Hildegard of Bingen ( German: Hildegard von Bingen, pronounced [ˈhɪldəɡaʁt fɔn ˈbɪŋən]; Latin: Hildegardis Bingensis; c. 1098 – 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard and the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer and practitioner during the High Middle Ages. She is one of the best-known composers of sacred monophony, as well as the most recorded in modern history. She has been considered by a number of scholars to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.
Hildegard's convent at Disibodenberg elected her as magistra (mother superior) in 1136. She founded the monasteries of
Rupertsberg in 1150 and
Eibingen in 1165. Hildegard wrote theological, botanical, and medicinal works, as well as letters,
hymns, and
antiphons for the
liturgy. She wrote poems, and supervised miniature
illuminations in the Rupertsberg
manuscript of her first work,
Scivias. There are more surviving chants by Hildegard than by any other composer from the entire Middle Ages, and she is one of the few known composers to have written both the music and the words. One of her works, the
Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving
morality play. She is noted for the invention of a
constructed language known as
Lingua Ignota. (
Full article...)
Attributes: abbess with book and pen at an
escritoire, giving a letter to a messenger, three bright towers on the side
Patronage: natural scientists and linguists
See also:
Pedro de Arbués, Spain;
Stanislaus Papczyński, Poland;
Zygmunt Szczęsny Feliński, Poland
Hildegard of Bingen ( German: Hildegard von Bingen, pronounced [ˈhɪldəɡaʁt fɔn ˈbɪŋən]; Latin: Hildegardis Bingensis; c. 1098 – 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard and the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer and practitioner during the High Middle Ages. She is one of the best-known composers of sacred monophony, as well as the most recorded in modern history. She has been considered by a number of scholars to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.
Hildegard's convent at Disibodenberg elected her as magistra (mother superior) in 1136. She founded the monasteries of
Rupertsberg in 1150 and
Eibingen in 1165. Hildegard wrote theological, botanical, and medicinal works, as well as letters,
hymns, and
antiphons for the
liturgy. She wrote poems, and supervised miniature
illuminations in the Rupertsberg
manuscript of her first work,
Scivias. There are more surviving chants by Hildegard than by any other composer from the entire Middle Ages, and she is one of the few known composers to have written both the music and the words. One of her works, the
Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving
morality play. She is noted for the invention of a
constructed language known as
Lingua Ignota. (
Full article...)
Attributes: abbess with book and pen at an
escritoire, giving a letter to a messenger, three bright towers on the side
Patronage: natural scientists and linguists
See also:
Pedro de Arbués, Spain;
Stanislaus Papczyński, Poland;
Zygmunt Szczęsny Feliński, Poland