingen: on natural philosophy and medicine: selections from Cause et cure / translated by
Margret Berger (Library of medieval women, 1369-9652). Rochester, N.Y.: D.S. Brewer, 1999. (xvii, 166 p.)
LC#: R128 .B465 1999; ISBN: 0859915514
Includes bibliographical references (p.156-163) and index
========================================================================
Lingua innota
[Sarah L. Higley has

edited and translated
simplicem hominem hildegardem prolata (An
unknown language
brought forth by the
simple human
being Hildegard), a
glossary of over 1000
terms written down
before 1159. The
edition /translation
follows the order given
in the St.
Rupert's manuscript
and includes variations
found in a 1200s
manuscript. It also shows
the 23 invented
letters that make up the
Ignotae litterae. In the first part of
the book Higley describes
the relationship of
to glossaries composed
before the l100s
and discusses scholary
and critical reaction to
Ignota lingua per
Ignota
Hildegard of Bingen
the work over the

centuries.
book's table of
contents online.)
(See the
:]
Higley, Sarah L. Hildegard of Bingen's unknown language: an edition, translation, and discussion (The new
Middle Ages). New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. (xvi, 246 p.: ill.)
LC#: BX4700.H5 H55613 2007; ISBN: 9781403976734
Includes bibliographical references (p. [231]-237) and index
--------------------------------"Curizan:
---------------------------------
jewelry settings"
[The words are arranged

in groups and
subgroups, those relating
to the spiritual
world followed by
those concerning the
human world. Numbers
611 through 628
are described by Higley
as "Clothing for
Hildegard's Nuns on
Massday"; here are #s
619-628 (but without
the Latin of
either manuscript that
is given in Higley's text):]
Naschiz:
Rasinz:
Hoilbaiz:
Ornalzanzia:
Kanulzial:
Oiralbriun:
Naczuon:
Gragischon:
Naurizin:
Curizan:
linen clothing
veil
head covering
hairband
nun's veil
earrings
necklace
bracelet
ring
jewelry settings
[p.178]
Hildegard of Bingen
========================================================================
[In
Liber vitae meritorum, the second of
her visionary
works, Hildegard deals
with good and evil
actions, by lay people
as well as religious,
and their respective
rewards and punishments,
in this world as in
the next. The work has
been translated by
Bruce Hozeski with a
helpful introduction;
the 1997 bibliography
appears not to have
updated from the
original 1994 edition:]
The book of the rewards of life / Hildegard of Bingen; translated by Bruce W. Hozeski. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1997. (xxiii, 290 p.)
LC#: BV5080 .H5313 1997; ISBN: 0195113713
Includes bibliographical references (p. xxi-xxiii)
[Originally published: New York : Garland Pub., 1994. ISBN: 0815308183]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"God created all things. How then can I be spoiled by all these things?"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Each of the first five

of the book's six
parts starts with scenes
in which a vice speaks and
is then answered by
its corresponding virtue.
The dialogues are vivid,
and as usual. the devil
Hildegard of Bingen
has the best

lines. Hildegard
certainly sounds as if
she had heard all
the arguments.
First, gluttony
and abstinence:]
This image said: "God created all things. How then can I be spoiled by all these things? If God did not think
these things were necessary, he would not have made them. Therefore, I would be a fool if I did not want
these things, especially since God does not want man's flesh to fail."
Again I heard a voice responding to these words from the cloud.... It said: "No one should play a lyre in such
a way that its strings are damaged. If its strings have been damaged, what sound will it make? None.
You, gluttony, fill your belly so much that all your veins are bloated and are turned into a frenzy. Where then is
the sweet sound of wisdom that God gave man?"
[p.74]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"If I flee work and other harmful things, God will not destroy me, will he?"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Then sloth and strength:]

This image said: "Why should I suffer a narrow and laborious life? Why should I suffer from so many
tribulations when I have not committed very many sins? Each and every creature is allowed to be itself.
Many, however, weep and howl and make their bodies so thin that they live only with difficulty. They live
depraved lives and add sin to sin. What does all this bring them? I, however, live a soft life and avoid hard work;
I do not even want any work. If I flee work and other harmful things, God will not destroy me, will he?"
I heard a voice from the storm cloud give an answer to this image: "....You are not like the serpents that work
in their caves and drag in food to feed themselves, nor are you like birds that build their nests and then seek
food to restore their bodies again. For what is alive and can give life in this life that can live without care?
Nothing, for this life is removed from the anxiously awaited life in paradise where eyes living in blessedness
are never darkened. You, however, O wretched one, living without God's wisdom and rejected by God's
mercy, desire things that no one can give you since you want to have these things without working for them
in your numb sluggishness...."
[p.177]
---------------------------------------------"God does not do any good for me."
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Hildegard of Bingen
[And sorrow and joy:]

I saw a fifth image that had the form of a woman.... She said: "Alas that I was ever created! Alas that I am
alive! Who will help me? Who will free me? If God knew me, I would not be in such danger. Although I trust
in God, he does not give me any good things; although I rejoice in him, he does not take evil away from me.
I listen to a lot of things from philosophers who teach that there is much good in God, but God does not do
any good for me. If he is my God, why does he hide all his grace from me? If he were to bring something good
to me, I might know him. I, however, do not know what I am. I was created for unhappiness, I was born
into unhappiness, and I live without any consolation. Ah! What use is life without joy? Why was I ever
created when there is no good for me?"
I again heard a voice from the storm respond to this image: "O blind and deaf one, you do not know what
you have said.... Behold the sun, moon, stars and all the embellishments of the earth's greenness, and
consider what great prosperity God gives to man in those things.... Who gives you these bright and good
things unless it is God? When the day rushes up to you, you call it the night; when salvation is present to you,
you say that it is a curse, and when good things come to you, you say they are evil...."
[p.226]
========================================================================
Explanatio regulae Sancti Benedicti
[Sometime in the late

