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{{Short description|German nun and polymath (c. 1098 – 1179)}}
{{family name hatnote|Hildegard|Bingen|lang=Medieval}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox saint
| honorific_prefix = [[Canonization|Saint]]
| name             = Hildegard of Bingen
| honorific_suffix = [[Order of Saint Benedict|OSB]]
| birth_name       = Hildegard von Bingen
| birth_date       = {{circa|1098}}
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1179|9|17|1098|9|16}}
| feast_day        = 17 September
| patronage        = <!-- WARNING: patronages MUST CORRESPOND to a reliable secondary source, per WP:RS -->
| venerated_in     = [[Catholic Church]], [[Anglican Communion]], some Lutherans
| image            = Hildegard von Bingen.jpg
| caption          = Illumination from Hildegard's {{lang|la|[[Scivias]]}} (1151) showing her receiving a vision and dictating to teacher [[Volmar (monk)|Volmar]]
| birth_place      = [[Bermersheim vor der Höhe]], [[Electorate of the Palatinate|County Palatine of the Rhine]], [[Holy Roman Empire]]
| death_place      = [[Bingen am Rhein]], County Palatine of the Rhine, Holy Roman Empire
| titles           = [[Virgin (title)|Virgin]], [[Doctor of the Church]]
| beatified_date   = 26 August 1326 (Formal confirmation of Cultus)
| beatified_place  = 
| beatified_by     = [[Pope John XXII]]
| canonized_date   = 10 May 2012 ([[equivalent canonization]])
| canonized_place  = [[Vatican City]]
| canonized_by     = [[Pope Benedict XVI]]
| attributes       = 
| major_shrine     = [[St. Hildegard, Eibingen]]<!--[[Eibingen Abbey]], Germany -monastery but not shrine-->
| suppressed_date  = 
| issues           = 
| prayer           = 
| prayer_attrib    = 
| module           =
{{Infobox philosopher
|embed            = yes
|region           = [[Western philosophy]]
|era              = [[Medieval philosophy]]
|notable_ideas    = [[Microcosm–macrocosm analogy]], Eternal predestination of Christ, [[viriditas]], [[Lingua ignota]], [[humoral theory]], [[morality play]]
|main_interests   = [[mystical theology]], medicine, [[botany]], [[natural history]], music, literature
|notable_works    = {{ubl|{{lang|la|[[Scivias]]}}|{{lang|la|[[Liber Divinorum Operum]]}}|{{lang|la|[[Ordo Virtutum]]}}}}
|school_tradition = [[Neoplatonism and Christianity|Neoplatonism]]
}}}}
{{Christian mysticism}}
{{Medieval music sidebar|image=|expanded=figures}}

'''Hildegard of Bingen''' [[Benedictines|OSB]] ({{langx|de|Hildegard von Bingen}}, {{IPA|de|ˈhɪldəɡaʁt fɔn ˈbɪŋən|pron}}; {{langx|la|Hildegardis Bingensis}}; {{circa|1098}}{{snd}}17 September 1179), also known as  the '''Sibyl of the Rhine''', was a German [[Benedictines|Benedictine]] [[abbess]] and [[polymath]] active as a writer, composer, philosopher, [[Christian mysticism|mystic]], [[visionary]], and as a medical writer and practitioner during the [[High Middle Ages]].<ref name="Bennett, Judith M 2001">Bennett, Judith M. and Hollister, Warren C. ''Medieval Europe: A Short History'' (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001), p. 317.</ref><ref name="post97">{{Cite news |last=Worl |first=Gayle |date=1997-03-09 |title=WOMEN OF HISTORIC NOTE |language=en-US |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1997/03/09/women-of-historic-note/259adb97-9eaf-41ef-94e7-d92b7ca54f04/ |access-date=2023-11-22 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> She is one of the best-known composers of sacred [[monophony]], as well as the most recorded in modern history.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Gaynor G. |title=Grout, Donald J(ay) |last2=Palisca |first2=Claude V. |date=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |series=Oxford Music Online |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.11845}}</ref> She has been considered by a number of scholars to be the founder of scientific [[natural history]] in Germany.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jöckle |first=Clemens |title=Encyclopedia of Saints |publisher=Konecky & Konecky |year=2003 |page=204}}</ref>

[[Disibodenberg|Hildegard's convent at Disibodenberg]] elected her as {{lang|la|magistra}} ([[mother superior]]) in 1136. She founded the monasteries of [[Rupertsberg]] in 1150 and [[Eibingen Abbey|Eibingen]] in 1165. Hildegard wrote theological, botanical, and medicinal works,<ref>Campbell, Olivia, ''[https://daily.jstor.org/abortion-remedies-medieval-catholic-nun/ Abortion Remedies from a Medieval Catholic Nun(!)]'', [[JSTOR Daily]], October 13, 2021</ref> as well as letters, [[hymn]]s, and [[antiphon]]s for the [[liturgy]].<ref name=post97 /> She wrote poems, and supervised miniature [[illumination (manuscript)|illuminations]] in the Rupertsberg [[manuscript]] of her first work, {{lang|la|[[Scivias]]}}.<ref name="Rupertsberg MS images">Caviness, Madeline. "Artist: 'To See, Hear, and Know All at Once'", in ''Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World'', ed. Barbara Newman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), pp. 110–24; Nathaniel M. Campbell, ''Imago expandit splendorem suum: Hildegard of Bingen's Visio-Theological Designs in the Rupertsberg Scivias Manuscript'' in ''Eikón/Imago'' 4 (2013, Vol. 2, No. 2), pp. 1–68, accessible online [http://capire.es/eikonimago/index.php/eikonimago/article/view/88/pdf here] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140716031746/http://capire.es/eikonimago/index.php/eikonimago/article/view/88/pdf |date=16 July 2014 }}.</ref> There are more surviving chants by Hildegard than by any other composer from the entire Middle Ages, and she is one of the few known composers to have written both the music and the words.<ref name="Burkholder, J. Peter 2006">Burkholder, J. Peter, Claude V. Palisca, and Donald Jay Grout. 2006. Norton anthology of western music. New York: W.W. Norton.</ref> One of her works, the {{lang|la|[[Ordo Virtutum]]}}, is an early example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving [[morality play]].{{efn|Some writers have speculated a distant origin for opera in this piece, though without any evidence. See: [http://www.m-w.com/dictionary]; alt Opera, see Florentine Camerata in the province of Milan, Italy. [http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/misc/opera.html] and [http://www.kitbraz.com/gen/rev/1998nytmirapaulHild.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160612233614/http://www.kitbraz.com/gen/rev/1998nytmirapaulHild.html |date=12 June 2016 }}}} She is noted for the invention of a [[constructed language]] known as {{lang|la|[[Lingua Ignota]]}}.

Although the history of her formal [[canonization]] is complicated, regional calendars of the [[Catholic Church]] have listed her as a saint for centuries. On 10 May 2012, [[Pope Benedict XVI]] extended the liturgical cult of Hildegard to the entire Catholic Church in a process known as "[[equivalent canonization]]". On 7 October 2012, he named her a [[Doctor of the Church]], in recognition of "her holiness of life and the originality of her teaching."<ref>Pope Benedict XVI, [https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/apost_letters/documents/hf_ben-xvi_apl_20121007_ildegarda-bingen.html Apostolic Letter Proclaiming Saint Hildegard of Bingen, professed nun of the Order of Saint Benedict, a Doctor of the Universal Church], 7 October 2012.</ref>

==Biography==

Hildegard was born around 1098. Her parents were Mechtild of Merxheim-Nahet and Hildebert of Bermersheim, a family of the free lower nobility in the service of the Count Meginhard of [[County of Sponheim|Sponheim]].<ref>''Jutta & Hildegard: The Biographical Sources'', trans. Anna Silvas (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), 40; Maddocks, Fiona. ''Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age'' (New York: Doubleday, 2001), p. 9.</ref> Sickly from birth, Hildegard is traditionally considered their youngest and tenth child,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gies |first1=Frances |url=https://archive.org/details/womeninmiddleag000gies/page/63 |title=Women in the Middle Ages |last2=Gies |first2=Joseph |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-06-464037-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/womeninmiddleag000gies/page/63 63] |url-access=registration}}</ref> although there are records of only seven older siblings.<ref>''Jutta & Hildegard: The Biographical Sources'', trans. Anna Silvas (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), pp. 278–79.</ref><ref>Fiona Bowie, Oliver Davies. ''Hildegard of Bingen: An Anthology''. SPCK 1990. Some sources note younger siblings, specifically Bruno.</ref> In her {{lang|la|[[Hagiography|Vita]]}}, Hildegard states that from a very young age she experienced [[vision (religion)|visions]].<ref name="Ruether, Rosemary Radford 2002">''Jutta & Hildegard: The Biographical Sources'', trans. Anna Silvas (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), p. 138; Ruether, Rosemary Radford. ''Visionary Women'' (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2002), p. 7.</ref>

===Spirituality===
From early childhood, long before she undertook her public mission or even her monastic vows, Hildegard's spiritual awareness was grounded in what she called the {{lang|la|umbra viventis lucis}}, the reflection of the living Light. Her letter to [[Guibert (abbot of Gembloux and Florennes)|Guibert of Gembloux]], which she wrote at the age of 77, describes her experience of this light:

{{blockquote|From my early childhood, before my bones, nerves, and veins were fully strengthened, I have always seen this vision in my soul, even to the present time when I am more than seventy years old. In this vision, my soul, as God would have it, rises up high into the vault of heaven and into the changing sky and spreads itself out among different peoples, although they are far away from me in distant lands and places. And because I see them this way in my soul, I observe them in accord with the shifting of clouds and other created things. I do not hear them with my outward ears, nor do I perceive them by the thoughts of my own heart or by any combination of my five senses, but in my soul alone, while my outward eyes are open. So I have never fallen prey to ecstasy in the visions, but I see them wide awake, day and night. And I am constantly fettered by sickness, and often in the grip of pain so intense that it threatens to kill me, but God has sustained me until now. The light which I see thus is not spatial, but it is far, far brighter than a cloud which carries the sun. I can measure neither height, nor length, nor breadth in it; and I call it "the reflection of the living Light." And as the sun, the moon, and the stars appear in water, so writings, sermons, virtues, and certain human actions take form for me and gleam.<ref>Newman, Barbara. "Hildegard of Bingen: Visions and Validation." ''Church History'' 54, no. 2 (1985): 163–75.</ref>}}

===Monastic life===
Perhaps because of Hildegard's visions or as a method of political positioning, or both, Hildegard's parents offered her as an [[oblate]] to the [[Order of St. Benedict|Benedictine]] monastery at [[Disibodenberg]], which had been recently reformed in the [[Palatinate Forest]]. The date of Hildegard's [[Enclosed religious orders|enclosure]] at the monastery is the subject of debate. Her {{lang|la|[[Hagiography|Vita]]}} says she was eight years old when she was professed with [[Jutta von Sponheim|Jutta]], who was the daughter of Count [[Stephen II, Count of Sponheim|Stephan II of Sponheim]] and about six years older than Hildegard.<ref>''Jutta & Hildegard: The Biographical Sources'', trans. Anna Silvas (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), p. 139.</ref> Jutta's date of enclosure is known to have been in 1112, when Hildegard would have been 14.<ref>''Jutta & Hildegard: The Biographical Sources'', trans. Anna Silvas (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), pp. 52–55, 69; and John Van Engen, "Abbess: 'Mother and Teacher', in Barbara Newman, ed., ''Voice of the Living Light'' (California: University of California Press, 1998), pp. 30–51, at pp. 32–33.</ref> Their vows were received by Bishop [[Otto of Bamberg]] on All Saints Day 1112. Some scholars speculate that Hildegard was placed in the care of Jutta at the age of eight, and that the two of them were then enclosed together six years later.<ref>Michael McGrade, "Hildegard von Bingen", in ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: allgemeine Enzyklopaldie der Musik,'' 2nd edition, T.2, Vol. 8, ed. Ludwig Fischer (Kassel and New York: Bahrenreiter, 1994).</ref>

