Biography

Eckenstein, Lina. "St. Hildegard of Bingen and St. Elisabeth of Schonau." In Woman under Monasticism: Chapters on Saint-Lore and Convent Life Between A.D. 500 and A.D. 1500, pp. 256-85. Cambridge at the University Press, 1896.

Provides an overview of Hildegard's life and career and examines the religious and political context of twelfth-century Germany.

Flanagan, Sabina. Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179: A Visionary Life. London: Routledge, 1989, 230 p.

Presents a comprehensive introduction to Hildegard's life and work, maintaining that Hildegard's written works "not only surpassed those of most of her male contemporaries in the range of their subject matter … but also outshone them in visionary beauty and intellectual power."

Criticism

Baumgardt, David. "The Concept of Mysticism: Analysis of a Letter Written by Hildegard of Bingen to Guibert of Gembloux." The Review of Religion XII, No. 3 (March 1948): 277-86.

Examination of Hildegard's description of her mystical experiences in her 1171 letter to the monk Guibert of Gembloux.

Dronke, Peter. "Hildegard of Bingen as Poetess and Dramatist." In Poetic Individuality in the Middle Ages: New Departures in Poetry 1000-1150, pp. 150-79. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1970.

Introduces Hildegard's poetic and dramatic oeuvre, particularly the Symphonia and the Ordo Virtutum, which, Dronke argues, achieves "a visionary concentration and an evocative and associative richness that set it apart from nearly all other religious poetry of its age."

——. "The Composition of Hildegard of Bingen's Symphonia" Sacris Erudiri 19-20, Nos. 1-20 (1969-1971): 380-92.

Argues that Hildegard's song cycle was conceived and designed as a lyrical whole.

Gossman, Elisabeth. "Hildegard of Bingen." In A History of Women Philosophers, Vol. II: Medieval, Renaissance and Enlightenment Women Philosophers A.D. 500-1600, pp. 27-65. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1989.

Maintains that "within her visionary experience, [Hildegard] comes to a philosophical-theological view of the world which displays original traits and sometimes emphasizes polemical aspects, but, in addition, raises many unanswered questions about the influences affecting a twelfth-century Benedictine woman's view of the world and of mankind."

Newman, Barbara. "Hildegard of Bingen: Visions and Validation." Church History 54, No. 2 (June 1985): 163-75.

Discusses Hildegard as both a visionary and a prophet, maintaining that her visionary gift conferred three interrelated benefits: "a direct experience of God, a source of unmediated truth, and a form of public validation."

Nolan, Edward Peter. "Hildegard of Bingen and the Via Affirmativa" In his Cry Out and Write: A Feminine Poetics of Revelation, pp. 46-135. New York: Continuum, 1994.

Analyzes Hildegard's visionary works, with particular attention to the Scivias, the Liber Vitae Meritorum, and the Liber Divinorum Operum.

Additional coverage of Hildegard's life and career is contained in the following source published by Gale Research: Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 148.