1150s or early 1160s,
a religious community of
men wrote to
Hildegard, asking for
her views on "what
is needful" to follow
the Rule of St.
Benedict. Hugh Feiss has
made a critical
translation of both
the letter of request and
of Hildegard's
response, followed by
Feiss' commentary. (The
work is available online):]
Hildegard of Bingen. Explanation of the Rule of St. Benedict (Peregrina Translation Series). Trans. Hugh Feiss, O.
S.B. Toronto: Peregrina Publishing, 1995. (62p.: ill)
LC:BX3004 .Z5 H54 1995; ISBN: 0920669158
Hildegard of Bingen
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Each one, whether strong or weak or sick, would be able to drink."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Hildegard's explanation
of the Rule
repeatedly
emphasizes
Benedict's moderation
and discretion, and
his reliance on
the discretion of abbot
and monk. The image used
here is of a large cask
of wine or beer, lying on
its side, that has
been broached by a nail:]
[Benedict] poured forth his doctrine in the discretion of God. For he drove in the sharp nail of his doctrine
neither too high nor too low, but in the middle of the wheel, so that each one, whether strong or weak or
sick, would be able to drink from his according to his capacity.
[p.19]
--------------------------------------------------------------------"...he has no fear and can be bent toward what is good."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[On the training

of boys being raised in
the monastery (unlike
the Benedictines,
the Cistercians and
the other new orders
were recruiting only adults):]
...[J]ust as a boy under fifteen years of age is delicate of body, so he is delicate of mind. For the time being he
has no fear and can be bent toward what is good; he does not dare wantonly to resist those who correct him.
But when he reaches fifteen years he is already in the bloom of youth. Like a flowering tree strengthened by
the pith and fluids in it, so the powers of his mind surge up so that he disdains to accept and bear the
childish corrections he used to accept.
[p.45]
Hildegard of Bingen
========================================================================
Liber divinorum operum
[There is no
complete translation of
operum, the last of
Hildegard's visionary
works, but this
collection includes a
partial translation by
Robert Cunningham. Some
parts were omitted in
the Latin edition
that Cunningham used;
some parts available in
the Latin edition are
here either omitted
or summarized (some of
the omitted sections are
in Flanagan, 1996; see
below under
"Collections"). This
book also contains 41
of Hildegard's
letters, translated by
Ron Miller; and 12
songs, with musical
notation, translated
by Jerry Dybdal:]
Liber divinorum
Hildegard of Bingen's book of divine works with letters and songs / edited and introduced by Matthew
Fox; [illustrations, Angela Werneke]. Santa Fe, N.M.: Bear & Co., c1987. (xxii, 408 p. : ill.)
LC#: BV5080 .H5213 1987; ISBN: 0939680351
Bibliography: p. xxii.
------------------------------------------------------------------------"The soul may... let the flesh take delight in earthly things."
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Hildegard of Bingen
[Hildegard's book reports

ten visions which show
the love of God revealed
in man and in man's
relation to Christ.
The first part of the work
is on of the world
of humanity; here
Hildegard speaks of the
need to consider the
needs of both body and soul:]
Zeal for goodness is like a day when we can ponder everything in our mind, while laziness is like a night where
we can no longer see anything at all. Just as the night is often moonlit and then later overshadowed if the
moon goes under, our deeds are all mixed up. Sometimes they are luminous and at other times they are dark.
If our soul, under the body's urging, does evil with the body. the power of our soul will be darkened, because
the light of the truth is missing. But if later the soul feels humiliated by sin and rises up again in opposition to
the desires of the flesh, it will henceforth harry that flesh and hinder its evil deeds....
Indeed, the soul sustains the flesh, just as the flesh sustains the soul. For, after all, every deed is accomplished
by the soul and the flesh. And, therefore, the soul can achieve with the body good and holy things and be
be revived as a result.
In this connection, it often happens that our flesh may feel bored when it cooperates with the soul. In such a
case, therefore, the soul may give in to its fleshly partner and let the flesh take delight in earthly things.
Similarly, a mother knows how to get her crying child to laugh again. Thus the soul accomplishes good deeds
with the body. even though there may be some evil mixed up with them. The soul lets this happen so as not
to overburden the flesh too much.
[Vision 4, pp.100-102]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"...so involved with each other that one of them is the work of the other."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[And of the
relationship between men
and women:]
When God looked upon the human countenance, God was exceedingly pleased. For had not God created
humanity according to the divine image and likeness? Human beings were to announce all God's wondrous
works by means of their tongues that were endowed with reason. For humanity is God's complete work....
Hildegard of Bingen
But the human species still needed a support that was a match for it. So God gave the first man a helper in
the form of woman, who was man's mirror image, and in her the whole human race was present in a latent
way. God did this with manifold creative power, just as God had produced in great power the first man.
Man and woman are in this way so involved with each other that one of them is the work of the other.
Without woman, man could not be called man; without man, woman could not be named woman. Thus woman
is the work of man, while man is a sight full of consolation for woman. Neither of them could henceforth
live without the other. Man is in this connection an indication of the Godhead while woman is an indication of
the humanity of God's Son.
And thus the human species sits on the judgment seat of the world. It rules over all creation.
pp. 122-23]
[Vision 4,
========================================================================
Correspondence
[Joseph L. Baird and Radd

