Hildegard of Bingen Studies and this Blog

St. Hildegard of Bingen recording her
visions in the Liber Divinorum Operum
(I.1), from Lucca, MS 1942, fol. 1.

Over the last year or two, this blog has served as an outlet for my ongoing work with the Visionary Doctor, St. Hildegard of Bingen, with a focus on two particular areas: her musical compositions in the Symphonia; and the last and greatest volume of her visionary trilogy, the Liber Divinorum Operum. I am pleased to announce that both of these areas have made the transition from personal blog to professional editions:

• I have collaborated with two musicologists to begin publishing a complete online edition of Hildegard’s Symphonia under the auspices of the International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies. So far, we have made 18 of Hildegard’s compositions available, with Latin text, my new translations, musical transcriptions by Beverly Lomer, extensive commentary, and additional resources; and we are looking to add at least one new entry a week until we have completed the entire span of the Symphonia.
• The Catholic University of America Press has agreed to publish my new translation of Hildegard’s Liber Divinorum Operum (“Book of Divine Works”) in their Fathers of the Church, Medieval Continuation Series. This will be the first time that Hildegard’s magnum opus will be published in a complete, scholarly English edition; the volume should appear in 2016.

Unfortunately, as a result of the time commitment required to complete these two projects, in addition to my part-time teaching responsibilities and caring for my infant son while my wife teaches full-time, I will have to step back from making regular posts to this blog. Those of you who have been following my Symphonia series will, however, be able to see its completion through the ISHBS’s project (and I may cross-post occasional updates to that project here); and those who have enjoyed my translations of the LDO can look forward to its complete appearance in a few years.

     Update, April 15, 2015:

My article, “‘Lest He Should Come Unforeseen’: The Antichrist Cycle in the Hortus Deliciarum,” has just been published in Gesta, Vol. 54, No. 1 (2015), pp. 85-118, and can be accessed online here. Gesta is the journal of the International Center of Medieval Art.

O prophetissa teutonica: A Chronogram in Honor of St. Hildegard of Bingen

Portrait of St. Hildegard.
Rupertsberg Scivias, fol. 1r
(Protestificatio)

o prophetIssa teVtonICa
et DoCtrIX beata eCCLesIae,
VIsIones tVae nobIs
VIrtVtes VIrIDItatIs
In VIa Vera ostenDant.

(O prophetissa teutonica et Doctrix beata Ecclesiae, visiones tuae nobis virtutes viriditatis in via vera ostendant.)

(O German prophetess and blessed Teacher of the Church, may your visions reveal to us the virtues of viridity upon the true way.)

Quia ergo femina (Symphonia 12)

For the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
An Antiphon by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Scivias III.3:
Amor Caelestis.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 139r.

Quia ergo femina mortem instruxit,    clara virgo illam interemit, et ideo est summa      benedictio in feminea forma pre omni creatura, quia Deus factus est homo in dulcissima et beata virgine.

For since a woman drew up death, a virgin gleaming dashed it down, and therefore is the highest      blessing found in woman’s form before all other creatures. For God was made a human in the sweet and blessed Virgin.

Cum processit factura (Symphonia 13)

For the Octave of the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
An Antiphon by St. Hildegard of Bingen ^[1]

Scivias I.2: The Fall.
Rupertsberg MS,
fol. 4r.

Cum processit factura digiti Dei, formata ad imaginem Dei in ortu mixti sanguinis per peregrinationem casus Ade, elementa susceperunt gaudia in te,  o laudabilis Maria, celo rutilante et in laudibus sonante.

Although the craft of God’s extended finger, created in God’s image, came forth in birth of blood commingled, in pilgrimage exiled by Adam’s fall; the elements received their joys in you, O Mary, worthy of our praise, as heaven gleams with rubied light and echoes gladsome shouts of praise.

O quam magnum miraculum (Symphonia 16)

For the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
An Antiphon by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Virgin Mary, Queen of Heavens'
Symphony, Scivias III.13
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 229r

O quam magnum miraculum est   quod in subditam femineam formam rex introivit. Hoc Deus fecit quia humilitas super omnia ascendit. Et o quam magna felicitas est in ista forma, quia malicia, que de femina fluxit hanc femina postea      detersit et omnem suavissimum odorem virtutum edificavit ac celum ornavit plus quam terram prius turbavit.

How great the wonder is! Into the female form subdued the King has come. This God has done, for meekness mounts o’er all. And O how great the happiness is in that form, for malice, which from a woman flowed— a woman then this malice wiped      away, and ev’ry sweet perfume of virtues she has raised— the heavens graced far more than e’er the earth in chaos cast.

