Selected Writings: Hildegard of Bingen (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Hildegard of Bingen (Author), Mark Atherton (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0140436049 | ISBN-13: 978-0140436044

Benedictine nun, poet and musician, Hildegard of Bingen (1098 1179) was one of the most remarkable figures of the Middle Ages. She undertook preaching tours throughout the German empire at the age of sixty, and was consulted not only by her religious contemporaries but also by kings and emperors, yet it is largely for her apocalyptic and mystical writings that she is remembered. This volume includes selections from her three visionary works, her treatises on medicine and the natural world, her devotional songs, and fascinating letters to prominent figures of her time. Dealing with such eternal subjects as the relationship between humans and nature, and men and women, Hildegard's works show her to be a wide-ranging thinker who created such fresh, startling images and ideas that her writings have been compared to Dante and Blake.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Latin

About the Author

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was born into a well-established noble family in Bermensheim and was given to the monastery as a young child. She became a nun and later founded her own convent at Ruperstberg. With papal approval she wrote down her visions and travelled through Germany preaching. As well as her visionary writing, she composed liturgical music and was skilled in medicine, and was canonized after her death. Mark Atherton teaches English at Regent's Park College, Oxford.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (October 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140436049
• ISBN-13: 978-0140436044
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #161,170 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mystical music for one's ears, March 19, 2002

By 

Tom Ralis (Oxford, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Selected Writings: Hildegard of Bingen (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

Hildegard, the "Sybil of the Rhine," was a Benedictine nun and one of the most prolific and original women writers of the Middle Ages. Arranged thematically, this new edition of her work brings together selections from her visionary trilogy, her treatise on medicine and the natural world, and her songs and correspondence. Interwoven with beautiful ease, Atherton manages to write with the exactness of an academic but with clearness of a good storyteller. The translations are illuminating and musical in themselves, and a corner-stone for any Hildegard enthusiast.This unique volume includes a chronology of her life and times, bibliography, select discography, explanatory notes, glossary, and connecting commentary. It shows Hildegard as a wide-ranging thinker who touched on many themes that concern us today, including: the relationship between human beings and the natural world, mutuality between men and women, and the importance of a holistic approach to life. Much can be learned!

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent introduction to the Sybil of the Rhine, July 30, 2002

By 

Pieter "Toypom" (Johannesburg) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Selected Writings: Hildegard of Bingen (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

As a composer, poet and writer on theological, scientific and medical subjects, Hildegard von Bingen has bequeathed us a rich legacy. She is one of the few female medieval composers whose work is generally known and performed today. My favorite interpretation of her music can be found in four tracks on Meredith Monk's album "Monk and the Abbess" Atherton's book provides selected texts from her visionary Scivias trilogy, her medical writings, songs and letters. Interestingly enough, Hildegard is known today in Europe by followers of holistic and herbal medicine on the one hand, and by lovers of classical and medieval music on the other. She is also admired for her life story and for having been a popular and influential author during a misogynist era. Although she was orthodox in belief and criticized the Gnostic Cathars to my dismay I still admire her spirituality and the feminine expression of it (she saw man & woman as equals) and her understanding of humanity's unity with nature and the universe. Atherton provides explanatory introductions to her writings, and the book has a chronology of her colorful life, a discography of her music, notes, and a glossary.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A pagan Christian, September 1, 2011

By 

Sidney Gavin Frost (hinton, wv United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Selected Writings: Hildegard of Bingen (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

The interest in Hildegard and her visions has never been higher as she reinstated Mary and Eve in the male world of Christianity. To be able to read this brave woman's letters to the pope and Bernard where she critisised them is a real treat.