An Annotated Bibliography of Printed and Online Primary Sources for the Middle Ages
Baird, Joseph, ed., trans.; Ehrman, Radd, ed., trans., The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1994).
Text name(s):
Number of pages of primary source text: 176
Medieval Author(s): Hildegard of Bingen
Dates: 1146 - 1179
Archival Reference:
Original Language(s): Latin;
Translation: Original language included. English translation.
Translation Comments:
Geopolitical Region(s): Europe; Germany;
County/Region: Rhineland
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Record Type(s): Letter |
Subject Heading(s): Clergy - Monks, Nuns, Friars Clergy - Priests, Bishops, Canons Heresy Monasticism Music Papacy Philosophy / Theology Piety - Mysticism Saints Women / Gender |
Apparatus: Index Bibliography Introduction
Comments:
St. Hildegard of Bingen was an important figure in her time, and enormously influential afterwards; she was a theologian, composer, dramatist, visionary, maker of public speeches, and a prolific writer of letters. Among her correspondents were popes, emperors, churchmen, and statesmen, including such famous personalities as Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Abbot Suger of St.-Denis, and the visionary St. Elisabeth of Schoenau. Her letters, often written in mystical language, deal with issues of pastoral care, theological matters, the regulation of monks and nuns, and individual spiritual advice. This three volume edition includes ingoing and outgoing correspondence in English (volumes 1 and 2) and in Latin (volume 3). Each letter is accompanied by explanatory footnotes.
Introduction Summary:
The editors introduction (24 pp) outlines Hildegards biography, including her presentation as an oblate to the Benedictine monastery of Mount St. Disibod under the care of the anchoress Jutta of Sponheim. The editors also discuss the difficulties of understanding and translating Hildegards idiosyncratic Latin, particularly her oft-used term viriditas (greenness, in the sense of new spring growth, to indicate a divine breath of life). They also provide a brief overview of Hildegards involvement in political and ecclesiastical affairs via her more famous correspondents, highlight several recurring themes in her correspondence with abbots and abbesses, and suggest that Hildegard was particularly invested in stamping out the Cathar heresy.
Cataloger: MCB