O viriditas digiti Dei (Symphonia 42)

For the Octave of St. Disibod, a Responsory by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

St. Disibod
Oil on canvas, 17th c.
(From Colonial Art)

V. O viriditas digiti Dei, in qua Deus constituit      plantationem que in excelso resplendent      ut statuta columna: R. Tu gloriosa in preparatione Dei. V. Et o altitudo montis que numquam dissipaberis in discretione Dei, tu tamen stas a longe ut exul, sed non est in potestate armati    qui te rapiat.

V. O fresh viridity of God’s creative finger, in which God planted his      green vineyard that glistens in the heights,      a lofty pillar: R. How glorious you are as you prepare for God! V. And O, the mountain’s height! O never shall you be laid low at God’s discerning judgment— no, you stand yet afar, an exile, but not ensnared by that brigand’s power who snatches after you.

O mirum admirandum (Symphonia 41)

For the Feast of St. Disibod, an Antiphon by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

“The Ruins of the Disibodenberg
Monastery,” Lithograph, 1833.
From Gemeinfrei IGL-Bildarchiv.

O mirum admirandum quod    absconsa forma precellit      ardua in honesta statura, ubi vivens altitudo profert mistica. Unde, o Disibode, surges in fine, succurrente flore omnium ramorum      mundi, ut primum surrexisti.

O wonder, O how wondrous! A hidden form, so hard, so high,      so steep, surpasses in its lofty honor— where Living Height itself reveals the mysteries. And so, O Disibod, you shall arise at th’ end of time as first you rose— the flow’r of all the branches      of the world comes to your aid.

O vos felices radices (Symphonia 32)

For the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist,
A Responsory for Patriarchs and Prophets by St. Hildegard of Bingen ^[1]

Scivias III.13: Symphonia in
Heaven: Choir of Patriarchs
and Prophets (detail).
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 229r

V. O vos felices radices cum quibus opus miraculorum   et non opus criminum per torrens iter perspicue umbre plantatum est, et o tu ruminans ignea vox, precurrens limantem lapidem subvertentem abyssum: R. Gaudete in capite vestro. V. Gaudete in illo quem non viderunt in terris multi qui ipsum ardenter vocaverunt. R. Gaudete in capite vestro.

V. O merry roots, with whom the work of miracles— but not the work of crimes— was planted by a journey rushing, tearing forth, a path of shade perlucid; and you, O voice of ruminating fire, forerunner of the Rock that grinds to polish and to topple the abyss: R. Rejoice in him, your captain! V. Rejoice in him whom most on earth have never seen— yet ardently have called upon. R. Rejoice in him, your captain!

An Explanation of the Athanasian Creed

Explanatio Symboli Sancti Athanasii by St. Hildegard of Bingen

This treatise can also be viewed and downloaded as a PDF here.

Introduction

Scivias II.2: The Trinity.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 47r.

Hildegard composed this commentary on the Pseudo-Athanasian Creed as part of a series of shorter works written in the early 1170’s in response to a letter from her secretary and provost, Volmar, expressing on behalf of her community of nuns their anxiety that, as the Visionary Doctor entered her seventies, she would not be long for the earth. The letter draws a particularly striking contrast between the vanities of scholastic disputes and the truly divine teaching with which Hildegard had been inspired. Hildegard’s response to this letter is preserved in the manuscripts as the preface to her Explanatio Symboli Sancti Athanasii.^[1] She likely chose to write a commentary on this standard liturgical text because its treatment of “the catholic faith” offered her a structure on which to provide her community a summary of her most characteristic thoughts about the relationship between the triune divinity and its work of creation, with humankind at its center.

O ignis Spiritus Paracliti (Symphonia 28)

For Pentecost, a Sequence for the Holy Spirit by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Pentecost, from the
Ingeborg Psalter, ca. 1195
(Web Gallery of Art)

1a. O ignis Spiritus Paracliti,     vita vite omnis creature, sanctus es vivificando      formas. 1b. Sanctus es ungendo       periculose fractos, sanctus es       tergendo fetida vulnera.

1a. O fire of the Spirit and Defender, the life of every life created: Holy are you—giving life      to all the forms. 1b. Holy are you—anointing to heal       those danger has broken. Holy are you—cleansing       to clean the festering wounds.

Fundamentum Ecclesiae solum

“The Church’s One Foundation,” translated into Latin
in the style of St. Hildegard of Bingen

Scivias II.3:
The Church & Christ.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 51r.