K. Ehrman have
translated
Hildegard's
extant correspondence from
a recent critical
edition. The three
volumes contain about
350 letters by Hildegard,
as well as letters
addressed to her by
others. The organization
of the translation
(like that of the
early manuscripts) is
not chronological
but arranged by the
medieval status of
the correspondent. The
first volume contains
a thorough introduction;
in all volumes each
letter is given a
Hildegard of Bingen
brief explanation; notes

are detailed, and
each volume has its
own index .
table of contents of
Volume 3 online; it
lists the correspondents)
(See the
:]
The letters of Hildegard of Bingen / translated by Joseph L. Baird, Radd K. Ehrman. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1994-. (3 v.)
LC#: BX4700.H5 A4; ISBN: 0195089375 (v.1), 0195120108 (v.2), 0195168372 (v. 3)
Includes indexes. Bibliography: v. 1, p. 217-219.
-------------------------------"...as if they were gods."
--------------------------------
[Sometime before
Elisabeth of
1156,
Schonau
wrote to
Hildegard explaining
the scandal that had
been caused by
the publication
of Elisabeth's visions;
she wanted Hildegard
to "know my
innocence... [and] make
it clear to
others" (v.2,
p.119). Hildegard's
reply offers moral
support, but then a warning:]
Listen now, O my anxious daughter. The arrogant deception of the ancient serpent sometimes wearies
those persons inspired by God. For whenever that serpent see a fine jewel he hisses and says, What is this?
And he wearies that jewel with the many afflictions that distress a blazing mind longing to soar above the
clouds, as if they were gods, just as he himself once did.
Listen again: Those who long to complete God's works must always bear in mind that they are fragile vessels,
Hildegard of Bingen
for they are only human. They must always bear in mind what they are and what they will be.... They can only
sing the mysteries of God like a trumpet, which only returns a sound but does not function unassisted, for it
is Another who breathes into it that it might give forth a sound....
O my daughter, may God make you a mirror of life. I too cower in the puniness of my mind, and am
greatly wearied by anxiety and fear. Yet from time to time I resound a little, like a dim sound of a trumpet from
the Living Light. May God help me, therefore, to remain in his service.
[v.2, pp.180-81]
---------------------------------------------"What is this you are calling me to?"
----------------------------------------------
[Hildegard wrote to
the laity as well as
to clerics and religious.
In the early 1150s she
tells a countess that
simply thinking about
doing good was not
enough. She then
describes the duties of
an aristocratic laywoman:]
The person who does good works sees God, but the one who has a mere thought about good works is like a
mirror in which an image is reflected, but the image is not really there. So rise up and begin good works and
bring them to perfection, and God will receive you.
But you will respond: "I have a husband, and I am of the secular world. What is this you are calling me to?"
But in response I say that you should have mercy and benevolence and virtue (which tramples pride
underfoot). And, also, you should stretch out your hand to the weak and to those prostrated with troubles, and
you should be lenient to those who sin against you..., and you should not slay God in the face, that is,
begrudge the happiness God gave to others, lest you fall because of envy.
Then, you will live.
[v.3, p.124]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------"...like those whores who zealously and eagerly serve the world."
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Hildegard of Bingen
[Besides counseling
others, Hildegard also
had to control her
own monastery of St.
Rupert. That her nuns
did not always follow
her lead cheerfully is
shown in a letter she
wrote to them, probably
in 1161 or 1162.
She reports God's
words, first describing
the life they should
be living, and then:]
You, however, are not doing these things, for you turn instead to carnal desires, neglecting your proper duty.
For in one way, a way that inclines to the world, you set before Me all sorts of fleshly desires like those
whores who zealously and eagerly serve the world as they have been trained to do.... In the other way, you turn
to the pleasurable desires of those who frequently sweat in carnal embraces, in which lovers please lovers.
And I have never demanded this of you, neither by word nor by writing, nor by command, for you have joined
a spiritual --- not a carnal --- embrace. Yet you have become enslaved to carnal embraces, although I did
not choose you for the vain and soon-to-fade flowers of this rotting world. I brought you, instead, into the
vineyard of true election and true bliss....
[v.2, pp.166-67]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"At one moment, you are knights, the next slaves, the next mere jesting minstrels."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[In 1163, Hildegard

preached a sermon to
the higher clergy at
Cologne. Later, some of
the clergy asked her to
send them a copy. This is
a brief excerpt from a
long document, but
it reflects the
prophetic tone of the
whole. First the opening:]
Hildegard of Bingen
"The one who was, and is, and is about to come" speaks to the shepherds of the church:
[The words to follow

are, until the
last paragraph, are God's:]
....Oh, what great evil and enmity this is! that a person is unwilling to live an upright life, either for God's sake
or mankind's, but, rather, seeks honor without work and eternal rewards without abstinence. Such a one, in
his supposed sanctity, vainly longs to cry out, as the devil does, I am good and holy. But this is not true....
You are worn out by seeking after your own transitory reputation in the world, so that, at one moment, you
are knights, the next slaves, the next mere jesting minstrels, so that in the perfunctory performance of your
duties you sometimes manage to brush off the flies in the summer....
You ought to be the day, but you are the night. For you will be either the day or the night. Choose,
therefore, where you wish to take your stand....
[Hildegard and the

