A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

hildegard of bingen: a history of reception 275
1323). Finally, it is possible that Dante’s Divine Comedy may show influences
of Hildegard.5
Hildegard’s influence entered France via the University of Paris, which
was charged with an inquisitorial mandate for the attempt at her canonization.
Hildegard herself was in contact with the master of theology
Odo of Soissons (d. after 1171), who later became bishop of Tusculum, and
even cardinal. Odo was a member of the cathedral school in Paris and was
commissioned by Pope Eugene III to examine the Trinitarian theology of
Gilbert of la Porrée (Gilbertus Porretanus, c.1070–1154), bishop of Poitiers,
who had sent two letters to Hildegard and received answers.6 In addition,
the Franciscan John of Rupescissa (Jean de Roquetaillade, around 1315–
1365) quoted Hildegard’s prophetic authority in his Vademecum in tribulatione.
A pseudo-Hildegardian prophecy, Insurgent gentes, composed in
the 13th century, proved highly influential in England during the conflicts
about the mendicant orders (see below).
The initial Bohemian reception of Hildegard’s works occurred during
the reign of Emperor Charles (Karel) IV in connection with another religious
controversy, the Hussite Reformation. Evidence for the history of
reception in Bohemia is found in a manuscript copy of the Scivias in the
library of the National Museum in Prague. According to Werner Lauter,
the codex, inventoried under the shelfmark Cod. V E 89, contains a Czech
translation of excerpts from Hildegard’s prophecies.7 The Charles University
Library in Prague also counts codex I. G. 23, dated 1415–1416, among
its manuscript holdings; it contains one of Hildegard’s prophecies on
fols 160v–161v. The excerpt concludes with a passage in Bohemian. The
question as to whether this Bohemian reception of the Scivias can be linked
to a version of the text that Emperor Charles IV transferred to the cathedral
chapter in Prague is deserving of further research. That Scivias manuscript
appears in the catalogue of the St Vitus cathedral library in 1354. The entry
reads, “Liber qui dicitur Scivias sive visiones Hildegardis, quem donavit
dns Karolus imperator et Bohemiae rex.”8 Moreover, the Metropolitan
5 I would like to thank Annarita Zazzaroni (Bologna) for her friendship in disclosing
this reference. Zazzaroni, “L’Uomo al centro della ‘rota’: Dante e Hildegard di Bingen,”
Studi e Problemi de Critica Testuale 78 (2009): 49–80.
6 Epistolarium, I, 39–40R, pp. 100–05.
7 Werner Lauter, Hildegard-Bibliographie. Wegweiser zur Hildegard-Literatur, vol. 2
(Alzey, 1984), p. 10, no. 8.
8 The catalogue has been edited by Antonin Podlaha and Eduard Šittler, eds., Chrámový
Pokland u. sv. Víta v Praze: Jeho dějiny a Popis (Prague, 1903), p. XI, no. 101. Regarding the
manuscript, see Barbara Drake Boehm, “Charles IV: The Realm of Faith,” in Prague, the