A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

intertextuality in hildegard’s works 153
Wisdom, whose flight is circular, as is that of the Spirit and the dove that
represents it, appears as the ultimate giver and possessor of knowledge
and understanding. Wisdom moves in a circular fashion, recalling the
circular motion of Ezekiel’s wheel, as Hildegard interprets it elsewhere.
Moreover, in Expositio 9 on John 1:1–14, the magistra associates the wheels
with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as revealed through the prophets,
who pointed to the incarnation.81 Likewise, in Expositio 41 on Luke 5:1–11,
the seer describes the reverberation of Zachariah’s words among the
neighbors as the turning of a wheel, revolving the old law into the new.82
The layers of imagery overlap and expand outward: Father, Son, Spirit,
humanity, and creatures constitute all of life itself, on earth and in the
cosmos. Microcosm and macrocosm are united in the sphere of the universe.
The Spirit, which animates all of history, is divine Wisdom itself.
Finally, Hildegard praises greenness (uiriditas), the life-giving force emanating
from all three persons of the Trinity; it shines from a wheel as it
encompasses and embraces divine mysteries:
O most noble viridity
You take root in the sun
And in shining brightness
You shine forth in a wheel.83
Patristic Exegesis of Ezekiel
Does Hildegard follow patristic precedents for her interpretations of
Ezekiel? Her language of circular motion recalls Jerome’s commentary
on the prophet’s book, as we noted above. Does she echo other patristic
exegetes? Gregory’s Homilies on Ezekiel, indebted to Origen, Irenaeus of
Lyons, Jerome, and other earlier commentators, grounded the medieval
tradition for interpreting the prophet’s book, including the signifijicance of
the wheels and of the four creatures described in Ezekiel, chapters 1 and
10.84 While Jerome’s correlation of the four creatures with the evangelists
81 Expo. Euang., 9, p. 13, ll. 80–83: “quoniam ipsi ut rota in lumine ignis Sancti Spiritus in
miraculis pre aliis circumducti sunt: et ideo cognouerunt eum, quoniam et ipsi ut uentus
in prophetia et in aliis miraculis circumacti sunt.”
82 Ibid., 41, p. 302, ll. 39–40.
83 Symph., 56, p. 451, ll. 1–4: “O nobilissima uiriditas, / que radicas in sole / et que in
candida serenitate / luces in rota.” See also Scivias 3.13.7, p. 620, ll. 182–85.
84 See Jerome, Commentarii in Hiezechielem, inter alia, I, 1.6–8, p. 11, ll. 191–206. See also
Fromaget, Le symbolisme des quatre vivants, pp. 65–69.