1. The Church’s one foundation Is Jesus Christ her Lord, She is His new creation By water and the Word. From heav’n He came and sought her   To be His holy bride; With His own blood He bought her And for her life He died.

1. Fundamentum Ecclesiae solum est Christus eius Dominus, quam novam creaturam facit per aquam atque Verbum, de caelo veniens et eam requirens quam sanctam sibi desponsavit et suo sanguine redemit, cui vitam morte dedit.

Alleluia! O virga mediatrix (Symphonia 18)

For the Octave of Easter, an Alleluia-verse for the Virgin
by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Initial F: Tree of Jesse
Stammheim / Hildesheim
Missal (ca. 1160-70), fol. 146r.
J. Paul Getty Museum

Alleluia! O virga mediatrix, sancta viscera tua mortem superaverunt et venter tuus omnes creaturas     illuminavit in pulcro flore de suavissima integritate clausi pudoris tui orto.

Alleluia! O branch and mediatrix, your sacred flesh has conquered death, your womb the world illumined, all creatures in the bloom of beauty sprung from that exquisite purity of your enclosèd modesty.

Nunc gaudeant materna (Symphonia 67)

For Easter, the Resurrection of the Lord, an Antiphon for the Church
by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Scivias II.3:
Mother Church & Baptism.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 51r.

Nunc gaudeant materna viscera      Ecclesie, quia in superna simphonia      filii eius in sinum suum collocati sunt. Unde, o turpissime serpens,      confusus es, quoniam quos tua estimatio      in visceribus      suis habuit nunc fulgent in sanguine      Filii Dei, et ideo laus tibi sit, Rex altissime.        Alleluia.

Now let the womb and heart      of Mother Church rejoice! For in the starry symphony      her children are gathered to her bosom. O vile snake, you are      confounded, for those your hollow jealousy      had thought      it clutched within its guts now sparkle in the blood      of God’s own Son— praise be to you, the highest King!      Alleluia!

Service and Sacrifice: A Friend and the Memorial of His Love

Bronze sculpture at
Church Street UMC.

You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you…
This I command you, to love one another.
     —John 15:14-17

We know that Jesus should be our role-model in service, but it’s often difficult to know just which Jesus we’re supposed to follow. The teacher, the healer, the broken, dying man—or the Christ and Son of God, Lord of Heaven and Earth? Some of these roles are easier to imitate than others, and we struggle to hold them all together. Jesus’ disciples, too, often struggled to understand just what it meant for their wise and compassionate teacher to be both Messiah and bound to die.

O virgo Ecclesia (Symphonia 66)

For Holy Week, an Antiphon for the Church by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Scivias II.6: The Crucifixion.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 86rr.

O virgo Ecclesia, plangendum est, quod sevissimus lupus filios tuos   de latere tuo abstraxit. O ve callido serpenti! Sed o quam preciosus est       sanguis Salvatoris, qui in vexillo regis Ecclesiam ipsi      desponsavit, unde filios illius requirit.

O Virgin Mother Church, lament and mourn! A savage wolf has snatched your children from your side. O woe to serpent’s trickery! But O, how precious is       the Savior’s blood that with the royal banner sealed his bridegroom’s promise      to the Church, whose children he is seeking.

O spectabiles viri (Symphonia 31)

For the Feast of the Prophet Ezekiel, an Antiphon for Patriarchs and Prophets
by St. Hildegard of Bingen ^[1]

Scivias III.4: The Pillar
of the Word of God.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 145v.

O spectabiles viri qui pertransistis occulta, aspicientes per oculos spiritus et annuntiantes in lucida umbra acutam et viventem lucem in virga germinantem, que sola floruit de introitu radicantis luminis: Vos antiqui sancti, predixistis salvationem exulum animarum que inmerse fuerant morti, qui circuisti ut rote, mirabiliter loquentes      mistica montis qui celum tangit, pertransiens ungendo      multas aquas, cum etiam inter vos surrexit lucida lucerna, que ipsum montem precurrens          ostendit.

O men of sight—what a sight! Through mysteries you’ve passed with gaze of spirit’s eyes, to announce in shining shadow a living, piercing light that buds upon that single branch that flourished at the entrance of deep-rooted light: You saints of old! You have foretold salvation of souls in exile plunged, in death immersed. You circled, spun like wheels as wondrously proclaimed      the mountain’s mysteries whose top the heavens touched and passed through many waters      with anointing— yet still among you arose a shining lamp that raced ahead, that mountain      to reveal.

