Hildegard of Bingen

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

Updated 08-10-08

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 the end of Scivias; a medical encyclopedia, Liber simplicis medicinae (later called Physica); and notes for a medical handbook, Liber compositae medicinae (later called Causae et Curae). This was also apparently the period in which Hildegard first collected her songs as Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum (Symphony of the 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 vitae meritorum, in about 1163, she began to write her last 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:

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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 to theologians that introduced her vita of St. Rupert.

2. From Scivias:

(a) The work's opening "declaration," describing the c.1141 vision that led Hildegard to begin Scivias, accompanied by an illumination from the St. Rupert's manuscript.
(b) An essay on Hildegard's treatment of the story of Adam and Eve, with five excerpts from Book 1, Vision 2, translated by Bruce Hozeski.
(c) A passage from 1: 4, on the "whirlwinds," the various temptations undergone by the soul, translated by Columba Hart and Jane 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."  

4. From Liber divinorum operum:

(a) All of the last section 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 divinorum operum; the translation is by Barbara Newman and is prefaced by an introduction in which Newman discusses the importance of John's prologue to Hildegard's view of humanity.
(b) Sixteen brief passages from various parts of the work, translated by Robert Cunningham; they are preceded by a 1996 essay on Hildegard by Paul Harrison.

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 Literary Bibliography, Sabina Flanagan 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 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 from Scivias, a pre- 1158 letter of encouragement to Bertha-Irene, the German-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.
(e) Links to the opening of Scivias and to an 1175 letter to the monk Guibert of 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, or Physica, on the plant mandrake, illustrating the organization of all the entries: Hildegard always gives the item's qualities, value, and application.
(g) Briefer excerpts from Physica: for the first, go to "Hildegard" for several 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 of Physica: on the property of water, and on the caution needed when using water 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 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."

6. Some of the 35 illuminations from a facsimile of the original manuscript of Scivias prepared 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) A good place to start, 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 these to be based on an earlier manuscript prepared under Hildegard's direction:

(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.

8. Not supervised by Hildegard, but of interest: an illustrated manuscript of Scivias from 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 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) "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.
(e) A brief 1958 essay, by W.J.A. Manders (translated by Don Harlow), on one of Hildegard's most puzzling works, Lingua ignota (Unknown language), a glossary of over 1000 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 some of Hildegard's created alphabet, Litterae ignotae, used in the writing of Lingua Ignota.)
(f) 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.
(g) 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 (441KB). In the article Doyle sees the text (and the illumination from 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.

10. 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 Letters, Volume II (1998), and Lawrence S. Cunningham on 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) Helen Barrow on Columba Hart's and Jane Bishop's 1990 translation, Scivias.
(d) Maud Burnett McInerney on Bruce Holsinger's 2001 study, Music, Body, and Desire in Medieval Culture: Hildegard of Bingen to Chaucer; elsewhere, another review, this by Warren Ginsberg.
(e) Joanna Griffiths on Fiona Maddocks' 2001 study, Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age.
(f) Barbara S. Oncay on Anne H. King-Lenzmeier's 2001 study, Hildegard of Bingen: An Integrated Vision.
(g) Jo Ann McNamara on the 1998 essay collection, Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and her World.

11. On Hildegard's music:

(a) Two pages from the earliest manuscripts of Symphonia: one from c.1175 (with the antiphons "Hodie aperuit," "Quia ergo femina" and "Cum processit factura"); and one from the Reisenkodex, the collection prepared at Hildegard's death (with the sequence "O presul vere civitatus" and the start of the responsory "O Euchari columba").
(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) An abstract of and a link to a 2007 thesis by K. Christian McGuire, Symphonia Caritatis: The Cistercian Chants of Hildegard von Bingen, which proposes that some of her hymns were written in the 1170s and reflect Hildegard's growing interest in Cistercian spirituality; McGuire includes a close reading of three hymns, "Spiritus sanctus uiuificans," "Karitas habundat," and "Laus trinitati." The thesis can also be downloaded as a PDF file.
(d) "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.
(e) "The Music of Hildegard von Bingen" (2003), an essay by Olivia Carter Mather, discusses the sources and imagery of the hymns and the manuscript history of Symphonia; Mather also provides a list of all of the hymns and an annotated bibliography.
(f) After a biography and general description of Hildegard's writing, Antonio Ezquerro's 1998 essay (translated by Yolanda Acker) discusses her distinctive musical style.
(g) A 1999 essay by composer Christos Hatzis on his choral setting of the antiphon "O gloriosissimi lux vivens angeli."
(h) A musical analysis of "Columba aspexit," by Victorine Fenton.
(i) "Hildegard on 34th Street: Chant in the Marketplace" (2004), by Jennifer Bain, which discusses both the records of hymns from Symphonia made in the 1980s and 1990s and the marketing strategy used to sell them.
(j) "Mistaking the Tail for the Comet," a 1998 interview with Christopher Page, one of the first to record Hildegard's hymns.
(k) A 2000 dissertation abstract by Catherine Mary Jeffreys, "Melodia et rhetorica: The Devotional Song Repertory of Hildegard of Bingen"; you can download the entire dissertation as a PDF file.
(m) A 2008 discography of Symphonia hymns. 

