Customer Reviews

Book of Divine Works and Letters

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The Liber Divinorum Operum (also called De operatione Dei) of which this book contains a partial translation, is the third and last volume of the visions of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). Hildegard's contribution to the volume is amazing and stirring. It should be read by anyone interested in cosmic Chistianity. Since there is no other translation into English of this work, one would have expected that it would be complete, based on the original, and accompanied by color reproductions of the illuminations in one of the medieval manuscripts. Instead, the translation is incomplete, based on a modern German translation, not the original Latin, and with no indication that the Latin was consulted. (Hildegard says that the voices of her vision spoke Latin, which she wrote down.) By contrast, Sabina Flagan gives (in "Secrets of God") some 25 pages of translations from this work based on the original. Comparison of her translations with those given here makes me feel that I am closer to Hildegard when reading the Flanagan translation. The illuminations appear in line drawings. The book is then filled out with 90 pages of letters and 30 pages of songs that are elsewhere available in better editions. The music for the songs is given only in square-note notation, so you need special training to read it. The Latin words are given with the music; a highly interpretive translation follows each song. While one must be grateful to Hildegard's modern helpers, one can also wish for a more attractive volume and greater confidence that it is the voice of Hildegard herself that one hears.