About Me

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I am a medievalist and an adjunct college instructor in the humanities at Union College. My research includes medieval theologies of history, text/image relationships in visionary and mystical texts, and the writings of the twelfth-century Doctor of the Church, St. Hildegard of Bingen. I am also a translator of medieval Latin and German texts, especially as relate to my research. My translation of Hildegard's Book of Divine Works is available from Catholic University of America Press here. I completed a Master's in Medieval Studies at the University of Notre Dame in 2010, a Fulbright Fellowship in Germany in 2008, and a B.A. in Classics and German at Boston College in 2007.

Monday, September 29, 2014

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.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

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.)

Monday, September 08, 2014

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.