O successores (Symphonia 40)

For the Feast of St. Isidore of Seville, an Antiphon for Confessors
by St. Hildegard of Bingen ^[1]

Initial D: Lion of Judah
Stammheim / Hildesheim
Missal (ca. 1160-70), fol. 111v.
J. Paul Getty Museum

O successores fortissimi leonis, inter templum et altare dominantes in ministratione eius   sicut angeli sonant in laudibus et sicut assunt populis      in adiutorio, vos estis inter illos qui hec faciunt, semper curam habentes      in officio Agni.

Successors of the mighty Lion, between the temple and the altar commanding in his service: as angels sing in praise resounding and quicken to defend the people      with their aid— so you among them as they do these things, keep ever carefully the office      of the Lamb.

O tu illustrata (Symphonia 23)

For the Feast of the Annunciation, an Antiphon for the Virgin
by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Chastity, from
Scivias III.8: The Pillar
of the Savior's Humanity.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 178r.

O tu illustrata de divina claritate, clara Virgo Maria, Verbo Dei infusa, unde venter tuus floruit de introitu Spiritus Dei, qui in te sufflavit et in te exsuxit quod Eva abstulit in abscisione puritatis, per contractam contagionem        de suggestione diaboli.

Illumined by God’s clearest brightness, O Virgin Mary bright, and flooded with the Word of God: your womb then flourished at the entrance of God’s Spirit— he breathed within you, within drew out the loss of Eve, a purity cut off and silenced by that disease contracted at the Devil’s sly persuasion.

O vos imitatores (Symphonia 39)

For the Feast of Pope St. Gregory the Great, a Responsory for Confessors
by St. Hildegard of Bingen ^[1]

Scivias II.6: Eucharist.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 86v.

V. O vos imitatores      excelse persone in preciosissima et gloriosissima significatione,      o quam magnus est      vester ornatus, ubi homo procedit, solvens et stringens in Deo pigros et peregrinos, R. etiam ornans      candidos et nigros et magna onera remittens.

V. O actors, you who play      the Highest Role within that precious drama, that glorious sacrament! How great and beautiful      your vested costume, as steps forth such a man to loose and bind in God the slacker and sojourner, R. the shining and the squalid      both to beautify and all their heavy burdens to remit.

Vos flores rosarum (Symphonia 38)

For the Feast of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, a Responsory for Martyrs
by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Agony in the Garden.
Drawing from the Abbey of
St. Walburg, Eichstätt, ca. 1500.
(From J. Hamburger,
Nuns as Artists, plate 8)

V. Vos flores rosarum, qui in effusione sanguinis vestri   beati estis in maximis gaudiis, redolentibus et sudantibus in emptione que fluxit de interiori mente consilii manentis ante evum R. in illo, in quo non erat constitutio a capite. V. Sit honor in consortio vestro,   qui estis instrumentum ecclesie et qui in vulneribus vestri sanguinis undatis: R. In illo, in quo non erat constitutio a capite.

V. You blooms of roses, within your blood outpoured you’re blessed in joys supreme— the fragrance and distilled perfume of that redemption that flowed from th’ inmost heart of counsel kept before all time R. in him who was unfounded at the start. V. An honor in your fellowship! The Church’s instrument you are as in your wounds, your waves of blood, you surge and gush: R. in him who was unfounded at the start.

Cum erubuerint infelices (Symphonia 14)

For Ash Wednesday, an Antiphon for the Virgin by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Scivias I.2: The Fall.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 4r.

Cum erubuerint infelices in progenie sua, procedentes in peregrinatione             casus, tunc tu clamas clara voce, hoc modo homines elevans de isto malicioso casu.

While downcast parents blushed, ashamed to see their offspring wand’ring off into the fallen exile’s      pilgrimage, you cry aloud with crystal voice, to lift up humankind from that malicious fall.

O victoriosissimi triumphatores (Symphonia 37)

For the Feast of St. Polycarp of Smyrna, Bishop and Martyr,
An Antiphon for Martyrs by St. Hildegard of Bingen ^[1]

Scivias III.13: Symphonia in
Heaven: Choir of Martyrs.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 229r
(detail)

O victoriosissimi triumphatores, qui in effusione sanguinis vestri salutantes edificationem ecclesie, intrastis sanguinem Agni, epulantes cum vitulo occiso: O quam magnam mercedem habetis,   quia corpora vestra viventes despexistis, imitantes Agnum Dei, ornantes penam eius, in qua vos introduxit in restaurationem hereditatis.