In any case, Hildegard and Jutta were enclosed together at Disibodenberg and formed the core of a growing community of women attached to the monastery of monks, named a ''Frauenklause,'' a type of female hermitage. Jutta was also a visionary and thus attracted many followers who came to visit her at the monastery. Hildegard states that Jutta taught her to read and write, but that she was unlearned, and therefore incapable of teaching Hildegard sound Biblical interpretation.<ref>Ruether, Rosemary Radford. ''Visionary Women'' (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2002), p. 6.</ref> The written record of the ''Life of Jutta'' indicates that Hildegard probably assisted her in reciting the psalms, working in the garden, other handiwork, and tending to the sick.<ref>''Jutta & Hildegard: The Biographical Sources'', trans. Anna Silvas (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), pp. 70–73; Reed-Jones, Carol. ''Hildegard of Bingen: Women of Vision'' (Washington: Paper Crane Press, 2004), p. 8.</ref> This might have been a time when Hildegard learned how to play the ten-stringed [[psaltery]]. [[Volmar (monk)|Volmar]], a frequent visitor, may have taught Hildegard simple psalm notation. The time she studied music could have been the beginning of the compositions she would later create.<ref>Reed-Jones, Carol. ''Hildegard of Bingen: Women of Vision'' (Washington: Paper Crane Press, 2004), p. 6.</ref>

Upon Jutta's death in 1136, Hildegard was unanimously elected as {{lang|la|magistra}} of the community by her fellow nuns.<ref>Furlong, Monica. ''Visions and Longings: Medieval Women Mystics'' (Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications, 1996), p. 84.</ref> Abbot Kuno of Disibodenberg asked Hildegard to be [[prioress]], which would be under his authority. Hildegard, wanting more independence for herself and her nuns, asked Abbot Kuno to allow them to move to [[Rupertsberg]].<ref>Furlong, Monica. ''Visions and Longings: Medieval Women Mystics'' (Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications, 1996), p. 85.</ref> This was to be a move toward poverty, from a stone complex that was well established to a temporary dwelling place. When the abbot declined Hildegard's proposition, Hildegard went over his head and received the approval of [[Archbishop Henry I of Mainz]]. Abbot Kuno did not relent, however, until Hildegard was stricken by an illness that rendered her paralyzed and unable to move from her bed, an event that she attributed to God's unhappiness at her not following his orders to move her nuns to Rupertsberg. It was only when the Abbot himself could not move Hildegard that he decided to grant the nuns their own monastery.<ref>McGrade, "Hildegard", ''MGG''.</ref> Hildegard and approximately 20 nuns thus moved to the St. Rupertsberg monastery in 1150, where [[Volmar (monk)|Volmar]] served as provost, as well as Hildegard's confessor and scribe. In 1165, Hildegard founded a second monastery for her nuns at [[St. Hildegard, Eibingen|Eibingen]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Women in art and music |url=https://wam.rutgers.edu/profiles/hildegard-of-bingen-an-interview-with-dr-margot-fassler/ |website=rutgers.edu}}</ref>

Before Hildegard's death in 1179, a problem arose with the clergy of Mainz: a man buried in Rupertsberg had died after excommunication from the Catholic Church. Therefore, the clergy wanted to remove his body from the sacred ground. Hildegard did not accept this idea, replying that it was a sin and that the man had been reconciled to the church at the time of his death.<ref>Flanagan, Sabina. ''Hildegard of Bingen, 1098–1179: a visionary life'' (London: Routledge, 1989), p. 11.</ref>

=== Friendship with [[Richardis von Stade]] ===
While completing [[Scivias|''Scivias'',]] Hildegard found a close friend and personal assistant in [[Richardis von Stade]], a fellow nun. In 1151, Richardis was elected abbess of a distant convent, much to Hildegard's displeasure. In a series of letters to multiple church officials (the Pope included), Richardis' family, and even Richardis herself, Hildegard pleaded for her companion to be allowed to stay with her.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hildegarde |title=The personal correspondence of Hildegard of Bingen |last2=Baird |first2=Joseph L. |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University press |isbn=978-0-19-530822-8 |location=New York Oxford |pages=39–52}}</ref> Hildegard remained adamant that it was "not God's will" for Richardis and her to be separated.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hildegarde |title=The personal correspondence of Hildegard of Bingen |last2=Baird |first2=Joseph L. |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University press |isbn=978-0-19-530822-8 |location=New York Oxford |pages=41}}</ref>

Despite Hildegard's efforts, Richardis was eventually moved. A year later, Richardis' brother sent Hildegard a letter notifying her that Richardis had died, and had met "a good Christian end".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hildegarde |title=The personal correspondence of Hildegard of Bingen |last2=Baird |first2=Joseph L. |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University press |isbn=978-0-19-530822-8 |location=New York Oxford |pages=48}}</ref> In response to this, Hildegard grieved the death of her friend, and assured her brother that she was confident in Richardis' salvation, and that she cherished Richardis with "divine love".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hildegarde |title=The personal correspondence of Hildegard of Bingen |last2=Baird |first2=Joseph L. |date=2006 |publisher=Oxford University press |isbn=978-0-19-530822-8 |location=New York Oxford |pages=49–50}}</ref>

===Visions===

Hildegard said that she first saw "The Shade of the Living Light" at the age of three, and by the age of five, she began to understand that she was experiencing visions.<ref>Underhill, Evelyn. ''Mystics of the Church'' (Pennsylvania: Morehouse Publishing, 1925), p. 77.</ref> She used the term {{lang|la|visio}} (Latin for 'vision') to describe this feature of her experience and she recognized that it was a gift that she could not explain to others. Hildegard explained that she saw all things in the light of God through the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.<ref>Schipperges, Heinrich. ''Hildegard of Bingen: Healing and the Nature of the Cosmos'' (New Jersey: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1997), p. 10.</ref> Hildegard was hesitant to share her visions, confiding only to [[Jutta von Sponheim|Jutta]], who in turn told Volmar, Hildegard's tutor and, later, secretary.<ref>Maddocks, Fiona. ''Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age'' (New York: Doubleday, 2001), p. 55.</ref> Throughout her life, she continued to have many visions, and in 1141, at the age of 42, Hildegard received a vision she believed to be an instruction from God, to "write down that which you see and hear."<ref>Ruether, Rosemary Radford. ''Visionary Women'' (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2002), p. 8.</ref> Still hesitant to record her visions, Hildegard became physically ill. The illustrations recorded in the book of {{lang|la|Scivias}} were visions that Hildegard experienced, causing her great suffering and tribulations.<ref>Underhill, Evelyn. ''Mystics of the Church'' (Pennsylvania: Morehouse Publishing, 1925), pp. 78–79.</ref> In her first theological text, {{lang|la|[[Scivias]]}} ("Know the Ways"), Hildegard describes her struggle within:

{{blockquote|But I, though I saw and heard these things, refused to write for a long time through doubt and bad opinion and the diversity of human words, not with stubbornness but in the exercise of humility, until, laid low by the scourge of God, I fell upon a bed of sickness; then, compelled at last by many illnesses, and by the witness of a certain noble maiden of good conduct [the nun [[Richardis von Stade]]] and of that man whom I had secretly sought and found, as mentioned above, I set my hand to the writing. While I was doing it, I sensed, as I mentioned before, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close – though just barely – in ten years.{{nbsp}}[...] And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in the heavenly places. And again I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, 'Cry out, therefore, and write thus!'|Hildegard von Bingen, {{lang|la|Scivias}}, translated by Columba Hart and Jane Bishop, 1990<ref>Hildegard von Bingen, ''Scivias'', translated by Columba Hart and Jane Bishop with an Introduction by Barbara J. Newman, and Preface by Caroline Walker Bynum (New York: Paulist Press, 1990), pp. 60–61.</ref>}}

It was between November 1147 and February 1148 at the synod in Trier that [[Pope Eugene III|Pope Eugenius]] heard about Hildegard's writings. It was from this that she received papal approval to document her visions as revelations from the Holy Spirit, giving her instant credence.<ref name="ReferenceA">Oliveira, Plinio Correa de. "St. Hildegard Von Bingen, 17 September". St. Hildegard von Bingen, Saint of 17 September.</ref>

On 17 September 1179, when Hildegard died, her sisters said they saw two streams of light appear in the skies and cross over the room where she was dying.<ref name="Madigan, Shawn 1998" />

=== {{lang|la|Vita Sanctae Hildegardis}} ===

Hildegard's [[hagiography]], {{lang|la|Vita Sanctae Hildegardis}}, was compiled by the monk Theoderic of Echternach after Hildegard's death.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Silvas |first=Anna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L_WL9R92dF4C |title=Jutta and Hildegard: The Biographical Sources |date=1998 |publisher=The Pennsylvania State University Press |isbn=978-0-271-01954-3 |location=University Park, PA |page=120 |access-date=28 October 2014}}</ref> He included the hagiographical work {{lang|la|Libellus}}, or "Little Book", begun by Godfrey of Disibodenberg.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Silvas |first=Anna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L_WL9R92dF4C |title=Jutta and Hildegard: The Biographical Sources |date=1998 |publisher=The Pennsylvania State University Press |isbn=978-0-271-01954-3 |location=University Park, PA |page=122 |access-date=28 October 2014}}</ref> Godfrey had died before he was able to complete his work. Guibert of Gembloux was invited to finish the work; however, he had to return to his monastery with the project unfinished.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Coakley |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/womenmenspiritua00coak |title=Women, Men, and Spiritual Power: Female Saints and Their Male Collaborators |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-231-13400-2 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/womenmenspiritua00coak/page/n57 45]–67 |chapter=A Shared Endeavor? Guibert of Gembloux on Hildegard of Bingen |url-access=limited}}</ref> Theoderic utilized sources Guibert had left behind to complete the {{lang|la|Vita}}.

==Works==

[[File:07angels-hildegard von bingen.jpg|thumb|''Scivias'' I.6: The Choirs of Angels. From the Rupertsberg manuscript,<ref>[http://www.abtei-st-hildegard.de/?page_id=4721 The Rupertsberg manuscript]</ref> folio 38r.]]

Hildegard's works include three great volumes of visionary theology;<ref>Critical editions of all three of Hildegard's major works have appeared in the ''Corpus Christianorum: Continuatio Medievalis'': ''Scivias'' in vols. 43–43A, ''Liber vitae meritorum'' in vol. 90, and ''Liber divinorum operum'' in vol. 92.</ref> a variety of musical compositions for use in the liturgy, as well as the musical morality play {{lang|la|[[Ordo Virtutum]]}}; one of the largest bodies of letters (nearly 400) to survive from the [[Middle Ages]], addressed to correspondents ranging from [[popes]] to [[Holy Roman Emperors|emperors]] to [[abbot]]s and [[abbess]]es, and including records of many of the sermons she preached in the 1160s and 1170s;<ref>Ferrante, Joan. "Correspondent: 'Blessed Is the Speech of Your Mouth'", in ''Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World'', ed. Barbara Newman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), pp. 91–109. The modern critical edition (vols. 91–91b in the Corpus Christianorum: Continuatio Medievalis) by L. Van Acker and M. Klaes-Hachmöller lists 390 canonical letters along with 13 letters that appear in different forms in secondary manuscripts. The letters have been translated into English in three volumes: ''The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen'', trans. Joseph L. Baird and Radd K. Ehrman (Oxford University Press, 1994, 1998, and 2004).</ref> two volumes of material on natural medicine and cures;<ref>Hildegard von Bingen, ''Causae et Curae (Holistic Healing)'', trans. by Manfred Pawlik and Patrick Madigan, ed. by Mary Palmquist and John Kulas (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, Inc., 1994); Hildegard von Bingen, ''Physica'', trans. Priscilla Throop (Rochester, Vermont: Healing Arts Press, 1998)</ref><ref name="Glaze" /> an [[conlang|invented language]] called the {{lang|la|[[lingua ignota]]}} ('unknown language');<ref name=":1">Higley, Sarah L. ''Hildegard of Bingen's Unknown Language: An Edition, Translation, and Discussion'' (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), pp. 21–22.</ref> and various minor works, including a gospel commentary and two works of hagiography.<ref>Hildegard of Bingen. ''Homilies on the Gospels''. Translated by Beverly Mayne Kienzle (Cistercian Publications, 2011); and Hildegard of Bingen. ''Two Hagiographies: Vita Sancti Rupperti Confessoris and Vita Sancti Dysibodi Episcopi'', ed. C.P. Evans, translated by Hugh Feiss (Louvain and Paris: Peeters, 2010).</ref>