German clergy are
concerned about the
growing strength of
"certain people,"
the Cathars, a new
group that was
considered heretical,
but whose members
were praised by the
populace for their virtue:]
When this time comes, ruin will fall upon you at the hands of certain people, you wicked sinners, and they
will pursue you relentlessly, and they will not cover up your works, but will lay them bare, and they will say
about you: "These are scorpions in their morals and snakes in their works."...
The people who will say these things about you will walk about in black robes, with proper tonsure, and will
appear to men serene and peaceful in all their ways. Moreover, they do not love avarice, and do not have
money, and, in their secret selves, they hold abstinence as so great a virtue that they can scarcely be
reproached. The devil, however, is within these men....
Whoever wishes to escape these dangers, therefore, let him beware lest with darkened eyes he runs into the
nets of these woes. But let each, to the best of his ability, escape them through good works and the safe harbor
Hildegard of Bingen
of uncorrupted will, and God will provide him with His aid.
[At the end of the

sermon, Hildegard returns
to her own voice:]
Poor little timorous figure of a woman that I am, I have worn myself out for two whole years so that I might
bring this message in person to the magistrates, teachers, and other wise men who hold the higher positions in
the Church.
[v.1, p. 55-60]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"...influenced by the squalid morals of the people who surround you."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[A letter to King Henry II

of England, written
before the 1170 murder
of Thomas Becket,
Archbishop of Canterbury,
for which Henry would
be generally
held responsible:]
To a certain man holding a certain office, the Lord says:
Gifts are yours for the giving: by governing and defending, by protecting and providing, you may gain heaven.
But a black bird comes to you... and says, "You have the power to do whatever you like. Therefore, do this and
do that, take up this matter and that, for it is not good for you to look to justice, because if you are always
looking to her, you are not the master but the slave."
Do not listen to the thief that gives you such advice.... Look more diligently, instead, to your Father, Who
created you, because you have good intentions and would willingly do good if not influenced by the squalid
morals of the people who surround you, as you have been for some time.
Dear son of God, boldly flee from these things, and call on your Father, for He gladly stretches out His hand
to assist you.
Now, live forever, and remain in eternal felicity.
[v.3, p.116]
Hildegard of Bingen
--------------------------------------------------------"Your mind is like a wall battered by a storm."

---------------------------------------------------------
[And from the same period,

a brief letter to
Henry's queen, Eleanor
of Aquitaine, concerned
about her
husband's infidelities
but especially about
her children's future:]
Your mind is like a wall battered by a storm. You look all around, and you find no rest. Stay calm and stand
firm, relying on God and your fellow creatures, and God will aid you in all your tribulations.
May God give you His blessing and His help in all your works.
[v.3, p.117]
-----------------------------------------------------"...better than the naked words themselves."

------------------------------------------------------
[In a letter from the

last decade of her
life, Hildegard explains
to an abbess why she
speaks in
metaphorical language.
We don't have the
letter that brought
this response, but
perhaps the abbess
wondered why Hildegard
didn't speak more plainly:]
I say to you that never in the vision of my spirit am I wont to speak in undisguised words, but only as I am
taught. Thus I always employ some kind of metaphor, as it is written, "I will open my mouth in parables...."
God indeed has from the beginning set parables and metaphors before humankind, through which, usually,
they are taught the way to salvation better than the naked words themselves.
[v.3, p.63]
Hildegard of Bingen
--------------------------------------------------------------------"He may help you according to His will and your need."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[When asked, as she

often was by clerics
and religious, whether
they would be
saved, Hildegard
would reasonably respond
that they would be if
they followed God's
will. But two letters
from the 1170s to lay
people hint most clearly
at what for later
centuries would become
her reputation --- not as
a teacher but as a
fortune-teller. In the
first she answers a
woman asking about her
dead husband's
future (Hildegard will go
on to urge the widow to
pray for her husband's soul):]
...[I]n the vision of my soul I see many miracles of God, and, through God's grace, I understand the profundities
of the Scripture, but what sorts of things lie in store for individuals are not revealed to me in that vision.
[v.3, p.149]
[And in another,
she responds to a
more mundane request
(but even here she ends on
a gentle note):]
God reveals matters to me about the correction of sins and the salvation of souls, but nothing about how to
find treasure, because He is more concerned with the salvation of mankind than with transitory
treasure. Therefore, God has shown me nothing concerning the matter you ask me about, not even about
the danger.
Hildegard of Bingen
Yet He may help you according to His will and your need.
[v.3, pp.150-51]
========================================================================
[For this selection,

Baird has reproduced 49
of Hildegard's
letters (about a seventh
of the total) as well
as those by others
that relate to them.
The arrangement is
thematic (unlike the
earlier 3-volume
edition) and each group
is given a
useful introduction.
The notes are helpful
though less detailed than
in the volumes above.
of contents online; it
lists the recipient of
each letter.)
:]
The personal correspondence of Hildegard of Bingen / selected letters with an introduction and commentary
by Joseph L. Baird. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. (xiii, 190 p.)
LC#: BX4700.H5 A4 2006; ISBN: 0195308220, 0195308239
"The letters in this volume are selected from The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen (3 vols.) translated by Joseph
L. Baird and Radd K. Ehrman.". Includes bibliographical references (p. 187-188) and index
========================================================================
Vita sanctae Hildegardis auctoribus Godefrido et Theodorico monachis
[During Hildegard's
lifetime, Book 1 of
her biography was begun
by Godfrey of St.
Disibod's, her secretary
Hildegard of Bingen
for about two years.