O victors in your triumph! Your blood poured out, you hail the building of the Church— for you have entered in the Lamb’s own blood, and now enjoy the feast with the slaughtered calf. How great is your reward! Your living bodies you’ve despised in imitation of God’s Lamb— his pain you take as glory, for in it he has brought you to your inheritance restored!

O virga ac diadema (Symphonia 20)

For the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes,
A Sequence for the Virgin by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Virgin Mary, Queen of Heavens'
Symphony. Scivias III.13,
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 229r

1a. O virga ac diadema purpure regis que es in clausura tua sicut lorica: 1b. Tu frondens floruisti in alia vicissitudine quam Adam omne genus        humanum produceret.

1a. O branch and diadem, in royal purple clad, who in your cloister strong stand like a shield: 1b. You burst forth blooming but with buds quite different than Adam’s progeny— th’ entire human race.

O clarissima mater (Symphonia 9)

For the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary and the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, a Responsory for the Virgin by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Scivias II.6: Virgin Mother
Church offers the Eucharist.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 86r
(detail).

V. O clarissima mater sancte medicine, tu ungenta per sanctum Filium tuum infudisti in plangentia vulnera mortis,      que Eva edificavit in tormenta animarum. Tu destruxisti mortem, edificando vitam. R. Ora pro nobis ad tuum natum, stella maris, Maria.

V. O radiant bright, O mother of a holy medicine, your ointments through your holy Son you’ve poured upon the plangent wounds of death, by Eve constructed as torture chambers of the soul. This death you have destroyed by building life. R. Pray for us to your child, O sea star Mary.

O nobilissima viriditas (Symphonia 56)

For the Feast of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr,
A Responsory for Virgins by St. Hildegard of Bingen ^[1]

Scivias II.5: Virginitas
& the Orders of the Church.
Rupertsberg MS, fol. 66r
(detail)

V. O nobilissima viriditas, que radicas in sole et que in candida serenitate luces in rota quam nulla terrene excellentia     comprehendit: R. Tu circumdata es amplexibus divinorum ministeriorum. V. Tu rubes ut aurora et ardes ut solis flamma. R. Tu circumdata es amplexibus divinorum ministeriorum.

V. O noblest, freshest green, viridity you are, deep rooted in the sun and shining bright in clearest calm within a wheel no earthly excellence can comprehend: R. You are contained within the embraces of the service, the ministries divine. V. As morning’s dawn you blush, as sunny flame you burn. R. You are contained within the embraces of the service, the ministries divine.

O magna res (Symphonia R 407ra)

For the Octave of the Epiphany, a Verse for the Incarnate Word
and His Virgin Mother by St. Hildegard of Bingen ^[1]

Hand of God. Frontispiece,
Uta Codex, ca. 1025.
Munich, Staatsbibliothek
MS Clm 13601, fol. 1v.

1a. O magna res que in nullo constituto latuit,    ita quod non est facta nec creata ab ullo, sed in se ipsa permanet. lb. O vita que surrexisti in aurora, in qua magnus rex      sapientiam que in antiquo apud virum sapientem fuit misericorditer manifestavit, quia mulier per foramen      antiqui perditoris mortem intravit.

1a. O greatness that no creature formed could hide— not made indeed, created not by anyone, within itself abides. 1b. O life that rose upon the dawn, the dayspring when      the mighty King in mercy made his Wisdom known— of old she dwelt together with the sage— for once a woman entered death through the ancient slayer’s      darkened door.

O quam preciosa (Symphonia 22)

For the Feast of the Epiphany, a Responsory for the Virgin
by St. Hildegard of Bingen^[1]

Nativity of the Lord.
Stammheim / Hildesheim
Missal (ca. 1160-70), fol. 92r.
J. Paul Getty Museum

V. O quam preciosa est virginitas virginis huius que clausam portam habet,      et cuius viscera sancta divinitas calore suo infudit, ita quod flos      in ea crevit. R. Et Filius Dei      per secreta ipsius quasi aurora exivit. V. Unde dulce germen, quod Filius ipsius est, per clausuram ventris eius paradisum aperuit. R. Et Filius Dei      per secreta ipsius quasi aurora exivit.

V. How precious is this Virgin’s sweet virginity, her gate kept closed, her womb divinity most holy with its warmth has flooded so a flower sprung      within it. R. The Son of God's come forth from her most secret chamber      like the dawn. V. And so the sweet and tender shoot— her Son— has through her womb’s enclosure opened Paradise. R. The Son of God's come forth from her most secret chamber      like the dawn.