A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

INTERTEXTUALITY IN HILDEGARD’S WORKS:
EZEKIEL AND THE CLAIM TO PROPHETIC AUTHORITY
Beverly Mayne Kienzle and Travis A. Stevens
Introduction
Hildegard of Bingen’s opera demonstrate a remarkable organic unity in
thought and language, such that the analysis of intertextuality—charting
various words, concepts, images, and related themes across the magistra’s
works—opens a fruitful avenue for comprehending her entire allegorical
universe. Hildegard’s works constitute a vast exegetical corpus that
grounds its authority on visionary understanding inspired by the prophets,
evangelists, and apostles. Among the prophetic writings, the book of
Ezekiel stands out in the magistra’s claim to authority, and in the imagery
that inspires her and connects word and thought across her opera.
This essay explores Hildegard’s interpretation of Ezekiel in various
works where she draws on the prophet’s book to develop her imagery and
theology. We fijirst consider Hildegard’s use of Ezekiel’s words to enhance
her claim to prophetic authority. Next we explore the magistra’s exegesis
of two key passages in the prophet’s book: the four creatures, and the
wheels within which the creatures appear (Ezek. 1 and 10). Patristic exegetes
unraveled the signifijicance of the four animals and the wheels, and
this study examines which aspects of Hildegard’s exegesis have precedent
in patristic commentators. Finally, we investigate how these Hildegardian
motifs relate to the images highlighted in 12th-century visual culture,
notably in manuscript illuminations of the book of Ezekiel.
Hildegard’s Visionary Authority and Ezekiel
Hildegard establishes a link to Ezekiel and a basis for her authority at
the outset of her three visionary works (Scivias, Liber vite meritorum, and
Liber diuinorum operum) when she follows the prophet’s rhetorical paradigm
for dating the reception of her visions. She begins the three treatises
with the “prophetic Et,” which indicates the continuity of revelation,
as Gregory the Great had explained in his Homilies on Ezekiel when