Many of her visions were gathered together into a magisterial illustrated work Scivias, short for ‘Scito vias Domini’, or ‘Know the Ways of the Lord’. Though Hildegard was reluctant to ever discuss her visions with others, five years later she received a vision that told her to have her visions recorded by the Provost of the convent, who did so and continued to do so for the next 30 years.
Stained-glass window of St Bernard of Clairvaux
#Hildegard bingen scivias pdf viewer windows
As anchorites they were literally walled into their cell for life, meaning that communication with anyone else could only occur through three windows – one into the church to which their ‘cell’ was attached, one to the outside world and one to an adjoining parlour through which food and related waste could be passed. Jutta had rejected marriage in favour of becoming an anchorite, and she accepted Hildegard into her care. These visions appear to have played some part in the decision of her parents to place her in a nearby Benedictine monastery where she was given into the care of a young noblewoman, Jutta of Sponheim (1091-1136) – herself the daughter of a friend of her father.
From a very early age, she claimed to see visions. Hildegard was born in Germany in 1098, the tenth child in a reasonably well-off family. A true polymath, I was to find out that she was a fascinating woman whose interests and expertise touched on and expanded so many fields of human knowledge. After all, there were the arts to consider also. Hildegard was one such person, but she didn’t stop there. But few achieve greatness in both fields. Equally, there are many great scientists.
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