A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

hildegard of bingen: a history of reception 279
which were written for use by her own monastery, or which could even
be considered commissioned works, remain signifijicantly less important
in the history of Hildegard’s influence of reception. These include, more
specifijically, the Solutiones triginta octo quaestiones and the Expositiones
euangeliorum,11 as well as the linguistic texts, the Litterae ignotae and the
Lingua ignota. It is only in recent years that Sarah L. Higley undertook
the interesting attempt of integrating Hildegard’s Lingua ignota within the
history of artifijicial languages, incorporating current linguistic creations in
this process.12 The Vita Ruperti and the Vita Disibodi were originally transmitted
in the context of the Epistolarium, along with the De regula Sancti
Benedicti and the Explanatio symboli S. Athanasii.13 These works are thus
generally not considered as independent texts in their own right and are
also of lesser import in the consideration of reception history.
In a manner reminiscent of her saints’ lives, Hildegard’s musical text
did not develop its own history of influence in the Middle Ages or in the
early modern period. From this lacuna, one must assume that Hildegard’s
chants were not sung outside of her own convent and a few closely linked
abbeys. This opinion has changed radically in the present era, in which
Hildegard, with the 77 songs recorded in her Symphonia and her liturgical
play, the Ordo uirtutum, is considered to be the most productive female
composer from the Middle Ages.14
The “visionary trilogy,” made up of the Scivias, the Liber vite meritorum,
and the Liber diuinorum operum, was sent in 1233 to a master of
the University of Paris who had been mandated with the inquisition into
canonization. William of Auxerre (d. 1231 or 1237?), the leader of the investigation,
disclosed the opinion that Hildegard’s writings included divine
words instead of human ones (non in eis esse verba humana, sed divina).15
His vote was transmitted to the authority for canonization in Rome and
greatly strengthened Hildegard’s reputation as an ecclesiastically legitimated
prophet. Among the trilogy of visionary texts, the Scivias held
signifijicant precedence over the other two texts. It formed the basis for
11 Expo. Euang., pp. 135–333.
12 Sarah L. Higley, Hildegard of Bingen’s Unknown Language. An Edition, Translation,
and Discussion (New York, 2007).
13 De reg. Bened., pp. 23–97; Expl. Symb., pp. 99–133.
14 Symph., pp. 335–477; Ordo, pp. 503–521.
15 Hildegard of Bingen, Vita sanctae Hildegardis: Leben der heiligen Hildegard = Canonizatio
Hildegardis: Kanonisation der heiligen Hildegard. Trans. and ed. Monika Klaes, Fontes
christiani. Zweisprachige Neuausgabe christlicher Quellentexte aus Altertum und Mittelalter
29 (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1998), p. 278.