Several manuscripts of her works were produced during her lifetime, including the illustrated Rupertsberg manuscript of her first major work, {{lang|la|[[Scivias]]}}; the [[Dendermonde Codex]], which contains one version of her musical works; and the Ghent manuscript, which was the first fair-copy made for editing of her final theological work, the {{lang|la|[[Liber Divinorum Operum]]}}. At the end of her life, and probably under her initial guidance, all of her works were edited and gathered into the single Riesenkodex manuscript.<ref>[http://www.hs-rm.de/hlb/suchen-finden/sondersammlungen/handschriften-inkunabeln-alte-drucke/der-riesencodex-hildegard-von-bingen/index.html Riesenkodex manuscript] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160319050333/http://www.hs-rm.de/hlb/suchen-finden/sondersammlungen/handschriften-inkunabeln-alte-drucke/der-riesencodex-hildegard-von-bingen/index.html |date=19 March 2016 }}</ref><ref>Albert Derolez, "The Manuscript Transmission of Hildegard of Bingen's Writings," in ''Hildegard of Bingen: The Context of her Thought and Art'', ed. Charles Burnett and Peter Dronke (London: The Warburg Institute, 1998), pp. 22–23; and Michael Embach, ''Die Schriften Hildegards von Bingen: Studien zu ihrer Überlieferung und Rezeption im Mittelalter und in der Frühen Neuzeit'' (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2003), p. 36.</ref> The [[Wiesbaden Codex|Riesenkodex manuscript]] is a collection of 481 folios of vellum bound in pig leather over wooden boards that measure {{convert|45|by|30|cm}}.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ramirez |first1=Janina |title=The Brave Women Who Saved the Collected Texts of Hildegard of Bingen |url=https://lithub.com/the-brave-women-who-saved-the-collected-texts-of-hildegard-of-bingen/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Lit%20Hub%20Daily:%20March%203%2C%202023&utm_term=lithub_master_list |website=Lithub|date=3 March 2023 }}</ref>

===Visionary theology===
Hildegard's most significant works were her three volumes of visionary theology: {{lang|la|Scivias}} ("Know the Ways", composed 1142–1151), {{lang|la|Liber Vitae Meritorum}} ("Book of Life's Merits" or "Book of the Rewards of Life", composed 1158–1163); and {{lang|la|Liber Divinorum Operum}} ("Book of Divine Works", also known as {{lang|la|De operatione Dei}}, "On God's Activity", begun around 1163 or 1164 and completed around 1172 or 1174). In these volumes, the last of which was completed when she was well into her seventies, Hildegard first describes each vision, whose details are often strange and enigmatic, and then interprets their theological contents in the words of the "voice of the Living Light."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Beuys |first=Barbara |year=2020 |title=Mit Visionen zur Autorität |magazine=[[Damals]] |language=de |issue=6 |pages=22–29}}</ref>

===={{lang|la|Scivias}}====
[[File:Meister des Hildegardis-Codex 004.jpg|thumb|left|The Church and Mother of the Faithful in Baptism. Illustration to {{lang|la|Scivias}} II.3, fol. 51r from the 20th-century facsimile of the Rupertsberg manuscript, {{Circa|1165}}–1180.]]

With permission from Abbot Kuno of Disibodenberg, she began journaling visions she had (which is the basis for {{lang|la|Scivias}}). {{lang|la|Scivias}} is a contraction of {{lang|la|Sci vias Domini}} ('Know the Ways of the Lord'), and it was Hildegard's first major visionary work, and one of the biggest milestones in her life. Perceiving a divine command to "write down what you see and hear,"<ref>"Protestificatio" ("Declaration") to Hildegard of Bingen, ''Scivias'', translated by Mother Columba Hart and Jane Bishop (Paulist Press, 1990), pp. 59–61.</ref> Hildegard began to record and interpret her visionary experiences. In total, 26 visionary experiences were captured in this compilation.<ref name="ReferenceA" />

{{lang|la|Scivias}} is structured into three parts of unequal length. The first part (six visions) chronicles the order of God's creation: the Creation and Fall of Adam and Eve, the structure of the universe (described as the shape of an "egg"), the relationship between body and soul, God's relationship to his people through the Synagogue, and the choirs of angels. The second part (seven visions) describes the order of redemption: the coming of Christ the Redeemer, the [[Trinity]], the church as the Bride of Christ and the Mother of the Faithful in [[baptism]] and [[confirmation]], the orders of the church, Christ's sacrifice on the cross and the [[Eucharist]], and the fight against the devil. Finally, the third part (thirteen visions) recapitulates the history of salvation told in the first two parts, symbolized as a building adorned with various allegorical figures and virtues. It concludes with the Symphony of Heaven, an early version of Hildegard's musical compositions.<ref>SCIVIAS.</ref>

In early 1148, a commission was sent by the Pope to [[Disibodenberg]] to find out more about Hildegard and her writings. The commission found that the visions were authentic and returned to the Pope, with a portion of the {{lang|la|Scivias}}. Portions of the uncompleted work were read aloud to [[Pope Eugenius III]] at the Synod of Trier in 1148, after which he sent Hildegard a letter with his blessing.<ref>Letter 4 in ''The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen'', translated by Joseph L. Baird and Radd K. Ehrman (Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 34–35.</ref> This blessing was later construed as papal approval for all of Hildegard's wide-ranging theological activities.<ref>Van Engen, John. "Letters and the Public Persona of Hildegard," in ''Hildegard von Bingen in ihrem historischen Umfeld'', ed. [[Alfred Haverkamp]] (Mainz: Trierer Historische Forschungen, 2000), pp. 375–418; and [[Kathryn Kerby-Fulton]], "Hildegard of Bingen", in ''Medieval Holy Women in the Christian Tradition'', c. 1100–c. 1500, ed. Alastair Minnis and Rosalynn Voaden (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010), pp. 343–69, at pp. 350–52.</ref> Towards the end of her life, Hildegard commissioned a richly decorated manuscript of {{lang|la|Scivias}} (the Rupertsberg Codex); although the original has been lost since its evacuation to Dresden for safekeeping in 1945, its images are preserved in a hand-painted facsimile from the 1920s.<ref name="Rupertsberg MS images" />

===={{lang|la|Liber Vitae Meritorum}}====
In her second volume of visionary theology, {{lang|la|Liber Vitae Meritorum}}, composed between 1158 and 1163, after she had moved her community of nuns into independence at the Rupertsberg in Bingen, Hildegard tackled the moral life in the form of dramatic confrontations between the virtues and the vices. She had already explored this area in her musical morality play, {{lang|la|Ordo Virtutum}}, and the "Book of the Rewards of Life" takes up the play's characteristic themes. Each vice, although ultimately depicted as ugly and grotesque, nevertheless offers alluring, seductive speeches that attempt to entice the unwary soul into their clutches. Standing in humankind's defence, however, are the sober voices of the Virtues, powerfully confronting every vicious deception.<ref>Hildegard of Bingen. ''The Book of the Rewards of Life''. translated by Bruce W. Hozeski (Oxford University Press), 1994.</ref>

Amongst the work's innovations is one of the earliest descriptions of purgatory as the place where each soul would have to work off its debts after death before entering heaven.<ref>Newman, Barbara. "Hildegard of Bingen and the 'Birth of Purgatory'," ''Mystics Quarterly'' 19 (1993): 90–97.</ref> Hildegard's descriptions of the possible punishments there are often gruesome and grotesque, which emphasize the work's moral and pastoral purpose as a practical guide to the life of true penance and proper virtue.<ref>Newman, Barbara. "'Sibyl of the Rhine': Hildegard's Life and Times," in ''Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World'', ed. Barbara Newman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), pp. 1–29, at pp. 17–19.</ref>

===={{lang|la|Liber Divinorum Operum}}====
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Hildegard's last and grandest visionary work, {{lang|la|Liber divinorum operum}}, had its genesis in one of the few times she experienced something like an ecstatic loss of consciousness. As she described it in an autobiographical passage included in her {{lang|la|Vita}}, sometime in about 1163, she received "an extraordinary mystical vision" in which was revealed the "sprinkling drops of sweet rain" that she stated [[John the Evangelist]] experienced when he wrote, "In the beginning was the Word" (John 1:1).{{efn|Though [[John the Evangelist]] is traditionally considered the author of the [[Gospel of John]], modern scholarship considers that the gospel is anonymously authored.}} Hildegard perceived that this Word was the key to the "Work of God", of which humankind is the pinnacle. The ''Book of Divine Works'', therefore, became in many ways an extended explication of the prologue to the Gospel of John.<ref>"The Life of Hildegard", II.16, in ''Jutta & Hildegard: The Biographical Sources'', translated by Anna Silvas (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), 179; Dronke, Peter. ''Women Writers of the Middle Ages'' (Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp. 162–63.</ref>

The ten visions of this work's three parts are cosmic in scale, to illustrate various ways of understanding the relationship between God and his creation. Often, that relationship is established by grand allegorical female figures representing Divine Love ({{lang|la|Caritas}}) or Wisdom ({{lang|la|Sapientia}}). The first vision opens the work with a salvo of poetic and visionary images, swirling about to characterize God's dynamic activity within the scope of his work within the history of salvation. The remaining three visions of the first part introduce the image of a human being standing astride the spheres that make up the universe and detail the intricate relationships between the human as microcosm and the universe as macrocosm. This culminates in the final chapter of Part One, Vision Four with Hildegard's commentary on the prologue to the Gospel of John (John 1:1–14), a direct rumination on the meaning of "In the beginning was the Word". The single vision that constitutes the whole of Part Two stretches that rumination back to the opening of Genesis, and forms an extended commentary on the seven days of the creation of the world told in Genesis 1–2:3. This commentary interprets each day of creation in three ways: literal or cosmological; allegorical or ecclesiological (i.e. related to the church's history); and moral or tropological (i.e. related to the soul's growth in virtue). Finally, the five visions of the third part take up again the building imagery of {{lang|la|Scivias}} to describe the course of salvation history. The final vision (3.5) contains Hildegard's longest and most detailed prophetic program of the life of the church from her own days of "womanish weakness" through to the coming and ultimate downfall of the Antichrist.<ref>St. Hildegard of Bingen, [https://www.hfsbooks.com/catalog/title/?isbn=978-0813231297 ''The Book of Divine Works''], translated by Nathaniel M. Campbell (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2018). {{ISBN|978-0-8132-3129-7}}</ref>

===Music===
{{see also|List of compositions by Hildegard of Bingen}}

Attention in recent decades to women of the medieval [[Catholic Church]] has led to a great deal of popular interest in Hildegard's music. In addition to the {{lang|la|[[Ordo Virtutum]]}}, 69 musical compositions, each with its own original poetic text, survive, and at least four other texts are known, though their musical notation has been lost.<ref>Hildegard of Bingen. ''Symphonia'', ed. Barbara Newman (2nd Ed.; Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988, 1998).</ref> This is one of the largest repertoires among medieval composers.