Ten years after her
death Theodoric
of Echternach, who
apparently never
knew Hildegard, put Book
1 "in order," and
wrote Books 2 and 3.
These later books
contain about a
dozen
autobiographical
passages that Hildegard
wrote or dictated
around 1170. This
valuable 1999 collection
of contemporary
documents, translated
by Anna Silvas from a
recent critical
edition, includes the
The introduction is
thorough and the notes
are extensive.
the book's table of
contents online.)
Vita.
(See
:]
Silvas, Anna. Jutta and Hildegard: the biographical sources (Brepols medieval women series). University Park,
Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999. (xxvii, 299 p.: maps)
LC#: BX4700.H5 S55 1999; ISBN: 0271019549
Includes bibliographical references and indexes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"So many mysteries are revealed to this foolish and unlearned woman?"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Hildegard on the
doubts raised in
others' minds during
her writing of
Scivias:]
Hildegard of Bingen
Then the ancient deceiver put me to the proof with many mockeries. For example, many were saying: "What
is this? So many mysteries are revealed to this foolish and unlearned woman when there are so many strong
and wise men? It will come to nothing for sure!"
For indeed many wondered about the revelation, whether it was from God, or from some withering influence of
the spirits of the air who lead many astray.
[Bk.2, ch.5, p.164]
---------------------------------------------------------"...this insufferable hammering away of mine."
----------------------------------------------------------
[And on the
internal opposition she
met from nuns at
St. Rupert's, apparently
in the early 1160s:]
But several of them, darting at me with glowering eyes, tore me to pieces with words behind my back, saying
that they could not endure it, this insufferable hammering away of mine at the discipline of the Rule, by which
I wanted to curb them.
But God also comforted me with other good and wise sisters, who stood by me in all my sufferings.
[Bk.2, ch.12, p.174]
========================================================================
[Hugh Feiss has

also translated the
from the new
critical edition.
Feiss' introduction
is useful, but the notes
are rather skimpy:]
Vita
The life of the saintly Hildegard / by Gottfried of Disibodenberg and Theodoric of Echternach. Translated,
with notes, by Hugh Feiss (Peregrina Translations Series). Toronto, Ontario: Peregrina Pub. Co. [1996]. (99 p.)
LC#: BX4700.H5 G62 1996; ISBN: 0920669549
========================================================================
Hildegard of Bingen
[This translation of the

is by James McGrath,
made from a 1980
German translation of
the Latin original.
The book's introduction
and bibliography
have apparently not
been updated from the
German edition:]
Vita
The life of the holy Hildegard / by the monks Gottfried and Theoderic; translated from Latin to German
with commentary by Adelgundis Fuhrkotter, O.S.B.; translated from German to English by James McGrath;
English text edited by Mary Palmquist, with the assistance of John Kulas, O.S.B. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical
Press, 1995. (ix, 134 p.)
LC#: BX4700.H5 G613 1995; ISBN: 0814622445
Includes bibliographical references (p.125-126) and index.
========================================================================
Selections
[Hildegard wrote two lives

of saints connected with
the monasteries in which
she lived:
Disibodi (c.1170). She used both
to convey her own beliefs
and moral teaching.
Neither has been
translated fully, but
Sabina Flanagan's
selection gives
extracts: four pages from
the life of Rupert,
and eight from the life
of Disibod. The book
also offers excerpts
from Hildegard's other
works (including parts of
divinorum operum that are not
Vita
Sancti Ruperti (1150s?) and
Vita Sancti
Liber
Hildegard of Bingen
in Cunningham's
1987 translation,
above), as well as a
useful
chronology, bibliography
and discography.
the book's table of
contents online.)
(See
:]
Secrets of God: writings of Hildegard of Bingen / selected and translated from the Latin by Sabina
Flanagan. Boston, MA: Shambhala, 1996. (xii, 186 p.)
LC#: BX4700.H5 A25 1996; ISBN: 1570621640
Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-181) index. Discography: p. 181-182
----------------------
[Mark Atherton
has translated a
selection of
excerpts arranged by
theme, illustrating
the development of
her thought. The excerpts
are from the major
works, the letters, and
Symphonia. All of the
material appears to
be available elsewhere in
the translations of
others, but the book has
a useful
introduction, including
a chronology,
discography, and
detailed notes
supplemented by a
glossary.
book's table of
contents online.)
(See the
:]
Selected writings / Hildegard of Bingen; translated with an introduction and notes by Mark Atherton
(Penguin classics). London: Penguin, 2001. (lviii, 253 p.)
Hildegard of Bingen
LC#: BX4700.H5 A25 2001; ISBN: 0140436049

Includes bibliographical references
========================================================================
Secondary sources
For an English translation of contemporary sources, see Anna Silvas' 1999 book,
Jutta and Hildegard:
the
The Biographical Source (
bibliographic information is given above, under Vita
The book contains, in
sanctae Hildegardis.)
addition to the Vita,
a life of Jutta, chronicles and documents relating to St. Disibod's and
St. Rupert's, writings of Guibert of Gembloux about Hildegard, and the documents used in the attempt at
her canonization. The general and specific introductions are detailed, and the notes are clear and helpful.
----------------------
[This is a
rewarding collection
of essays on all aspects
of Hildegard's
writing. Barbara
Newman's opening
essay, "'Sibyl of
the Rhine': Hildegard's
Life and Times,"
reviews earlier research,
as do several of the
other essays.
The bibliography is
thorough and will lead you
to earlier studies.
the book's table of
contents online.)
(See
:]
Voice of the living light: Hildegard of Bingen and her world / edited by Barbara Newman. Berkeley: University
of California Press, c1998. (ix, 278 p., [16] p. of plates: ill., music)
LC#: BX4700.H5 V65 1998; ISBN: 0520208269, 0520217586
Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-266) and index. Includes discography: p. 267-268.
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Hildegard of Bingen
[This collection has

