A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE LIFE OF JUTTA
AND HILDEGARD AT DISIBODENBERG AND RUPERTSBERG?*
Franz J. Felten
Of the many questions concerning Disibodenberg, one of the most frequently
posed, and still unresolved, is: where did Hildegard live? Or
more precisely: where was Hildegard’s cell? We know that Hildegard was
“enclosed” with Jutta and another girl at Disibodenberg in 1112 and that
Jutta made her monastic vows at this time. Nowhere, however, do we fijind
out where the cell was situated or what it looked like. In general, we can
imagine such cells as resembling small and narrow dungeons, with contact
with the outside world only through a window—although in many cases,
there were cells for several people. According to the 9th-century rule of
Grimlaicus, the area of the enclosure should contain everything necessary.
If a priest lives in the enclosure, he should have his own oratorium
consecrated by the bishop. His cell should adjoin the convent church so
that he can celebrate Mass and the daily offfijice with the brothers through
a window (simul cum eis possit psallere) and be able to converse with visitors.
Inside the enclosure there should be, if possible, a small garden, to
allow for the growth of vegetables and for bodily refreshment in the open
air. The disciples or students should live outside in a cell immediately
adjoining the cloister, so that they may take care of all necessities for the
enclosed through a window opening outwards. If there are several people
in one enclosure, they should have private cells connected by a window
in order to enable joint prayer and reading of Scripture. Joint meal times
were also possible. (How, we might ask, did such an arrangement difffer
from a small convent?)
Grimlaicus had only men in mind, and thus attached particular importance
to the rule that no female visitors should come to the cloister.
* Translated by John Zaleski, Harvard University. A much shorter version of this essay
was published in German as “Was wissen wir über das Leben Juttas und Hildegards auf
dem Disibodenberg und auf dem Rupertsberg?” in Als Hildegard noch nicht in Bingen war.
Der Disibodenberg— Archäologie und Geschichte, eds. Falko Daim and Antje Kluge-Pinsker
(Regensburg/Mainz, 2009), pp. 111–13. The editors and Brill gratefully acknowledge the
permission of Falko Daim and Antje Kluge-Pinsker, as well as that of Verlag Schnell und
Steiner, to publish an English translation in this volume. The author wishes to express his
gratitude to the editors of this volume for the publication of the revised original text and
to the translator of this essay.