Selected Writings (Hildegard of Bingen)

by Hildegard of Bingen (Author); Atherton, Mark (Translator)

• ISBN13: 9780140436044
• ISBN10: 0140436049
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-11-01
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

Benedictine nun, poet and musician, Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was one of the most remarkable figures of the Middle Ages. She undertook preaching tours throughout the German empire at the age of sixty, and was consulted not only by her religious contemporaries but also by kings and emperors, yet it is largely for her apocalyptic and mystical writings that she is remembered. This volume includes selections from her three visionary works, her treatises on medicine and the natural world, her devotional songs, and fascinating letters to prominent figures of her time. Dealing with such eternal subjects as the relationship between humans and nature, and men and women, Hildegard's works show her to be a wide-ranging thinker who created such fresh, startling images and ideas that her writings have been compared to Dante and Blake.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
Life and Career	ix
Hildegard in Her Time	xvi
Hildegard's Writings	xxv
Further Reading	xlv
Select Discography	xlix
Chronology	li
Translator's Note	lvii
KNOW THE WAYS
Letter to Bernard of Clairvaux	3	(3)
The Action of the Will (from Scivias)	6	(3)
Redemption (from Scivias)	9	(12)
Letter to Odo of Soissons	21	(2)
The Trinity (from Scivias)	23	(8)
Letter to Pope Eugenius III	31	(4)
STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE
Songs for Saint Disibod	35	(2)
Letter to Hartwig of Bremen	37	(2)
Song for Saint Ursula	39	(2)
The Trials of the Soul (from Scivias)	41	(6)
Songs for Saint Rupert	47	(4)
The Departure of Richardis of Stade	51	(2)
The First Version of The Play of the Virtues (from Scivias)	53	(12)
THE SIBYL OF THE RHINE
Three Political Letters	65	(4)
Songs for the Dedication of a Church	69	(2)
Teachings on the Church (from Scivias)	71	(8)
Letter to Elisabeth of Schonau	79	(3)
Gertrud of Stahleck	82	(2)
Letter to the Abbess of Bamberg	84	(5)
IN PRAISE OF CREATION
The Cosmic Egg (from Scivias)	89	(4)
The Cosmos (from Causes and Cures)	93	(13)
Gemstones (from Physica)	106	(9)
Songs from Symphonia	115	(8)
Two Christmas Homilies	123	(8)
ALLEGORIES OF JUSTICE AND LOVE
The Iron Mountain (from Scivias)	131	(5)
The Man Looking East and South (from The Book of Life's Merits)	136	(3)
The Seven Vices and Virtues (from The Book of Life's Merits)	139	(7)
The Voice from Heaven (from The Book of Life's Merits)	146	(15)
The Unknown Language	161	(2)
Allegorical Letters	163	(8)
A Vision of Love (from The Book of Divine Works)	171	(8)
HILDEGARD'S LIFE AND INFLUENCE
Queries and Requests; Selected Letters to Hildegard	179	(9)
From The Life of Hildegard, Book 2, by Theoderich of Echternach	188	(5)
Gebeno of Eberbach: The Pentachronon	193	(3)
From the Canonization Protocol	196	(9)
Notes	205	(32)
Glossary	237