{{Listen|image=none|help=no|filename=O frondens 2.ogg|title=''O frondens virga''|format=[[Ogg]]}}
One of her better-known works, {{lang|la|Ordo Virtutum}} (''Play of the Virtues''), is a [[morality play]]. It is uncertain when some of Hildegard's compositions were composed, though the {{lang|la|Ordo Virtutum}} is thought to have been composed as early as 1151.<ref>Flanagan, Sabina. ''Hildegard of Bingen, 1098–1179: A Visionary Life'' (London: Routledge, 1989), p. 102.</ref> It is an independent Latin morality play with music (82 songs); it does not supplement or pay homage to the Mass or the Office of a certain feast. It is, in fact, the earliest known surviving musical drama that is not attached to a [[liturgy]].<ref name="Burkholder, J. Peter 2006" />

The {{lang|la|Ordo virtutum}} would have been performed within Hildegard's monastery by and for her select community of noblewomen and nuns. It was probably performed as a manifestation of the theology Hildegard delineated in the {{lang|la|Scivias}}. The play serves as an allegory of the Christian story of sin, confession, repentance, and forgiveness. Notably, it is the female Virtues who restore the fallen to the community of the faithful, not the male Patriarchs or Prophets. This would have been a significant message to the nuns in Hildegard's convent. Scholars assert that the role of the Devil would have been played by Volmar, while Hildegard's nuns would have played the parts of Anima (the human souls) and the Virtues.<ref>Audrey Ekdahl Davidson. "Music and Performance: Hildegard of Bingen's Ordo Virtutum." ''The Ordo Virtutum of Hildegard of Bingen: Critical Studies'', (Kalamazoo, MI: Western Michigan University, 1992), pp. 1–29.</ref> The devil's part is entirely spoken or shouted, with no musical setting. All other characters sing in monophonic plainchant. This includes patriarchs, prophets, a happy soul, an unhappy soul, and a penitent soul along with 16 virtues (including mercy, innocence, chastity, obedience, hope, and faith).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hildegard von Bingen Biography |url=https://www.singers.com/bio/4103 |access-date=14 May 2020 |website=www.singers.com}}</ref><ref>Gillespie, Charles. 2024. ''Illumination and Sonic Synesthesia: Present and Absent Ornamentation in Hildegard von Bingen.'' In Steven Okey and Katherine G.  Schmidt, eds. Theology and Media(tion) 2024. NY: Orbis Books. pp. 170–181.</ref>

In addition to the {{lang|la|Ordo Virtutum}}, Hildegard composed many liturgical songs that were collected into a cycle called the {{lang|la|Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum}}. The songs from the Symphonia are set to Hildegard's own text and range from antiphons, hymns, and sequences (such as ''[[Columba Aspexit]]''), to responsories.<ref>Maddocks, Fiona. ''Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age'' (New York: Doubleday, 2001), p. 194.</ref> Her music is [[monophony|monophonic]], consisting of exactly one melodic line.<ref>Newman, Barbara. ''Voice of the Living Light'' (California: University of California Press, 1998), p. 150.</ref> Its style has been said to be characterized by soaring melodies that can push the boundaries of traditional Gregorian chant and to stand outside the normal practices of monophonic monastic chant.<ref name="holsinger">Holsinger, Bruce. "The Flesh of the Voice: Embodiment and the Homoerotics of Devotion in the Music of Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179), "Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 19 (Autumn, 1993): pp. 92–125.</ref> Researchers are also exploring ways in which it may be viewed in comparison with her contemporaries, such as [[Hermannus Contractus]].<ref>See Jennifer Bain, "Hildegard, Hermannus and Late Chant Style," ''Journal of Music Theory'', 2008, vol. 52.</ref> Another feature of Hildegard's music that both reflects the 12th-century evolution of chant, and pushes that evolution further, is that it is highly [[melismatic]], often with recurrent melodic units. Scholars such as [[Margot Fassler]], Marianne Richert Pfau, and Beverly Lomer also note the intimate relationship between music and text in Hildegard's compositions, whose rhetorical features are often more distinct than is common in 12th-century chant.<ref>Margot Fassler. "Composer and Dramatist: 'Melodious Singing and the Freshness of Remorse,'" ''Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World'', ed. Barbara Newman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 149–75; Marianna Richert-Pfau, "Mode and Melody Types in Hildegard von Bingen's Symphonia," ''Sonus'' 11 (1990): 53–71; Beverly Lomer, ''Music, Rhetoric and the Sacred Feminine'' (Saarbrücken, Germany: Verlag Dr. Müller, 2009) and eadem, "Hildegard of Bingen: Music, Rhetoric and the Divine Feminine," in ''Journal of the International Alliance of Women and Music'', vol. 18, No. 2, 2012. See also Lomer's discussion of "The Theory and Rhetoric of Hildegard's Music," in the International Society for Hildegard von Bingen Studies' [http://www.hildegard-society.org/p/music.html#Theory_and_Rhetoric online edition of Hildegard's ''Symphonia''].</ref> As with most medieval chant notation, Hildegard's music lacks any indication of tempo or rhythm; the surviving manuscripts employ late German style notation, which uses very ornamental [[neumes]].<ref>See the facsimile of her music now freely available on [http://imslp.org/wiki/Symphonia_et_Ordo_virtutum_%28Hildegard%29 IMSLP].</ref> The reverence for the Virgin Mary reflected in music shows how deeply influenced and inspired Hildegard of Bingen and her community were by the Virgin Mary and the saints.<ref>Butcher, Carmen Acevedo. ''Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader'' (Massachusetts: Paraclete Press, 2007), p. 27; see also Beverly Lomer, "Hildegard of Bingen: Music, Rhetoric and the Divine Feminine," in ''Journal of the International Alliance of Women and Music'', vol. 18, No. 2, 2012.</ref>

===Scientific and medicinal writings===
[[File:Hildegard of bingen and nuns.jpg|thumb|Hildegard of Bingen and her nuns]]
Hildegard's medicinal and scientific writings, although thematically complementary to her ideas about nature expressed in her visionary works, are different in focus and scope. Neither claim to be rooted in her visionary experience and its divine authority. Rather, they spring from her experience helping in and then leading the monastery's herbal garden and infirmary, as well as the theoretical information she likely gained through her wide-ranging reading in the monastery's library.<ref name="Glaze">Florence Eliza Glaze, "Medical Writer: 'Behold the Human Creature,'" in ''Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World'', ed. Barbara Newman (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1998), pp. 125–48.</ref> As she gained practical skills in diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment, she combined physical treatment of physical diseases with holistic methods centered on "spiritual healing".<ref name="Sweet">Sweet, V. (1999). "Hildegard of Bingen and the greening of medieval medicine". ''Bulletin of the History of Medicine'', 73(3), pp. 381–403. ''Project MUSE'', doi:10.1353/bhm.1999.0140</ref> She became well known for her healing powers involving the practical application of tinctures, herbs, and precious stones.<ref>Maddocks, Fiona. ''Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age'' (New York: Doubleday, 2001), p. 155.</ref> She combined these elements with a theological notion ultimately derived from Genesis: all things put on earth are for the use of humans.<ref>Hozeski, Bruce W. ''Hildegard's Healing Plants: From Her Medieval Classic Physica'' (Massachusetts: [[Beacon Press]], 2001), pp. xi–xii</ref> In addition to her hands-on experience, she also gained medical knowledge, including elements of her humoral theory, from traditional Latin texts.<ref name=Sweet/>

Hildegard catalogued both her theory and practice in two works. The first, {{lang|la|Physica}}, contains nine books that describe the scientific and medicinal properties of various plants, stones, fish, reptiles, and animals. This document is also thought to contain the first recorded reference of the use of hops in beer as a preservative.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kitsock |first=Greg |title=Hops: The beer ingredient (most) drinkers love |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/hops-the-beer-ingredient-most-drinkers-love/2014/02/10/fd5daab0-8f57-11e3-84e1-27626c5ef5fb_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Oliver |first=Garrett |title=The Oxford Companion to Beer |date=9 September 2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=435}}</ref> The second, {{lang|la|Causae et Curae}}, is an exploration of the human body, its connections to the rest of the natural world, and the causes and cures of various diseases.<ref name="medical">Hildegard von Bingen, ''Causae et Curae (Holistic Healing)'', trans. by Manfred Pawlik and Patrick Madigan, ed. by Mary Palmquist and John Kulas (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, Inc., 1994); Hildegard von Bingen, ''Physica'', trans. Priscilla Throop (Rochester, Vermont: Healing Arts Press, 1998).</ref> Hildegard documented various medical practices in these books, including the use of bleeding and home remedies for many common ailments. She also explains remedies for common agricultural injuries such as burns, fractures, dislocations, and cuts.<ref name=Sweet/> Hildegard may have used the books to teach assistants at the monastery. These books are historically significant because they show areas of medieval medicine that were not well documented because their practitioners, mainly women, rarely wrote in Latin. Her writings were commentated on by [[Mélanie Lipinska]], a Polish scientist.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Walsh |first=James |url=https://archive.org/details/OldTimeMakersOfMedicine |title=Old Time Makers of Medicine |publisher=Fordham University Press |year=1911 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/OldTimeMakersOfMedicine/page/n206 194]–201}}</ref>

In addition to its wealth of practical evidence, {{lang|la|Causae et Curae}} is also noteworthy for its organizational scheme. Its first part sets the work within the context of the creation of the cosmos and then humanity as its summit, and the constant interplay of the human person as microcosm both physically and spiritually with the macrocosm of the universe informs all of Hildegard's approach.<ref name=Glaze/> Her hallmark is to emphasize the vital connection between the "green" health of the natural world and the holistic health of the human person. {{lang|la|[[Viriditas]]}}, or greening power, was thought to sustain human beings and could be manipulated by adjusting the balance of elements within a person.<ref name="Sweet" /> Thus, when she approached medicine as a type of gardening, it was not just as an analogy. Rather, Hildegard understood the plants and elements of the garden as direct counterparts to the humors and elements within the human body, whose imbalance led to illness and disease.<ref name=Sweet/>

The nearly three hundred chapters of the second book of {{lang|la|Causae et Curae}} "explore the etiology, or causes, of disease as well as human sexuality, psychology, and physiology."<ref name=Glaze/> In this section, she gives specific instructions for bleeding based on various factors, including gender, the phase of the moon (bleeding is best done when the moon is waning), the place of disease (use veins near diseased organ or body part) or prevention (big veins in arms), and how much blood to take (described in imprecise measurements, like "the amount that a thirsty person can swallow in one gulp"). She even includes bleeding instructions for animals to keep them healthy. In the third and fourth sections, Hildegard describes treatments for malignant and minor problems and diseases according to the humoral theory, again including information on animal health. The fifth section is about diagnosis and prognosis, which includes instructions to check the patient's blood, pulse, urine, and stool.<ref name=Sweet/> Finally, the sixth section documents a lunar horoscope to provide an additional means of prognosis for both disease and other medical conditions, such as conception and the outcome of pregnancy.<ref name=Glaze/> For example, she indicates that a waxing moon is good for human conception and is also good for sowing seeds for plants (sowing seeds is the plant equivalent of conception).<ref name=Sweet/> Elsewhere, Hildegard is even said to have stressed the value of boiling drinking water in an attempt to prevent infection.<ref name="encyclopedia">"Hildegard of Bingen." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004.</ref>

As Hildegard elaborates the medical and scientific relationship between the human microcosm and the macrocosm of the universe, she often focuses on interrelated patterns of four: "the four elements (fire, air, water, and earth), the four seasons, the four humors, the four zones of the earth, and the four major winds."<ref name=Glaze/> Although she inherited the basic framework of [[humorism|humoral theory]] from ancient medicine, Hildegard's conception of the hierarchical inter-balance of the four humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) was unique, based on their correspondence to "superior" and "inferior" elements – blood and phlegm corresponding to the "celestial" elements of fire and air, and the two biles corresponding to the "terrestrial" elements of water and earth. Hildegard understood the disease-causing imbalance of these humors to result from the improper dominance of the subordinate humors. This disharmony reflects that introduced by Adam and Eve in the Fall, which for Hildegard marked the indelible entrance of disease and humoral imbalance into humankind.<ref name=Glaze/> As she writes in {{lang|la|Causae et Curae}} c. 42:

{{blockquote|It happens that certain men suffer diverse illnesses. This comes from the phlegm which is superabundant within them. For if man had remained in paradise, he would not have had the {{lang|la|flegmata}} within his body, from which many evils proceed, but his flesh would have been whole and without dark humor [{{lang|la|livor}}]. However, because he consented to evil and relinquished good, he was made into a likeness of the earth, which produces good and useful herbs, as well as bad and useless ones, and which has in itself both good and evil moistures. From tasting evil, the blood of the sons of Adam was turned into the poison of semen, out of which the sons of man are begotten. And therefore their flesh is ulcerated and permeable [to disease]. These sores and openings create a certain storm and smoky moisture in men, from which the {{lang|la|flegmata}} arise and coagulate, which then introduce diverse infirmities to the human body. All this arose from the first evil, which man began at the start, because if Adam had remained in paradise, he would have had the sweetest health, and the best dwelling-place, just as the strongest balsam emits the best odor; but on the contrary, man now has within himself poison and phlegm and diverse illnesses.<ref>Quoted in Glaze, ''Medical Writer: 'Behold the Human Creature{{'}}'', p. 136.</ref>}}

=== {{lang|la|Lingua ignota}} and {{lang|la|Litterae ignotae}} ===
[[File:Litterae ignotae.png|thumb|right|Alphabet by Hildegard von Bingen, Litterae ignotae, which she used for her language {{lang|la|[[Lingua Ignota]]}}]]

Hildegard also invented an [[constructed script|alternative alphabet]]. {{lang|la|Litterae ignotae}} ('Alternate Alphabet') was another work and was more or less a secret code, or even an intellectual code – much like a modern crossword puzzle today.

