Hildegard of Bingenwas a German Benedictine abbess, composer,
philosopher, mystic, visionary, and extremely gifted polymath. Many
Germans consider her to be the founder of scientific natural
history in Germany.
Sabina Flanagan, Ph.D., is a visiting research fellow at the
Universities of Adelaide and Melbourne, Australia. A scholar of
Hildegard for many years, she is the author of the standard
biography,Hildegard of Bingen- A Visionary Life.
"Flanagan, a leading Hildegard scholar, has selected and translated
a range of material, which makes the work of the twelfth-century
visionary accessible to a popular audience. Selections are long
enough to introduce readers to Hildegard's style and the structure
of her arguments with out causing them (in the words of a
commentator writing a generation after her death) to shrink from
and avoid reading the books of Hildegard because of her difficult
syle. Flanagan has preserved the style in her translation, but
readers who do not shrink from it will find it rewarding; what some
commentators have found difficult and unusual, many readers have
found creative and insightful. Both style and content have
contributed to Hildegard's growing popularity more than eight
centuries after her death. This collection includes mystical
writings, writings in natural history and medicine, correspondence,
narrative, and poetry, as well as a brief biography, a
bibliography, and a discography for readers who wish to pursue
Hildegard's work further."—Steve Schroeder, Booklist
"At last it is possible for the ordinary reader to get some idea of
the energy and creativity of the great Hildegard's mind. These
translations of her spiritual and medical writing, her poetry and
letters, are a remarkable contribution to the study of early women
writers."—Monica Furlong, author of Merton: A Biography and Visions
and Longings: Medieval Women Mystics
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