12. A chronology of Hildegard's life (with links to illustrations and to a map of her travels). At another site, 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).

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In print

Scivias

[Columba Hart and Jane Bishop have translated the three books of Scivias (the 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. (See the book's table of contents online.):]

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.

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"...new secrets and mystical truths, heretofore hidden in books."
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[It is because the Scriptures and the books of the Doctors of the Church are not followed that this new book, Scivias, is needed. The speaker here is God:]

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]

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"...the captivity unjustly inflicted on him without his consent."
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[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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"...not knowing whether I am salted with wisdom or insipid, sweet or bitter."
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[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]

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[Caution: this 1986 translation by Bruce Hozeski omits about one-third of the whole; the effect is frequently to leave the meaning unclear. (See the book's table of contents online.):]

Hildegard von Bingen's Mystical visions: translated from Scivias by Bruce Hozeski; introduced by Matthew 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 ]

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Ordo virtutum

[Peter Dronke's collection includes his translation of Hildegard's play, Ordo 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.):]

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).

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"God created the world... I only want to enjoy it!"
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[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 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: Look at the dress you are wearing, daughter of salvation:
be steadfast, and you'll never fall.

Anima: 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: You do not know or see or taste the One who has set you here.

Anima: God created the world:
I'm doing him no injury--
I only want to enjoy it!        [pp.161-163]

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Secondary sources on Ordo virtutum

[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 Ordo virtutum," discusses the play's personifications of the virtues and what the comments of the character Diabolus reveals about them. (See the book's table of contents online.):]

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
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[This first volume of a three-volume series contains an essay by Audrey Ekdahl Davidson, "The Ordo Virtutum," with translations of part of the text by Gunilla Iverson & Bruce Hosinski; the article's bibliography will lead you to earlier studies:]

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
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[This collection of essays includes a worthwhile one not in Davidson's bibliography: Patricia Kazarov's "Text and Context in Hildegard of Bingen's Ordo Virtutem":]

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; other changes from the 1988 edition are minor. (See the book's table of contents online; it gives the Latin title of every hymn.):]

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]

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"...building at dawn."
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[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]

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""How naive she is! The girl has no notion what she means!"
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[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,
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]

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Secondary sources on Symphonia

Liber simplicis medicinae /Physica

[Hildegard's Liber simplicis medicinae, 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 the Patrologia Latina, which 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: "The remedies... described herein... should not be used to treat a serious ailment...." (See the book's table of contents online.):]

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

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"They busied themselves in aiding his life in every way."
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[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]

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"Many things can be done with them---but only good, honest actions."
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[From the introduction to the section on stones; on precious and non-precious 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]

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"They were thus created... that the soul, with them, might feel and know...."
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[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]

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"Human rationality says to each person, 'You are this or that animal'...."
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[From the introduction 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 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]

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]

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[Bruce W. Hozeski has translated, also from the Patrologia Latina, the first and longest section of Physica, on the properties and value of 230 plants. There are no notes, but an index lists the plants by their English names. (See the book's table of contents online.):]

Secondary sources on Physica

[This collection includes Kenneth F. Kitchell and Irvin M. Resnick's essay, "Hildegard as a medieval 'Zoologist': The Animals of the Physica"; the bibliography will lead you to the few earlier studies in English. (See the book's table of contents online.):]

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.
---------------------

[This collection contains an essay by Melitta Weiss Adamson, "A Reevaluation of Saint Hildegard's Physica in 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:]

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

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Liber compositae medicinae /Causae et curae

[Liber compositae medicinae, renamed Causae et curae in 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 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.

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"The soul often sees the future by means of its prophetic powers."
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[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]

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"...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.

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 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 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]

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[Margret Berger has translated a substantial portion of Causae et Curae (medieval spelling: Cause et 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. (See the book's table of contents online; there "K'"refers to the sole manuscript, "CC" to the edition used):]

Secondary sources for Causae et curae

[Victoria Sweet's detailed study of Causae et Curae 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 also talks about some of the terms used in Lingua Ignota; for those references, see the index.) (See the book's table of contents online.):]

[Joan Cadden's article provides a detailed analysis of Causae et Curae's treatment of sexuality and reproduction:]

Cadden, Joan. It takes all kinds: Sexuality & gender differences in Hildegard of Bingen's Book of Compound Medicine. Traditio, 40 (1984), 149-174.
LC#: D111 .T7;   ISSN: 0362-1529.