Hildegard's {{lang|la|[[Lingua ignota]]}} ('unknown language') consisted of a series of invented words that corresponded to an eclectic list of nouns. The list is approximately 1,000 nouns; there are no other parts of speech.<ref name=":2">Ferzoco, George''.'' (2014). "Notes on Hildegard's 'Unknown' Language and Writing." In ''A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen,'' p. 318. Leiden: Brill. Accessed 7 May 2021. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004260719_015.</ref> The two most important sources for the {{lang|la|Lingua ignota}} are the Wiesbaden, Hessische Landesbibliothek 2 (nicknamed the Riesenkodex)<ref name=":2" /> and the Berlin manuscript.<ref name=":1" /> In both manuscripts, medieval German and Latin glosses are written above Hildegard's invented words. The Berlin manuscript contains additional Latin and German glosses not found in the Riesenkodex.<ref name=":1" /> The first two words of the {{Lang|la|Lingua}} as copied in the Berlin manuscript are ''aigonz'' (German, {{lang|de|goth}}; Latin, {{lang|la|deus}}; English, ''god'') and ''aleganz'' (German, {{lang|de|engel}}; Latin, {{lang|la|angelus}}; English, ''angel'').''<ref>As translated in Higley, ''Hildegard of Bingen's Unknown Language: An Edition, Translation, and Discussion'' (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), pp. 21, 205.</ref>

Barbara Newman believes that Hildegard used her {{lang|la|Lingua ignota}} to increase solidarity among her nuns.<ref>Barbara J. Newman, "Introduction" to Hildegard, ''Scivias'', p. 13.</ref> Sarah Higley disagrees and notes that there is no evidence of Hildegard teaching the language to her nuns. She suggests that the language was not intended to remain a secret; rather, the presence of words for mundane things may indicate that the language was for the whole abbey and perhaps the larger monastic world.<ref name=":1" /> Higley believes that "the Lingua is a linguistic distillation of the philosophy expressed in her three prophetic books: it represents the cosmos of divine and human creation and the sins that flesh is heir to."<ref name=":1" />

The text of her writing and compositions reveals Hildegard's use of this form of modified medieval Latin, encompassing many invented, conflated, and abridged words.<ref name="Ruether, Rosemary Radford 2002" /> Because of her inventions of words for her lyrics and use of a constructed script, many [[conlang]]ers look upon her as a medieval precursor.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=GkuK53bU4_UC ''Hildegard of Bingen's Unknown Language: An Edition, Translation, and Discussion''], ed. Sarah Higley (2007)</ref>

==Significance==

===During her lifetime===
Maddocks claims that it is likely Hildegard learned simple Latin and the tenets of the Christian faith, but was not instructed in the Seven [[Liberal Arts]], which formed the basis of all education for the learned classes in the Middle Ages: the {{lang|la|[[Trivium (education)|Trivium]]}} of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric plus the {{lang|la|[[Quadrivium]]}} of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.<ref>Maddocks, Fiona. Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age. New York: Doubleday, 2001. p. 40.</ref> The correspondence she kept with the outside world, both spiritual and social, transcended the cloister as a space of spiritual confinement and served to document Hildegard's grand style and strict formatting of medieval letter writing.<ref name="Dietrich, Julia 1997" /><ref>For cloister as confinement see [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04060a.htm "Female" section of "Cloister"] in ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]''.</ref>

Contributing to Christian European rhetorical traditions, Hildegard "authorized herself as a theologian" through alternative rhetorical arts.<ref name="Dietrich, Julia 1997">Dietrich, Julia. "The Visionary Rhetoric of Hildegard of Bingen." ''Listening to their Voices: The Rhetorical Activities of Historic Women'', Molly Meijer Wertheimer, ed. (University of South Carolina Press, 1997), pp. 202–14.</ref> Hildegard was creative in her interpretation of theology. She believed that her monastery should exclude novices who were not from the nobility because she did not want her community to be divided on the basis of social status.<ref>See Hildegard's correspondence with Tengswich of Andernach, in Letters 52 and 52r, in ''The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen, Vol. 1'', translated by Baird and Ehrman (Oxford University Press, 1994), 127–30; and discussion in [[Alfred Haverkamp]], "Tenxwind von Andernach und Hildegard von Bingen: Zwei "Weltanschauungen" in der Mitte des 12. Jahrhunderts," in ''Institutionen, Kultur und Gesellschaft im Mittelalter: Festschrift für Josef Fleckenstein'', ed. Lutz Fenske, Werner Rösener, and Thomas Zotz (Jan Thorbecke Verlag: Sigmaringen, 1984), 515–48; and Peter Dronke, ''Women Writers of the Middle Ages'' (Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp. 165–67.</ref> She also stated that "woman may be made from man, but no man can be made without a woman."<ref name="Madigan, Shawn 1998">Madigan, Shawn. Mystics, Visionaries and Prophets: A Historical Anthology of Women's Spiritual Writings (Minnesota: Augsburg Fortress, 1998), p. 96.</ref>

[[File:Hildegard map.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Hildegard's preaching tours]]
Because of church limitation on public, discursive rhetoric, the medieval rhetorical arts included preaching, letter writing, poetry, and the encyclopedic tradition.<ref>[[James A. Herrick|Herrick, James A.]], ''The History of Rhetoric: An Introduction'', 4th ed. (Boston: Allyn Bacon, 2005), pp. ??.</ref> Hildegard's participation in these arts speaks to her significance as a female rhetorician, transcending bans on women's social participation and interpretation of scripture. The acceptance of public preaching by a woman, even a well-connected abbess and acknowledged prophet, does not fit the stereotype of this time. Her preaching was not limited to the monasteries; she preached publicly in 1160 in Germany.<ref>New York: Routledge, 2001, 9</ref> She conducted four preaching tours throughout Germany, speaking to both clergy and laity in chapter houses and in public, mainly denouncing clerical corruption and calling for reform.<ref>Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Visionary Women. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2002. pp. 28–29.</ref>

Many abbots and abbesses asked her for prayers and opinions on various matters.<ref name="Bennett, Judith M 2001" /> She traveled widely during her four preaching tours.<ref>Furlong, Monica. ''Visions and Longings: Medieval Women Mystics'' (Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications, 1996), 85–86.</ref> She had several devoted followers, including Guibert of Gembloux, who wrote to her frequently and became her secretary after Volmar's death in 1173. Hildegard also influenced several monastic women, exchanging letters with [[Elizabeth of Schönau|Elisabeth of Schönau]], a nearby visionary.<ref>Hildegard von Bingen, ''The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen'', translated by Joseph L. Baird and Radd K. Ehrman (NY: Oxford University Press, 1994/1998), p. 180.</ref>

Hildegard corresponded with popes such as [[Pope Eugene III|Eugene III]] and [[Anastasius IV]], statesmen such as [[Abbot Suger]], German emperors such as [[Frederick I Barbarossa]], and other notable figures such as [[Bernard of Clairvaux]], who advanced her work, at the behest of her abbot, Kuno, at the [[Synod of Trier]] in 1147 and 1148. Hildegard of Bingen's correspondence is an important component of her literary output.<ref>Schipperges, Heinrich. ''Hildegard of Bingen: Healing and the Nature of the Cosmos'' (New Jersey: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1997), p. 16.</ref>

===Veneration===
Hildegard was one of the first persons for whom the Roman [[canonization]] process was officially applied, but the process took so long that four attempts at canonization were not completed and she remained at the level of her [[beatification]]. Her name was nonetheless included in the [[Roman Martyrology]] at the end of the 16th century up to the current 2004 edition, listing her as "Saint Hildegard" with her feast on 17 September, which would eventually be added to the [[General Roman Calendar]] as an optional memorial.<ref>{{Cite web |title=DECREE on the Inscription of the Celebrations of Saint Gregory of Narek, Abbot and Doctor of the Church, Saint John De Avila, Priest and Doctor of the Church and Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin and Doctor of the Church, in the General Roman Calendar (25 January 2021) |url=http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20210125_decreto-dottori_en.html |access-date=2 February 2021 |website=Vatican}}</ref> Numerous popes have referred to Hildegard as a saint, including [[Pope John Paul II]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lettera per l'800° anniversario della morte di Santa Ildegarda |url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/letters/1979/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_19790908_800-ildegarda_it.html |access-date=25 December 2011 |publisher=Vatican.va}}</ref> and [[Pope Benedict XVI]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Meeting with the members of the Roman Clergy |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/speeches/2006/march/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060302_roman-clergy.html |access-date=3 April 2017 |publisher=Vatican.va}}</ref> Hildegard's [[St. Hildegard, Eibingen|pilgrimage church in Eibingen]] houses her [[relic]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.abtei-st-hildegard.de/en_the-abbey/ |title=The Abbey of St. Hildegard through the Ages |website=Benediktinerinnenabtei St. Hildegard |access-date=11 December 2019}}</ref>

On 10 May 2012, Pope Benedict XVI extended the veneration of Saint Hildegard to the entire Catholic Church<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.uscatholic.org/news/2012/05/pope-recognizes-hildegard-saint-advances-causes-us-bishop-nun  |title=Pope recognizes Hildegard as saint, advances causes of US bishop, nun |date=10 May 2012  |website=U.S.Catholic |access-date=12 May 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305045630/http://www.uscatholic.org/news/2012/05/pope-recognizes-hildegard-saint-advances-causes-us-bishop-nun |archive-date=5 March 2016 }}</ref> in a process known as "equivalent canonization,"<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vatican newspaper explains 'equivalent canonization' of St. Hildegard of Bingen: News Headlines |url=http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=14287 |website=www.catholicculture.org}}</ref> thus laying the groundwork for naming her a [[Doctor of the Church]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=New Doctors of the Church: St. Hildegard, St. John of Avila |url=http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otc.cfm?id=1015 |website=www.catholicculture.org}}</ref> On 7 October 2012, the [[feast of the Holy Rosary]], the pope named her a Doctor of the Church.<ref>{{Cite news |date=7 October 2012 |title=Pope Benedict creates two new doctors of the church |work=Catholic News Agency |url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/25812/pope-benedict-creates-two-new-doctors-of-the-church}}</ref> He called Hildegard "perennially relevant" and "an authentic teacher of theology and a profound scholar of natural science and music."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Regina Cæli, 27 May 2012, Solemnity of Pentecost &#124; BENEDICT XVI |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/angelus/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_reg_20120527_pentecoste.html |website=www.vatican.va}}</ref>

Hildegard of Bingen also appears in the [[List of Anglican Church calendars|calendar of saints]] of various [[Anglican Communion|Anglican]] churches, such as [[Calendar of saints (Church of England)|that]] of the [[Church of England]], in which she is [[Commemoration (Anglicanism)|commemorated]] on 17 September.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Church's Year |url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/calendar |access-date=15 June 2020 |website=The Church of England}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Calendar |url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/calendar |access-date=8 April 2021 |website=The Church of England |language=en}}</ref>

===Modern interest===
[[File:Hildegard von Bingen. Line engraving by W. Marshall. Wellcome V0002761.jpg|thumb|Line engraving by W. Marshall]]

In recent years, Hildegard has become of particular interest to [[feminist]] scholars.<ref>See e.g. Marilyn R. Mumford, "A Feminist Prolegomenon for the Study of Hildegard of Bingen," in ''Gender, Culture, and the Arts: Women, Culture, and Society'', eds. R. Dotterer and S. Bowers (Selinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press, 1993), pp. 44–53.</ref> They note her reference to herself as a member of the weaker sex and her belittling of women.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Newman |first=Barbara |title=Sister of wisdom: St. Hildegard's theology of the feminine |date=1997 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-585-11296-1 |location=Berkeley}}</ref> Hildegard frequently referred to herself as an unlearned woman, completely incapable of Biblical exegesis.<ref>Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Visionary Women (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2002), pp. 10–11.</ref> Such a statement on her part, however, worked slyly to her advantage because it made her statements that all of her writings and music came from visions of the Divine more believable, therefore giving Hildegard the authority to speak in a time and place where few women were permitted a voice.<ref>Barbara Newman, "Hildegard of Bingen: Visions and Validation," ''Church History'' 54 (1985): pp. 163–75; Barbara Newman, ''Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine'', (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987).</ref> Hildegard used her voice to amplify the church's condemnation of [[institutional corruption]], in particular [[simony]].