several useful essays; one
in particular is
Newman's "ThreePart Invention: the
Hildegardis and
Mystical Hagiography,"
an excellent analysis
of Hildegard's
contribution to the work
by Godfrey and Theodore.
The book has a useful
(See the book's
index.
table of contents online.)
Vita S.
Hildegard of Bingen: the context of her thought and art / edited by Charles Burnett and Peter Dronke
(Warburg Institute colloquia, 1352-9986; 4) . London: The Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study,
University of London, 1998. (234 p.: ill., music)
LC#:BV4700 .H5 H56 1998; ISBN: 0854811184
------------------------
[Sabina Flanagan's study is

a good introduction
to Hildegard's life
and writings. The text
of the 1998 edition
is almost unchanged from
that of the original
1989 edition, but some
of the notes and
the bibliography have
been updated.
the book's table of
contents online.)
(See
:]
Flanagan, Sabina. Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179: a visionary life. London; New York: Routledge, c1998. 2nd
ed (xvi, 227 p.: ill., 1 map)
LC#: BX4700.H5 F54 1998; ISBN: 0415185513
Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-223) and index
[1989 edition: ISBN: 0415013402]
Hildegard of Bingen
[This group of essays from

a 1998 symposium include
two studies valuable to
the general reader:
(1) Peter
Dronke's
"Hildegard's
Inventions: Aspects of
Her Language and
Imagery" analyzes the as
yet untranslated
well as some songs
and illuminations, to
show Hildegard trying to
go beyond the limitations
of language. (2)
Bernard McGinn's
"Hildegard of Bingen
as Visionary and
Exegete" describes
how Hildegard went
about establishing her
right, first to have
her visions accepted as
true, and later to
explicate scripture --a role reserved to
the clergy.
McGinn's bibliographic
notes provide a
thorough review of
earlier Englishlanguage studies.
the book's table of
contents online.)
Lingua ignota, as
(See
:]
Hildegard von Bingen in ihrem historischen Umfeld: internationaler wissenschaftlicher Kongress zum
900jhrigen Jubilum, 13.-19. September 1998, Bingen am Rhein / herausgegeben von Alfred
Haverkamp; redaktion, Alexander Reverchon. Mainz: P. von Zabern, 2000. (637 p.: ill. (some col.), maps, plans)
LC#: BX4700 .H5 H53 2000; ISBN: 3805324456
Hildegard of Bingen
German and English. Includes bibliographical references and index

------------------------
[Two essays in
this collection deal
with Hildegard: (1)
Beverly
Kienzle's
"Constructing Heaven
in Hildegard of Bingen's
Expositiones evangeliorum" discusses
the treatment of
heaven shown in the series
of discourses on the
Gospels that
Hildegard recorded for
the nuns at St.
Rupert's during the
1150s; Kienzle gives
her paraphrase
and translation of
passages from the asyet-untranslated work.
(2) Steven
D'Evelyn's "Heaven
as Performance
and Participation in the
Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum of Hildegard
of Bingen" analyzes
four hymns, using his
own translations.
the book's table of
contents online.)
(See
:]
Envisaging heaven in the Middle ages / edited by Carolyn Muessig and Ad Putter; with the assistance of
Gareth Griffith and Judith Jefferson (Routledge studies in medieval religion and culture; 6). London; New
York: Routledge, 2007. (x, 258 p.: ill.)
LC#: BT846.3 .E58 2007; ISBN: 9780415383837
Includes bibliographical references and index
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Hildegard of Bingen
[In this collection is

a later essay by
Kienzle, "Performing
the Gospel Stories:
Hildegard of
Bingen's Dramatic Exegesis
Expositiones euangeliorum," which looks
in the
at the discourses on
the Gospels as
performative events. With
the originals and her
own translations,
Kienzle illustrates the
way Hildegard's
glosses extend the
biblical stories to the
lives of her listeners.
:]
Visualizing medieval performance: perspectives, histories, contexts / edited by Elina Gertsman. Aldershot,
England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, c2008 (348 p.: ill., maps, plans, facsims.)
LC#: PN1581 .V57 2008; ISBN: 9780754664369
-----------------------
[Victoria Sweet's
detailed study of
looks at what the work
tells us both of
Hildegard and of the
nature and purposes
of premodern
medicine. Excerpts are
in Sweet's translation,
with the original given
in the notes.
the book's table of
contents online.)
Causae et Curae
(See
:]
Sweet, Victoria. Rooted in the earth, rooted in the sky: Hildegard of Bingen and premodern medicine (Studies
Hildegard of Bingen
in medieval history and culture). New York: Routledge, 2006. (xviii, 326 p., [4] p. of plates: ill. (some col.), map)
LC#: R144.H54 S94 2006; ISBN: 0415976340
Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-309) and index.
---------------------
[Jonathan P Green's
article on
first summarizes
scholarly views of the
work and of its
companion alphabet,
(a summary valuable
because most of the
studies are in German)
and then proposes
that Hildegard's purpose
was to create a parallel
to the contemporary use
of Greek phrases to
adorn Latin poems.
the issue's table
Lingua ignota
Litterae ignotae,
(See
:]
Green, Jonathan P. A new gloss on Hildegard of Bingen's Lingua