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Liber vitae meritorum

[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]

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"God created all things. How then can I be spoiled by all these things?"
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[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 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."

[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]

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"God does not do any good for me."
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[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]

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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

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"Each one, whether strong or weak or sick, would be able to drink."
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[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:]

[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]

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A secondary source on Explanatio regulae Sancti Benedicti

[Heinrich Schipperges' book, translated by John A. Broadwin, is an extended essay on Hildegard's total work, but one valuable section of it (pp.79-86) is on Explanatio regulae Sancti Benedicti. Schipperges looks at Hildegard's commentary in the light of her other works and sees a general guide to a healthy life. (See the book's table of contents online.):]

Liber divinorum operum

[There is no complete translation of Liber divinorum 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:]

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.

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"The soul may... let the flesh take delight in earthly things."
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[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]

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"...so involved with each other that one of them is the work of the other."
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[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....

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.       [Vision 4, pp. 122-23]

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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 brief explanation; notes are detailed, and each volume has its own index . (See the table of contents of Volume 3 online; it lists the correspondents):]

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 1156, Elisabeth of 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, 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]

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"What is this you are calling me to?"
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[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]

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"...like those whores who zealously and eagerly serve the world."
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[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]

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"At one moment, you are knights, the next slaves, the next mere jesting minstrels."
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[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:]

"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 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]

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"...influenced by the squalid morals of the people who surround you."
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[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]

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"Your mind is like a wall battered by a storm."
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[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]

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"...better than the naked words themselves."
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[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]

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"He may help you according to His will and your need."
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[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.

Yet He may help you according to His will and your need.      [v.3, pp.150-51]

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[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. (See the book's table of contents online; it lists the recipient of each letter.):]

Secondary sources on the correspondence

[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 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.

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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 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 Vita. The introduction is thorough and the notes are extensive. (See the book's table of contents online.):]

[Hildegard on the doubts raised in others' minds during her writing of Scivias:]

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]

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"...this insufferable hammering away of mine."
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[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]

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[Hugh Feiss has also translated the Vita from the new critical edition. Feiss' introduction is useful, but the notes are rather skimpy:]

[This translation of the Vita 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:]

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.

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A secondary source on the Vita

[Jessica Weinstein's article sees Theodoric of Echternach's work on the Vita 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 of contents online.):]

Selections

[Hildegard wrote two lives of saints connected with the monasteries in which she lived: Vita Sancti Ruperti (1150s?) and Vita Sancti 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 Liber divinorum operum that are not in Cunningham's 1987 translation, above), as well as a useful chronology, bibliography and discography. (See the book's table of contents online.):]

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
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General secondary sources

For an English translation of contemporary sources, see Anna Silvas' 1999 book, Jutta and Hildegard: The Biographical Sources. (The bibliographic information is given above, under Vita sanctae Hildegardis.) The book contains, in 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.
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[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. (See the book's table of contents online.):]

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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[This collection has several useful essays; one in particular is Barbara Newman's "Three-Part Invention: the Vita S. Hildegardis and Mystical Hagiography," an excellent analysis of Hildegard's contribution to the work by Godfrey and Theodore. The book has a useful index. (See the book's table of contents online.):

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
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[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. (See the book's table of contents online.):]

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]
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[This group of essays from a 1998 symposium include two valuable studies: (1) Peter Dronke's "Hildegard's Inventions: Aspects of Her Language and Imagery" analyzes the as yet untranslated Lingua ignota, as 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 English-language studies. (See the book's table of contents online.):]

Hildegard von Bingen in ihrem historischen Umfeld: internationaler wissenschaftlicher Kongress zum 900jährigen Jubiläum, 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
German and English. Includes bibliographical references and index
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[Jonathan P Green's article on Lingua ignota first summarizes scholarly views of the work and of its companion alphabet, Litterae ignotae, (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. (See the issue's table of contents online.):]

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
Includes bibliographical references (p. [213]-246) and index
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[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 an increasing pessimism. (See the issue's table of contents online.):]

Mews, Constant J. From Scivias to the Liber Divinorum Operum: Hildegard's apocalyptic imagination and the call to reform. The Journal of Religious History, 24:1 (2000), 44-56.
LC#: BL1 .J6 v.24;   ISSN: 0022-4227
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[This collection includes an essay by Joan Ferrante, "'Scribe quae vides et audis': Hildegard, Her Language, and Her Secretaries," which discusses in detail how Hildegard maintained authorial control in her interactions with each of her scribes and editors. (See the book's table of contents online.):]

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
Includes bibliographical references (p. [187]-203) and index
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[Designed for general readers, "readers without scholarly background" (p.xv), Anne King-Lenzmeier'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. (See the book's table of contents and introduction online.):]

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
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[This biography by Fiona Maddocks is another general introduction to Hildegard. Maddocks has used only English-language 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:]

Updated 08-10-08

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