Hildegard has also become a figure of reverence within the contemporary [[New Age movement]], mostly because of her holistic and natural view of healing, as well as her status as a mystic. Although her medical writings were long neglected and then, studied without reference to their context,<ref name="Sweet4">Sweet, V. (1999). "Hildegard of Bingen and the greening of medieval medicine." ''Bulletin of the history of Medicine'', 73(3), p. 386.</ref> she was the inspiration for Dr. Gottfried Hertzka's "Hildegard-Medicine", and is the namesake for [[June Boyce-Tillman]]'s Hildegard Network, a healing center that focuses on a holistic approach to wellness and brings together people interested in exploring the links between spirituality, the arts, and healing.<ref>June Boyce-Tillman, "Hildegard of Bingen at 900: The Eye of a Woman," ''The Musical Times'' 139, no. 1865 (Winter, 1998): p. 35.</ref> Her reputation as a medicinal writer and healer was also used by early feminists to argue for women's rights to attend medical schools.<ref name=Sweet4/>

Reincarnation of Hildegard has been debated since 1924 when Austrian mystic [[Rudolf Steiner]] lectured that a nun of her description was the past life of Russian poet-philosopher [[Vladimir Solovyov (philosopher)|Vladimir Soloviev]],<ref>Steiner, Rudolf. Karmic Relationships, Vol. 4 (1924)</ref> whose visions of [[Holy Wisdom]] are often compared to Hildegard's.<ref>Powell, Robert. The Sophia Teachings: The Emergence of the Divine Feminine in Our Time (Lindisfarne Books, 2007), p. 70.</ref> [[Sophiology|Sophiologist]] Robert Powell writes that [[hermetic astrology]] proves the match,<ref>Powell, Robert. Hermetic Astrology (Sophia Foundation Press, 2006)</ref> while mystical communities in Hildegard's lineage include that of artist Carl Schroeder<ref>{{Cite web |title=Return of Hildegard |url=http://www.returnofhildegard.com |access-date=25 December 2011 |publisher=Return of Hildegard}}</ref> as studied by Columbia sociologist Courtney Bender<ref>Bender, Courtney. The New Metaphysicals: Spirituality and the American Religious Imagination (University of Chicago Press, 2010), p. 62.</ref> and supported by reincarnation researchers Walter Semkiw and Kevin Ryerson.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Reincarnation Case of Carl Schroeder |url=http://www.iisis.net/index.php?page=vladimir-soloviev-carl-schroeder&hl=en_US |access-date=25 December 2011 |publisher=Water Semkiw IISIS |archive-date=19 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319235244/http://www.iisis.net/index.php?page=vladimir-soloviev-carl-schroeder&hl=en_US |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Recordings and performances of Hildegard's music have gained critical praise and popularity since 1979. There is an extensive [[Hildegard of Bingen discography|discography]] of her musical works.

==In culture==
{{in popular culture|section|date=March 2023}}
The following modern musical works are directly linked to Hildegard and her music or texts:
* {{ill|Alois Albrecht|de}}: ''Hildegard von Bingen'', a liturgical play with texts and music by Hildegard of Bingen, 1998.
* [[Azam Ali]]: ''O Vis Aeternitatis''<ref>{{YouTube|id=XcswgNIQ6Bw|title=Azam Ali. O Vis Aeternitatis}}</ref> and ''O Euchari''<ref>{{YouTube|id=NijYr0zdUKU|title=Azam Ali. O Euchari}}</ref> by Hildegard of Bingen, 2020
* [[The Beloved (band)|The Beloved]]: ''[[The Sun Rising (song)]]'', ''O Euchari'', sung by Emily Van Evera on the album ''A Feather on the Breath of God'' by Gothic Voices.
* [[Cecilia McDowall]]: ''Alma Redemptoris Mater''
* [[Christopher Theofanidis]]: ''[[Rainbow Body]]'', for orchestra, 2000<ref>{{Cite web |title=Program notes for Christopher Theofanidis' ''Rainbow Body'' |url=http://www.theofanidismusic.com/programnotes_Rainbow_Body.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150609011751/http://www.theofanidismusic.com/programnotes_Rainbow_Body.html |archive-date=9 June 2015 |access-date=8 June 2015}}</ref>
* [[David Lynch]] with [[Jocelyn Montgomery]]: ''Lux Vivens (Living Light): The Music of Hildegard Von Bingen'', 1998
* [[Garmarna]]: "Euchari" (1999) and ''Hildegard von Bingen'', 2001
* [[Devendra Banhart]]: ''Für Hildegard von Bingen'', single from the 2013 album ''[[Mala (Devendra Banhart album)|Mala]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 January 2013 |title=New Devendra Banhart: "Für Hildegard von Bingen" |url=https://pitchfork.com/news/49073-new-devendra-banhart-fur-hildegard-von-bingen/ |website=Pitchfork}}</ref>
* [[Gordon Hamilton (composer)|Gordon Hamilton]]: ''The Trillion Souls'' quotes Hildegard's ''O Ignee Spiritus''.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.pressreader.com/australia/the-courier-mail/20150219/282699045566721/TextView |title=Opener A Joyous Triumph |date=2015-02-19 |newspaper=[[The Courier-Mail]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150713182008/https://www.pressreader.com/australia/the-courier-mail/20150219/282699045566721/TextView |archive-date=2015-07-13 |via=PressReader}}</ref>
* [[Ludger Stühlmeyer]]: ''O splendidissima gemma''. 2012. For alto solo and organ, text: Hildegard of Bingen. Commissioned composition for the declaration of Hildegard of Bingen as Doctor of the Church.<ref>In: ''Ein Hofer Königspaar''. Rondeau Production, Leipzig 2012</ref>
* Naomi Wood, Sophie Seita, ''The Hildegard von Bingen Society for Gardening Companions,'' 2022–present. Ongoing publications, performances, and events.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Hildegard Von Bingen Society for Gardening Companions |url=https://hildegardsgardeningcompanions.cargo.site/ |access-date=2025-06-26 |website=hildegardsgardeningcompanions.cargo.site |language=en}}</ref>
* [[Peter Janssens]]: ''Hildegard von Bingen'', a musical in ten scenes, text: [[Jutta Richter]], 1997
* [[Richard Souther, Emily Van Evera, Sister Germaine Fritz OSB*]]: ''Vision: The Music Of Hildegard Of Bingen''. 1994.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.discogs.com/master/225339-Richard-Souther-Vision-The-Music-Of-Hildegard-Von-Bingen |title=Hildegard Von Bingen - Richard Souther – Vision: The Music Of Hildegard Von Bingen |website=Discogs.com|date=5 September 1994 }}</ref>
* [[Sofia Gubaidulina]]: ''Aus den Visionen der Hildegard von Bingen'', for contra alto solo, after a text of Hildegard of Bingen, 1994
* [[Tilo Medek]]: ''Monatsbilder (nach Hildegard von Bingen)'', twelve songs for mezzo-soprano, clarinet and piano, 1997
* [[Wolfgang Sauseng]]: ''De visione secunda'' for double choir and percussion, 2011
* [[John Zorn]]: ''The Holy Visions'' for five female voices, 2012
* [[David Chalmin]] and [[Bryce Dessner]]: "Electric Fields" for soprano, two pianos, electronics, & multimedia, 2022

The artwork ''[[The Dinner Party]]'' features a place setting for Hildegard.<ref>[https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/place_settings Place Settings]. Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved on 6 August 2015</ref>

Hildegard was the subject of season 2, episode 3 of the ZDF documentary ''[[Die Deutschen]]'', titled ''Hildegard von Bingen und die Macht der Frauen'' ("Hildegard of Bingen and the Power of Women"), it was released in 2010.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hildegard von Bingen und die Macht der Frauen |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1745056/?ref_=ttep_ep_3 |year=2010 |access-date=2025-10-26 |website=IMDb}}</ref>

Hildegard was the subject of a 2012 fictionalized biographic novel ''[[Illuminations (novel)|Illuminations]]'' by [[Mary Sharatt]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sharatt |first=Mary |title=Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-547-56784-6 |location=New York}}</ref>

Hildegard was the subject of an episode of the [[VisionTV|Vision TV]] [[Apocalypse]]-themed documentary series [https://web.archive.org/web/20130326101256/http://www.visiontv.ca/videos/?unoc=2047 I Prophesy] in 2012.<ref>{{Cite news |title=I Prophesy: Hildegard - Mystic of the Rhine - Vision TV Channel Canada |url=http://www.visiontv.ca/videos/i-prophesy-hildegard-mystic-of-the-rhine/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130326013713/http://www.visiontv.ca/videos/i-prophesy-hildegard-mystic-of-the-rhine/ |archive-date=2013-03-26 |access-date=2025-05-29 |work=Vision TV Channel Canada |language=en-us}}</ref>

The off-Broadway musical ''[[In the Green]]'', written by [[Grace McLean]], followed Hildegard's story.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Meyer |first=Dan |date=28 June 2019 |title=Read What Critics Thought of in the Green Off-Broadway |url=http://www.playbill.com/article/read-what-critics-thought-of-in-the-green-off-broadway |access-date=25 October 2020 |website=Playbill |language=en}}</ref>

In his book, ''[[The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat]]'', neurologist [[Oliver Sacks]] devotes a chapter to Hildegard and concludes that in his opinion her visions were migrainous.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sacks |first=Oliver |url=https://archive.org/details/manwhomistookhis0000sack_y5t7/mode/1up |title=The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat |date=1986 |publisher=Picador |isbn=0-330-29491-1 |location=London |page=160 |access-date=27 July 2021}}</ref>

In film, Hildegard has been portrayed by [[Patricia Routledge]] in a BBC documentary called ''Hildegard of Bingen'' (1994),<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0995850/ |title=Hildegard of Bingen |publisher=[[IMDb]] }}</ref> by [[Ángela Molina]] in ''[[Barbarossa (film)|Barbarossa]]'' (2009)<ref name="RAI">{{Cite web |title=Barbarossa – HP |url=http://www.barbarossa.rai.it/dl/portali/site/articolo/ContentItem-311ffb83-9044-449a-8a26-247fd0f716ff.html?homepage |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017123948/http://www.barbarossa.rai.it/dl/portali/site/articolo/ContentItem-311ffb83-9044-449a-8a26-247fd0f716ff.html?homepage |archive-date=17 October 2013 |access-date=12 October 2013}}</ref> and by [[Barbara Sukowa]] in the film ''[[Vision – From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen|Vision]]'', directed by [[Margarethe von Trotta]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0995850/ |title=Vision |publisher=[[IMDb]] }}</ref>

A feature documentary film, ''[[The Unruly Mystic: Saint Hildegard]]'', was released by American director [[Michael M. Conti]] in 2014.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4087154/ |title=The Unruly Mystic: Saint Hildegard |publisher=[[IMDb]] }}</ref>

Hildegard makes an appearance in ''[[The Baby-Sitters Club]] #101: Claudia Kishi, Middle School Drop-Out'' by Ann M. Martin, when Anna Stevenson dresses as Hildegard for Halloween.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Martin |first=Ann |title=Claudia Kishi, Middle-School Dropout |publisher=Scholastic Publishers |year=2015 |location=New York}}</ref>

Kristin Hayter, known professionally as [[Lingua Ignota (musician)|Lingua Ignota]], was inspired by Hildegard of Bingen.