35 (2005), 217-34.
ignota. Viator,
LC#: D111 .V52; ISSN: 0083-5897
------------------------
[James J. Paxson's essay

in this collection,
"The Allegorial
Construction of
Female Feeling and
Forma: Gender, Diabolism,
and Personification
in Hildegard of Bingen's
virtutum," discusses the
play's personifications
of the virtues and what
the comments of the
character Diabolus
Ordo
Hildegard of Bingen
reveals about them.

the book's table of
contents online.)
(See
:]
The representation of women's emotions in medieval and early modern culture / edited by Lisa Perfetti.
Gainesville: University Press of Flordia, c2005. (222 p.: ill.)
LC#: PN56.E6 R47 2005; ISBN: 0813028299
Includes bibliographical references and index
---------------------
[Maud Burnett
McInerney's study contains
a chapter, "A Chorus
of Virgins: Hildegard's
Symphonia," which
illustrates
Hildegard's celebration
of female virginity
through her treatment
of Eve, Mary, and Ursula
in her hymns and in
Virtutem. Another chapter
discusses
Hildegard's
descriptions (pp.152-61)
of two male virgins: John
the Apostle; and Rupert,
the patron of
Hildegard's monastery.
Quoted passages are given
in McInerney's
own translation.
the book's table of
contents online.)
Ordo
(See
:]
McInerney, Maud Burnett. Eloquent virgins from Thecla to Joan of Arc / Maud Burnett McInerney (The New
Middle Ages). New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. (250 p.: ill.)
LC#: PN682.V56 M38 2003; ISBN: 0312223501
Hildegard of Bingen
[Bruce W. Holsinger's
study includes a
thought-provoking chapter,
Tactu Viri: The Musical Somatics
of Hildegard of
Bingen," which
discusses several of the
Symphonia hymns to show what
they reveal of
female eroticism,
achieved "without the
touch of a man."
Most frequently
Holsinger provides his
own translations, both
of the hymns and
of quotations
from Hildegard's other
works; he also discusses
and illustrates the
musical notation of
three hymns.
book's table of
contents online.)
"Sine
(See the
:]
Holsinger, Bruce W. Music, body, and desire in medieval culture: Hildegard of Bingen to Chaucer
(Figurae). Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2001. (xviii, 472 p. : ill.)
LC#: ML3845 .H64 2001; ISBN: 0804732019, 0804740585
---------------------
[Constant J. Mews'
article studies the
evolution of
Hildegard's thought
on reform, of the church
and of humanity, shown in
a comparison of her first
and last major works.
Mews sees a broadening of
her views but also
Hildegard of Bingen
an increasing pessimism.
(See the issue's table
Mews, Constant J. From Scivias
Divinorum Operum:
to reform. The Journal of
Religious History,
LC#: BL1 .J6 v.24; ISSN: 0022-4227
-------------------------
:]
to the Liber
Hildegard's apocalyptic imagination and the call

24:1 (2000), 44-56.
[Jessica Weinstein's
article sees Theodoric
of Echternach's work on
the
Vita
sanctae Hildegardis as a rewriting
of Hildegard into
a "carefully
edited, sanitized,
and reconstructed
image" that would
be considered eligible
for canonization.
(Halfway down the page,
see the issue's table
:]
Weinstein, Jessica. Textualizing and contextualizing Hildegard's body in Theodoric's

Vita.
Magistra: a journal
of women's spirituality
6: 1 (Summer 2000), 89-103.
in history,
LC#: BX4210 .M224; ISSN: 1079-7572
-------------------------
[This collection includes

an essay by Joan
Ferrante, "'
audis': Hildegard, Her
Language, and
Her Secretaries,"
which discusses in detail
Scribe quae vides et
Hildegard of Bingen
how Hildegard
maintained authorial
control in her
interactions with each of
her scribes and
editors.
book's table of
contents online.)
(See the
:]
The tongue of the fathers: gender and ideology in twelfth-century Latin / edited by David Townsend and
Andrew Taylor (The Middle Ages series). Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, c1998. (211 p.; 24 cm)
LC#:PA8035 .T66 1998; ISBN: 0812234405
------------------------
[This collection
includes Kenneth F.
Kitchell and Irvin
M. Resnick's
essay, "Hildegard as
a medieval 'Zoologist':
The Animals of the
the bibliography will
lead you to the few
earlier studies in
English.
book's table of
contents online.)
Physica";
(See the
:]
Hildegard of Bingen: a book of essays / [edited] by Maud Burnett McInerney (Garland reference library of
the humanities, vol. 2037; Garland medieval casebooks, vol. 20). New York: Garland Pub., 1998. (xxvii, 257 p. : ill.)
LC#: BV4700 .H5 H55 1998; ISBN: 0815325886
Includes bibliographical references.
---------------------
[Heinrich Schipperges'
book, translated by John
A. Broadwin, is an
extended essay on
Hildegard's total work;
one valuable section of
Hildegard of Bingen
it (pp.79-86) is on
Sancti Benedicti. Schipperges looks
at Hildegard's commentary
in the light of her
other works and sees
a general guide to a
healthy life.
the book's table of
contents online.)
Explanatio regulae
(See
:]
Schipperges, Heinrich. Hildegard of Bingen: healing and the nature of the cosmos/ translated from German by
John A. Broadwin. Princeton, NJ: M. Wiener, c1997. (122 p.: ill.)
LC#:BX4700 .H5 S2713 1997; ISBN:1558761373, 1558761381
---------------------
[This first volume of a

