A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

hearing the heavenly symphony 173
Dendermonde, St.-Pieters-&-Paulusabdij, Klosterbibliothek 9 (Dendermonde):
Compiled c.1163–1175 at the Rupertsberg, and at the Cistercian
cloister of Villers by November 1, 1176. Folios 153r–170v contain 57 notated
songs with rubrics indicating liturgical occasion and genre. O frondens
virga and Laus trinitati are notated only in this manuscript, which may
once have contained a larger repertory. As extant, the manuscript is probably
missing its opening gathering, and two of the remaining three gatherings
with music are defective: a folio is missing between fols 155v and
156r and between 164v and 165r.40 The manuscript may have contained
approximately seven additional songs and may have opened with the
Ordo.41 It includes copies of Hildegard’s Liber vite meritorum and Elisabeth
of Schönau’s Liber viarum Dei.
Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, 1016: Most of the manuscript
dates from the 13th century, probably stemming from the monastery
of St Maria in Rommersdorf, near Bonn, and it contains Hildegard’s
Liber vite meritorum (fols 1r–108v) and Solutiones (fols 108v–115v). However,
one gathering (fols 116r–121v) was written during the 12th century at
Rupertsberg and contains letters incorporating 21 song texts of the “liturgical
miscellany.” This gathering also contains notated versions of Hildegard’s
Kyrie and Alleluia, O virga mediatrix on fol. 118v, and Hildegard’s
invented alphabet (litterae ignotae), entered on music staves, followed
by a repeat of the notated version of the second Kyrie on fol. 119r. (The
Kyrie and Alleluia are also notated in the Riesenkodex.) The Kyrie is a
contrafactum based on Hildegard’s responsory O lucidissima apostolorum,
found notated in Dendermonde. Since Dendermonde does not contain
the Kyrie itself, the notated music of Vienna 1016 probably postdates Dendermonde’s
compilation.
Wiesbaden, Hessische Landesbibliothek 2 (Riesenkodex): The manuscript
was compiled at the Rupertsberg and contained Hildegard’s principal
works prior to her death in 1179. Her vita and other materials relevant
to her cult were added between 1182 and 1188. Folios 132va–134rb contain
the Scivias songs and the short form of the Ordo. Folios 404rb–407vb contain
the “liturgical miscellany” with its 30 song texts. The two fijinal gatherings
(fols 466ra–481vb) contain 75 notated songs and the notated Ordo.
40 Newman, Introduction to Symph., p. 338.
41 Dronke, Introduction to Ordo, p. 495.