Conceptualizing Hildegard of Bingen as a theologian has been impeded by a pervading focus on her visionary status. The author provides a fruitful reassessment of Hildegard’s theology by contextualizing her writings along three coordinates: the authoritative texts she cites, the institutional environment in which theological discussion takes place, and the audience to whom the theology is directed. Her responsibility as magistra of her community led her to construct her trilogy of visions – Scivias, Liber vitae meritorum, and Liber divinorum operum – not just as visionary writings for the broader church but as a structured theological system to aid her nuns pedagogically. Analysis of her writings reveals a systematic methodology of theological instruction, including her use of classical rhetoric; additionally, her concerns for her nuns’ spiritual welfare are reflected in a customized presentation of theological topics. Ultimately, understanding Hildegard’s theology as a direct response to her immediate community reframes it and highlights its similarities to twelfth-century methods of theological instruction.

This chapter demonstrates several ways in which scribes and the scriptorium were central to life in Hildegard of Bingen’s community, perhaps even before the women departed from the Disibodenberg. Under the probable supervision of Hildegard’s provost the monk Volmar, nuns in Hildegard’s scriptorium were responsible for the copying, and hence the preservation of Hildegard’s writings, from the letter collections of the earlier attested periods of scribal activity to the feverish activity of the final decade or so of Hildegard’s life, to the compilation and preparation of the Riesencodex, Wiesbaden, Hochschul- und Landesbibliothek RheinMein, MS 2, which forms a kind of critical edition of her writings. Many scribal hands were involved in the work, suggesting that copying was an important part of monastic discipline on the Rupertsberg. This essay introduces the major features of the house style and some of the problems of studying scribal practices, focusing on the habits of one scribe who worked on two copies of Scivias. A complete list of the manuscripts of Hildegard’s trilogy surviving in Rupertsberg copies is provided as well.

This chapter, translated from German by Florian Hild, examines the principal sources for Hildegard’s biography and discusses conflicting evidence and gaps in information that pose difficulties for the modern researcher. The author presents Hildegard’s life chronologically, including her family history, birth, and early years enclosed at Disibodenberg with Jutta of Sponheim; her visions, writings, and other early activities; her founding of the convent at Rupertsberg; her travels, preaching, healing, and miracles; and her final years and death. Additionally, the reception of her written works both toward the end of her life and after her death are considered, including the approval of her three books of visions – Scivias, Liber divinorum operum, and Liber vitae meritorum – by thirteenth-century academic theologians of Paris. Finally, this chapter describes the rise of her status as ‘popular saint’ juxtaposed with the challenges/setbacks in early canonization attempts, culminating with her elevation to sainthood and Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.