three-volume series
contains two useful
essays: Audrey
Ekdahl Davidson's "The
Virtutum," with translations of
part of the text by
Gunilla Iverson and
Bruce Hosinski; and
Marianne Richert
Pfau's
"Responsories, Sequences,
and Hymns in Hildegard's
Symphonia, with translations
by Barbara Newman:]
Ordo
Women composers: music through the ages / edited by Martha Furman Schleifer and Sylvia Glickman. New York:
G.K. Hall, c1996-. (1 score (vols.): facsims.; 29cm)
LC#: M2 .W88 1996 v. 1; ISBN: 0816109265 (v. 1)
" ... annotated, modern performance scores from the ninth through the twentieth centuries also
contain ... explanatory essays ..." Includes bibliographical references and index .Vol. 1. Composers born
before 1599
---------------------
[This collection contains

an essay by Melitta
Hildegard of Bingen
Weiss Adamson,
"A Reevaluation of
Saint Hildegard's
Light of the
Latest Manuscript
Finds," which describes
the problems of
determining
Hildegard's original
text, but which
also illustrates
Physica's popularity and
the varied uses to which
it was put by
later compilers:]
Physica in
Manuscript sources of medieval medicine: a book of essays / edited by Margaret R. Schleissner (Garland
reference library of the humanities; vol. 1576; Garland medieval casebooks; vol. 8). New York: Garland, 1995.
(xii, 212 p.)
LC#: R141 .M365 1995; ISBN: 0815308159
--------------------
[The section of Edward

Peter Nolan's study
that deals with
Hildegard contains
a stylistic analysis of
her letters:]
Nolan, Edward Peter. Cry out and write: a feminine poetics of revelation. New York: Continuum, c1994. (215 p.)
LC#: PA8030.C47 N65 1994; ISBN: 082640684X
Includes bibliographical references (p. [209]-212) and index.
---------------------
[One of this
collection's essays,
"Visions and
Rhetorical Strategy in
the Letters of Hildegard
of Bingen," by Gillian T.
W. Ahlgren, discusses
Hildegard of Bingen
the relationship
between Hildegard and
her correspondents:]
Dear Sister: medieval women and the epistolary genre / edited by Karen Cherewatuk and Ulrike Wiethaus
(Middle Ages series). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, c1993. (viii, 215 p.)
LC#: PN6131 .D4 1993; ISBN: 0812231708, 0812214374
Includes bibliographical references (p. [193]-206) and index.
--------------------
[Designed for
general readers,
"readers without
scholarly background" (p.
xv), Anne KingLenzmeier's book
gives background
information on medieval
life and thought,
plainchant notation,
etc. King-Lenzmeier
discusses all of
the translated works
(and several
yet untranslated)
by analyzing
representative sections
of each. The
bibliography seems thorough
to 1998; also provided
are timelines and
an annotated
discography.
book's table of contents
and introduction online.)
(See the
:]
King-Lenzmeier, Anne H. Hildegard of Bingen: an integrated vision. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press,
c2001. (xxv, 231 p.: ill.)
LC#: BX4700.H5 K56 2001; ISBN: 0814658423
Includes bibliographical references (p.199-224), discography (p. 225-227), and index
-------------------------http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/hildegar.html (58 of 59) [10/19/2009 11:35:27 PM]
Hildegard of Bingen
[This biography by
Fiona Maddocks is
another general
introduction to
Hildegard. Maddocks has
used only Englishlanguage sources,
relying heavily on
Anna Silvas' collection
of sources (for that,
see above), but she
gives solid information
on the historical
background. Perhaps the
most valuable chapter
is "Harps of God,"
which summarizes
current thinking on
the originality of the
hymns and the
illuminations. Notes
are minimal and
the bibliography limited:]
Maddocks, Fiona. Hildegard of Bingen: the woman of her age. Doubleday, 2001. (xviii, 332 p., [8] p. of plates :
ill. (some col.), maps).
LC#: BX4700.H5 M33 2001; ISBN: 0385498675
========================================================================
Updated 08-16-09
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Hildegard of Bingen

Return to the index of "Other Women's Voices."

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)

the end of Scivias;

to theologians that introduced her vita of St. Rupert.

(you'll find alternative versions of the same hymn):

5. From other (or multiple) works:

Liber divinorum operum,

(g) A musical analysis of "Columba aspexit," by Victorine Fenton.

[Columba Hart and Jane

[It is because the

[In Book 2, Vision 5,

"...not knowing whether I am salted with wisdom or insipid, sweet or bitter."

[Neither God nor

[At the start of the play,

need to fight the battle

Look at the dress you are wearing, daughter

You do not know or see or taste the One

[Barbara Newman gives both

other changes from the

(See the book's

[In 1106, a group of

all people heard her and answered:

Liber simplicis medicinae,

[From the introduction

[From the introduction

[The opening of the

[From the introduction

[From the last

Patrologia Latina, the first

Beacon Press, c2001. (xv, 192 p.: ill)

[On the human soul and

[The soul's interaction

[At the start of Part

[The directions for

http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/hildegar.html (24 of 59) [10/19/2009 11:35:27 PM]

[Sarah L. Higley has

Ignota lingua per

the work over the

[The words are arranged

http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/hildegar.html (26 of 59) [10/19/2009 11:35:27 PM]

[Each of the first five

has the best

[Then sloth and strength:]

[And sorrow and joy:]

[Sometime in the late

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Each one, whether strong or weak or sick, would be able to drink."

[On the training

[Hildegard's book reports

[Joseph L. Baird and Radd

brief explanation; notes

[In 1163, Hildegard

[The words to follow

[Hildegard and the

[At the end of the

[A letter to King Henry II

--------------------------------------------------------"Your mind is like a wall battered by a storm."

[And from the same period,

-----------------------------------------------------"...better than the naked words themselves."