The Cambridge Companion to Hildegard of Bingen Cambridge Companions to Literature Series

This specially commissioned collection of thirteen essays explores the life and works of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), monastic founder, leader of a community of nuns, composer, active correspondent, and writer of religious visions, theological treatises, sermons, and scientific and medical texts. Aimed at advanced university students and new Hildegard researchers, the essays provide a broad context for Hildegard's life and monastic setting, and offer comprehensive discussions on each of the main areas of her output. Engagingly written by experts in medieval history, theology, German literature, musicology, and the history of medicine, the essays are grounded in Hildegard's twelfth-century context, and investigate her output within its monastic and liturgical environments, her reputation during and after her life, and the materiality of the transmission of her works, considering aspects of manuscript layout, illumination, and scribal practices at her Rupertsberg monastery.

Introduction to the Cambridge Companion to Hildegard of Bingen Jennifer Bain; Part I. Life and Monastic Context: 1. The life of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) Michael Embach; 2. Living and working in a twelfth-century women's monastic community Alison Beach; 3. Literacy and learning in the lives of women religious of medieval Germany Lori Kruckenberg; Part II. Writings and Reputation: 4. Hildegard of Bingen's theology James Ginther; 5. Reading Hildegard of Bingen's letters Christopher Fletcher; 6. Hildegard of Bingen and the patriarchs, preaching greenness Peter Loewen; 7. Hildegard of Bingen: Illness and healing Faith Wallis; 8. The Pentachronon and Hildegard of Bingen's reputation as prophet Magda Hayton; 9. The context and reception of Hildegard of Bingen's visions Wendy Love Anderson; Part III. Music, Manuscripts, Illuminations and Scribes: 10. Music, liturgy and intertextuality in Hildegard of Bingen's chant repertory Jennifer Bain; 11. The Ordo virtutum and Benedictine monasticism Alison Altstatt; 12. Picturing Hildegard of Bingen's sight: Illuminating her visions Nathaniel Campbell; 13. Hildegard of Bingen and her scribes Margot Fassler.

Jennifer Bain is Professor of Music at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia. She is author of Hildegard of Bingen and Musical Reception: the Modern Revival of a Medieval Composer (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and has published extensively on chant manuscripts, digital tools for chant research, reception history, and on the music of Guillaume de Machaut and Hildegard of Bingen.