In the historical novel, [[A Flight of Saints]], five unruly novices escape across the Alps to join the convent of their heroine Hildegard of Bingen.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Flight of Saints |last=Braithwaite |first=Elizabeth |isbn=9798300870607 |year=2025}}</ref>

The plant genus ''[[Hildegardia (plant)|Hildegardia]]'' is named after her because of her contributions to herbal medicine.<ref>Schott, H.W., Endlicher, S.F.L. Meletemata Botanica. (Vienna: Carolus Gerold, 1832)</ref>

In space, the [[minor planet]] [[898 Hildegard]] is named for her.<ref>Minor Planet Center: [http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/lists/NumberedMPs.txt Lists and Plots: Minor Planets], accessed 8 October 2012</ref>

==Bibliography==
{{Main|Bibliography of Hildegard of Bingen}}

===Editions of Hildegard's works===
* Beate Hildegardis Cause et cure, ed. L. Moulinier (Berlin, Akademie Verlag, 2003)
* ''Epistolarium pars prima I–XC'' edited by L. Van Acker, [[Corpus Christianorum]] Continuatio Mediaevalis CCCM 91A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1991)
* ''Epistolarium pars secunda XCI–CCLr'' edited by L. Van Acker, [[Corpus Christianorum]] Continuatio Mediaevalis CCCM 91A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1993)
* ''Epistolarium pars tertia CCLI–CCCXC'' edited by L. Van Acker and M. Klaes-Hachmoller, [[Corpus Christianorum]] Continuatio Mediaevalis XCIB (Turnhout: Brepols, 2001)
* Hildegard of Bingen, ''Two Hagiographies: Vita sancti Rupperti confessoris, Vita sancti Dysibodi episcopi,'' ed. and trans. Hugh Feiss & Christopher P. Evans, [[Dallas Medieval Texts and Translations]] 11 (Leuven and Paris: Peeters, 2010)
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=GkuK53bU4_UC ''Hildegard of Bingen's Unknown Language: An Edition, Translation, and Discussion''], ed. Sarah Higley (2007) (the entire Riesencodex glossary, with additions from the Berlin MS, translations into English, and extensive commentary)
* Hildegardis Bingensis, ''Opera minora'' II. edited by C.P. Evans, J. Deploige, S. Moens, M. Embach, K. Gärtner, [[Corpus Christianorum]] Continuatio Mediaevalis CCCM 226A (Turnhout: Brepols, 2015), {{ISBN|978-2-503-54837-1}}
* Hildegardis Bingensis, ''Opera minora''. edited by H. Feiss, C. Evans, B.M. Kienzle, C. Muessig, B. Newman, P. Dronke, [[Corpus Christianorum]] Continuatio Mediaevalis CCCM 226 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2007), {{ISBN|978-2-503-05261-8}}
* Hildegardis Bingensis. ''Werke Band IV. Lieder Symphoniae.'' Edited by [[Barbara Stühlmeyer]]. Beuroner Kunstverlag 2012. {{ISBN|978-3-87071-263-1}}.
* ''Liber divinorum operum''. A. Derolez and P. Dronke eds., Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis CCCM 92 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1996)
* ''Liber vitae meritorum''. A. Carlevaris ed. Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis CCCM 90 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1995)
* ''Lieder'' (Otto Müller Verlag Salzburg 1969: modern edition in adapted square notation)
* Marianne Richert Pfau, ''Hildegard von Bingen: Symphonia'', 8 volumes. Complete edition of the Symphonia chants. (Bryn Mawr, Hildegard Publishing Company, 1990).
* ''Scivias''. A. Führkötter, A. Carlevaris eds., Corpus Christianorum Scholars Version vols. 43, 43A. (Turnhout: Brepols, 2003)

===Early manuscripts of Hildegard's works===
* Dendermonde, Belgium, St.-Pieters-&-Paulusabdij Cod. 9 (Villarenser codex) ({{Circa|1174/75}})
* Leipzig, University Library, St. Thomas 371
* Paris, Bibl. Nat. MS 1139
* Wiesbaden, Hessische Landesbibliothek, MS 2 (Riesen Codex) or [[Wiesbaden Codex]] ({{circa|1180}}–85)

===Other sources===
* ''Analecta Sanctae Hildegardis, in Analecta Sacra'' vol. 8 edited by [[Jean-Baptiste Pitra]] (Monte Cassino, 1882).
* ''Explanatio [[Rule of St Benedict|Regulae S. Benedicti]]''
* ''Explanatio Symboli [[Saint Athanasius|S. Athanasii]]''
* ''[[homily|Homeliae]] LVIII in Evangelia''
* ''Hymnodia coelestis''
* ''[[Lingua Ignota|Ignota lingua]], cum versione Latina''
* ''Liber divinorum operum simplicis hominis'' (1163–73/74)
* ''Liber vitae meritorum'' (1158–63)
* ''Libri simplicis et compositae medicine''
* ''[[Patrologia Latina]]'' vol. 197 (1855)
* ''[[Physica (Hildegard)|Physica]], sive Subtilitatum diversarum naturarum creaturarum libri novem''
* ''[[Scivias]] seu Visiones'' (1141–51)
* ''Solutiones triginta octo quaestionum''
* ''Tractatus de sacramento altaris''

===Translations===
{{refbegin}}
* ''Causae et Curae (Holistic Healing)''. Trans. by Manfred Pawlik and Patrick Madigan. Edited by Mary Palmquist and John Kulas. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, Inc., 1994.
* ''Causes and Cures of Hildegard of Bingen''. Trans. by Priscilla Throop. Charlotte, VT: MedievalMS, 2006, 2008.
* ''Homilies on the Gospels''. Trans. by Beverly Mayne Kienzle. Trappist, KY: Cistercian Publications, 2011.
* ''Physica''. Trans. Priscilla Throop. Rochester Vermont: Healing Arts Press, 1998.
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=7SVDoDhCV3oC ''Scivias'']. Trans. by Columba Hart and Jane Bishop. Introduction by [[Barbara Newman|Barbara J. Newman]]. Preface by Caroline Walker Bynum. New York: Paulist Press, 1990.
* ''Solutions to Thirty-Eight Questions.'' Trans. Beverly Mayne Kienzle, with Jenny C. Bledsoe and Stephen H. Behnke. Collegeville, MN: Cistercian Publications / Liturgical Press, 2014.
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=hveMDSLm5G4C ''Symphonia: A Critical Edition of the Symphonia Armonie Celestium Revelationum (Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations)''], ed. and trans. Barbara Newman. Cornell Univ. Press, 1988/1998.
* ''The Book of the Rewards of Life.'' Trans. Bruce Hozeski. New York : Oxford University Press, 1997.
* ''The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen''. Trans. by Joseph L. Baird and Radd K. Ehrman. 3 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994/1998/2004.
* ''Three Lives and a Rule: the Lives of Hildegard, Disibod, Rupert, with Hildegard's Explanation of the Rule of St. Benedict''. Trans. by Priscilla Throop. Charlotte, VT: MedievalMS, 2010.
* ''Two Hagiographies: Vita sancti Rupperti confessoris. Vita sancti Dysibodi episcopi.'' Intro. and trans. Hugh Feiss, O.S.B.; ed. Christopher P. Evans. Paris, Leuven, Walpole, MA: Peeters, 2010.
* Hildegard of Bingen. [https://books.google.com/books?id=euF0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 ''The Book of Divine Works'']. Trans. by Nathaniel M. Campbell. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2018.
* Sarah L. Higley. [https://books.google.com/books?id=GkuK53bU4_UC ''Hildegard of Bingen's Unknown Language: An Edition, Translation, and Discussion''] New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
* Silvas, Anna. ''Jutta and Hildegard: The Biographical Sources''. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998. {{ISBN|978-0-271-01954-3}}
{{refend}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Christianity|Catholicism|Biography}}
* [[Discography of Hildegard of Bingen]]
* [[Timeline of women in science]]
{{clear}}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|35em}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin}}
* "Un lexique trilingue du XIIe siècle : la lingua ignota de Hildegarde de Bingen", dans ''Lexiques bilingues dans les domaines philosophique et scientifique (Moyen Âge-Renaissance), Actes du colloque international organisé par l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes-IVe Section et l'Institut Supérieur de Philosophie de l'Université Catholique de Louvain'', Paris, 12–14 juin 1997, éd. J. Hamesse, D. Jacquart, Turnhout, Brepols, 2001, p.&nbsp;89–111.
* "'Sibyl of the Rhine': Hildegard's Life and Times." ''Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World''. Edited by Barbara Newman. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1998.
* "Hildegard of Bingen: Visions and Validation." ''Church History'' 54 (1985): 163–75.
* "Un témoin supplémentaire du rayonnement de sainte Radegonde au Moyen Age ? La Vita domnae Juttae (XIIe siècle)", ''Bulletin de la société des Antiquaires de l'Ouest'', 5e série, t. XV, 3e et 4e trimestres 2001, pp.&nbsp;181–97.
* ''Die Gesänge der Hildegard von Bingen. Eine musikologische, theologische und kulturhistorische Untersuchung.'' Olms, Hildesheim 2003, {{ISBN|978-3-487-11845-1}}.
* ''Hildegard von Bingen. Leben – Werk – Verehrung.'' Topos plus Verlagsgemeinschaft, Kevelaer 2014, {{ISBN|978-3-8367-0868-5}}.
* ''Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine''. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987.
* ''Tugenden und Laster. Wegweisung im Dialog mit Hildegard von Bingen.'' Beuroner Kunstverlag, Beuron 2012, {{ISBN|978-3-87071-287-7}}.
* ''Wege in sein Licht. Eine spirituelle Biografie über Hildegard von Bingen.'' Beuroner Kunstverlag, Beuron 2013, {{ISBN|978-3-87071-293-8}}.
* Bennett, Judith M. and C. Warren Hollister. ''Medieval Europe: A Short History''. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006. 289, 317.
* Boyce-Tillman, June. "Hildegard of Bingen at 900: The Eye of a Woman." ''The Musical Times'' 139, no. 1865 (Winter, 1998): 31–36.
* Butcher, Carmen Acevedo. ''Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader''. Massachusetts: Paraclete Press, 2007.
* Davidson, Audrey Ekdahl. "Music and Performance: Hildegard of Bingen's Ordo Virtutum." ''The Ordo Virtutum of Hildegard of Bingen: Critical Studies''. Kalamazoo, MI: Western Michigan University, 1992.
* Dietrich, Julia. "The Visionary Rhetoric of Hildegard of Bingen." ''Listening to Their Voices: The Rhetorical Activities of Historic Women''. Ed. Molly Meijer Wertheimer. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1997. 202–14.
* Fassler, Margot. "Composer and Dramatist: 'Melodious Singing and the Freshness of Remorse.'" ''Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World''. Edited by Barbara Newman. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1998.
* Flanagan, Sabina. [https://books.google.com/books?id=i6uGAgAAQBAJ ''Hildegard of Bingen, 1098–1179: A Visionary Life'']. London: Routledge, 1989.
* Fox, Matthew. ''Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen''. Santa Fe, NM: Bear and Company, 1985.
* Fox, Matthew. ''Book of Divine Works''.Santa Fe, NM: Bear and Company, 1987.
* Friedrich Wilhelm Emil Roth, "Glossae Hildigardis", in: Elias Steinmeyer and Eduard Sievers eds., ''Die Althochdeutschen Glossen'', vol. III. Zürich: Wiedmann, 1895, 1965, pp.&nbsp;390–404.
* Furlong, Monica. ''Visions and Longings: Medieval Women Mystics''. Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications, 1996.
* Glaze, Florence Eliza. "Medical Writer: 'Behold the Human Creature.'" ''Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World''. Edited by Barbara Newman. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1998.
* Holsinger, Bruce. [https://books.google.com/books?id=G-41n_wuTj0C ''Music, Body, and Desire In Medieval Culture'']. California: Stanford University Press, 2001.
* Kienzle, Beverly, George Ferzoco, & Debra Stoudt. ''A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen''. Brill's companions to the Christian tradition. Leiden: Brill, 2013. [https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004260719_015 Notes on Hildegard's "Unknown" Language and Writing].
* King-Lenzmeier, Anne. ''Hildegard of Bingen: an integrated version''. Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 2001.
* Maddocks, Fiona. ''Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age''. New York: Doubleday, 2001.
* Madigan, Shawn. ''Mystics, Visionaries and Prophets: A Historical Anthology of Women's Spiritual Writings''. Minnesota: Augsburg Fortress, 1998.
* McGrade, Michael. "Hildegard von Bingen." ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: allgemeine Enzyklopaldie der Musik'', 2nd edition, T. 2, Volume 8. Edited by Ludwig Fischer. Kassel, New York: Bahrenreiter, 1994.
* Moulinier, Laurence, ''Le manuscrit perdu à Strasbourg''. Enquête sur l'œuvre scientifique de Hildegarde, Paris/Saint-Denis, Publications de la Sorbonne-Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, 1995, 286 p.
* [[Barbara Newman|Newman, Barbara]]. Voice of the Living Light. California: University of California Press, 1998.
* Richert-Pfau, Marianne and Stefan Morent. ''Hildegard von Bingen: Klang des Himmels''. Koeln: Boehlau Verlag, 2005.
* Richert-Pfau, Marianne. "Mode and Melody Types in Hildegard von Bingen's Symphonia." ''Sonus'' 11 (1990): 53–71.
* Salvadori, Sara. ''Hildegard von Bingen. A Journey into the Images''. Milan: Skira, 2019.
* Schipperges, Heinrich. Hildegard of Bingen: healing and the nature of the cosmos. New Jersey: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1997.
* [[Barbara Stühlmeyer|Stühlmeyer, Barbara]]. ''Die Kompositionen der Hildegard von Bingen. Ein Forschungsbericht.'' In: ''Beiträge zur Gregorianik.'' 22. ConBrio Verlagsgesellschaft, Regensburg 1996, {{ISBN|978-3-930079-23-0}}, S. 74–85.
* ''The Life and Works of Hildegard von Bingen.'' Internet. Available from [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/hildegarde.html Internet History Sourcebooks Project]; accessed 14 November 2009.
* Underhill, Evelyn. ''Mystics of the Church.'' Pennsylvania: Morehouse Publishing, 1925.
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin|20em}}
'''General commentary'''
* Burnett, Charles, and Peter Dronke, eds. ''Hildegard of Bingen: The Context of Her Thought and Art''. The Warburg Colloquia. London: University of London, 1998.
* Cherewatuk, Karen, and Ulrike Wiethaus, eds. ''Dear Sister: Medieval Women and the Epistolary Genre''. Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
* Davidson, Audrey Ekdahl. ''The Ordo Virtutum of Hildegard of Bingen: Critical Studies''. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1992. {{ISBN|978-1-879288-17-1}}
* Dronke, Peter. ''Women Writers of the Middle Ages: A Critical Study of Texts from Perpetua to Marguerite Porete''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984; repr. 2001.
* Flanagan, Sabina. ''Hildegard of Bingen: A Visionary Life''. London: Routledge, 1998. {{ISBN|978-0-7607-1361-7}}
* Gosselin, Carole, and Micheline Latour. ''Hildegarde von Bingen, une musicienne du XIIe siècle''. Montréal: Université du Québec à Montréal, Département de musique, 1990.
* Grimm, Wilhelm. "Wiesbadener Glossen: Befasst sich mit den mittelhochdeutschen Übersetzungen der Unbekannten Sprache der Handschrift C." ''Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum'' (1848): 321–40.
* King-Lenzmeier, Anne H. ''Hildegard of Bingen: An Integrated Vision''. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2001.
* Marder, Michael. ''Green Mass: The Ecological Theology of St. Hildegard of Bingen''. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2021.
* Newman, Barbara, ed. ''Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
* Newman, Barbara. ''Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.
* Pernoud, Régine. ''Hildegard of Bingen: Inspired Conscience of the Twelfth Century''. Trans. Paul Duggan. New York: Marlowe & Co., 1998.
* Schipperges, Heinrich. ''The World of Hildegard of Bingen: Her Life, Times, and Visions''. Trans. John Cumming. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1999.
* Wilson, Katharina. ''Medieval Women Writers''. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1984.

'''On Hildegard's illuminations'''
* Baillet, Louis. "Les miniatures du ''Scivias'' de Sainte Hildegarde." ''Monuments et mémoires publiés par l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres'' 19 (1911): 49–149.
* Campbell, Nathaniel M. "''Imago expandit splendorem suum'': Hildegard of Bingen's Visio-Theological Designs in the Rupertsberg Scivias Manuscript." ''Eikón / Imago'' 2, no. 2 (2013): 1–68. [http://capire.es/eikonimago/index.php/eikonimago/article/view/88 Online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305164209/http://capire.es/eikonimago/index.php/eikonimago/article/view/88 |date=5 March 2016}}.
* Caviness, Madeline. "Gender Symbolism and Text Image Relationships: Hildegard of Bingen's ''Scivias''." In ''Translation Theory and Practice in the Middle Ages'', ed. Jeanette Beer, 71–111. Studies in Medieval Culture 38. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1997.
* Caviness, Madeline. "Artist: 'To See, Hear, and Know All at Once'." In ''Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World'', ed. Barbara Newman, 110–24. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
* Caviness, Madeline. "Calcare caput draconis: Prophetische Bildkonfiguration in Visionstext und Illustration, zur Vision ''Scivias'' II, 7." In ''Hildegard von Bingen. Prophetin durch die Zeiten'', ed. Äbtissin Edeltraud Forster, 340–58. Freiburg im Breisgau: Verlag Herder, 1997.
* Caviness, Madeline. "Hildegard as Designer of the Illustrations to Her Works." In ''Hildegard of Bingen: The Context of Her Thought and Art'', ed. Charles Burnett and Peter Dronke, 29–62. London: Warburg Institute, 1998.
* Caviness, Madeline. "Hildegard of Bingen: German Author, Illustrator, and Musical Composer, 1098–1179." In ''Dictionary of Women Artists'', ed. Delia Gaze, 685–87. London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1997.
* Caviness, Madeline. ''Bildgewordene Visionen oder Visionserzählungen: Vergleichende Studie über die Visionsdarstellungen in der Rupertsberger Scivias-Handschrift und im Luccheser Liber divinorum operum-Codex der Hildegard von Bingen''. Neue Berner Schriften zur Kunst 5. Bern: Peter Lang, 1998.
* Caviness, Madeline. ''Die Miniaturen im ''Liber Scivias'' der Hildegard von Bingen: Die Wucht der Vision und die Ordnung der Bilder''. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1998.
* Führkötter, Adelgundis. ''The Miniatures from the Book ''Scivias'': Know the Ways of St Hildegard of Bingen from the Illuminated Rupertsberg Codex''. Vol. 1. Armaria patristica et mediaevalia. Turnhout: Brepols, 1977.
* Harris, Anne Sutherland, and Linda Nochlin. ''Women Artists: 1550–1950''. Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976. {{ISBN|978-0-394-73326-5}}
* Keller, Hiltgart L. ''Mittelrheinische Buchmalereien in Handschriften aus dem Kreise der Hildegard von Bingen''. Stuttgart: Suhrkamp, 1933.
* Kessler, Clemencia Hand. "A Problematic Illumination of the Heidelberg ''Liber Scivias''." ''Marsyas'' 8 (1957): 7–21.
* Meier, Christel. "Zum Verhältnis von Text und Illustration im überlieferten Werk Hildegards von Bingen." In ''Hildegard von Bingen, 1179–1979: Festschrift zum 800. Todestag der Heiligen'', ed. Anton Ph. Brück, 159–69. Mainz: Gesellschaft für mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte, 1979.
* Otto, Rita. "Zu einigen Miniaturen einer ''Scivias''-Handschrift des 12. Jahrhunderts." ''Mainzer Zeitschrift: Mittelrheinisches Jahrbuch für Archäologie, Kunst und Geschichte'' 67/68 (1972): 128–37.
* Saurma-Jeltsch, Lieselotte. "Die Rupertsberger ''Scivias''-Handschrift: Überlegungen zu ihrer Entstehung." In ''Hildegard von Bingen. Prophetin durch die Zeiten'', ed. Äbtissin Edeltraud Forster, 340–58. Freiburg im Breisgau: Verlag Herder, 1997.
* Schomer, Josef. ''Die Illustrationen zu den Visionen der hl. Hildegard als künstlerische Neuschöpfung''. Bonn: Stodieck, 1937.
* Suzuki, Keiko. "Zum Strukturproblem in den Visionsdarstellungen der Rupertsberger ''Scivias''-Handschrift." ''Sacris Erudiri'' 35 (1995): 221–91.

'''Background reading'''
* Boyce-Tillman, June. ''The Creative Spirit: Harmonious Living with Hildegard of Bingen''. Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing, 2000. {{ISBN|978-0-8192-1882-7}}
* Butcher, Carmen Acevedo. ''Man of Blessing: A Life of St. Benedict''. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2012. {{ISBN|978-1-61261-162-4}}
* Bynum, Caroline Walker. ''Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.
* Bynum, Caroline Walker. ''Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200–1336''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.
* Chadwick, Whitney. ''Women, Art, and Society''. London: Thames & Hudson, 1990. {{ISBN|978-0-500-20354-5}}
* Constable, Giles. ''The Reformation of the Twelfth Century''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
* Dronke, Peter, ed. ''A History of Twelfth-Century Western Philosophy''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
* Sweet, Victoria. ''Rooted in the Earth, Rooted in the Sky: Hildegard of Bingen and Premodern Medicine''. New York: Routledge, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-415-97634-3}}
* Holweck, Frederick George. ''A Biographical Dictionary of the Saints, with a General Introduction on Hagiology''. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1990. (Orig. 1924).
* Lachman, Barbara. ''Hildegard: The Last Year''. Boston: Shambhala, 1997.
* McBrien, Richard. ''Lives of the Saints''. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2003.
* McKnight, Scot. ''The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus''. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2006.
* Newman, Barbara. ''God and the Goddesses: Vision, Poetry, and Belief in the Middle Ages''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. {{ISBN|978-0-8122-1911-1}}
* Pelikan, Jaroslav. ''Mary Through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture''. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996.
* Stevenson, Jane. ''Women Latin Poets: Language, Gender, & Authority from Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
* Sweet, Victoria. "Hildegard of Bingen and the Greening of Medieval Medicine." ''Bulletin of the History of Medicine'' 73 (1999): 381–403.
* Ulrich, Ingeborg. ''Hildegard of Bingen: Mystic, Healer, Companion of the Angels''. Trans. Linda M. Maloney. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1993.
* Ward, Benedicta. ''Miracles and the Medieval Mind''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987.
* Weeks, Andrew. ''German Mysticism from Hildegard of Bingen to Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Literary and Intellectual History''. Albany: SUNY Press, 1993. {{ISBN|978-0-7914-1419-4}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{EB1911 poster|Hildegard, St}}
* [http://www.abtei-st-hildegard.de/ Abtei St. Hildegard] / [http://www.abtei-st-hildegard.de/english/ Abbey of St. Hildegard] (Modern-day abbey in Eibingen, Germany)
* Bibliographies:
** {{Geschichtsquellen Person|118550993}}
** {{DNB-Portal|118550993}}
** {{HessBib PPN|116465158}}
** {{DDB|Person|118550993}}
* English translations:
** [https://www.academia.edu/7395812/Hildegard_of_Bingen_An_Explanation_of_the_Athanasian_Creed_Explanatio_Symboli_Sancti_Athanasii_ "An Explanation of the Athanasian Creed" (''Explanatio Symboli Sancti Athanasii'')]
** [https://www.academia.edu/3597758/Hildegard_of_Bingen_Book_of_Divine_Works_Part_I_Vision_1 ''Book of Divine Works'' (''Liber Divinorum Operum'') I.1]
** [https://www.academia.edu/5545465/Hildegard_of_Bingen_Book_of_Divine_Works_Part_III_Vision_3 ''Book of Divine Works'' (''Liber Divinorum Operum'') III.3]
**[https://web.archive.org/web/20060302194245/http://www.poetseers.org/spiritual_and_devotional_poets/christian/hild/hildp  Poems and Prayers of Hildegard]
** [http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~young/trnintro.html Young, Abigail Ann. ''Translations from Rupert, Hildegard, and Guibert of Gembloux''. 1999. 27 March 2006.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091107153330/http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~young/trnintro.html |date=7 November 2009 }}
* {{CathEncy|wstitle=St. Hildegard}}
* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/hildegarde.html Hildegard's page at the Medieval History Sourcebook]
* [http://www.hildegard-society.org/ International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies] (ISHBS)
*Musical work:
** [http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/composers/hildegard.html Complete Discography at medieval.org]
** {{IMSLP|id=Hildegard}}
** {{ChoralWiki|Hildegard von Bingen}}
** [https://augsburg.academia.edu/ChristianMcGuire McGuire, K. Christian. ''Symphonia Caritatis: The Cistercian Chants of Hildegard von Bingen'' (2007)]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110719082831/http://www.schnitzler-aachen.de/Modellbau/Bingen/Rup.html The Reconstruction of the monastery on the Rupertsberg]

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