Hildegard of Bingen

In Our Time: History

BBC

History

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2014

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss one of the most remarkable figures of the Middle Ages, Hildegard of Bingen. The abbess of a Benedictine convent, Hildegard experienced a series of mystical visions which she documented in her writings. She was an influential person in the religious world and much of her extensive correspondence with popes, monarchs and other important figures survives. Hildegard was also celebrated for her wide-ranging scholarship, which as well as theology covered the natural world, science and medicine. Officially recognised as a saint by the Catholic Church in 2012, Hildegard is also one of the earliest known composers. Since their rediscovery in recent decades her compositions have been widely recorded and performed. With: Miri Rubin Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History and Head of the School of History at Queen Mary, University of London William Flynn Lecturer in Medieval Latin at the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds Almut Suerbaum Professor of Medieval German and Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford. Producer: Thomas Morris.

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time. For more details about In Our Time
0:04.0	and for our terms of use, please go to bbc.co.uk slash radio 4. I hope you enjoy the program.
0:11.2	Hello, if you'd walked into the Abbey of the Monastery Chair in Germany 850 years ago,
0:16.8	it's quite possible that this is what you would have heard.
0:30.2	That is Oee Carri, a piece of sacred music by the 12th century composer Hildegarde of Bingen.
0:42.9	Little known until 30 years ago, the music of Hildegarde is now regarded as among the best of
0:47.6	the Middle Ages, but remarkably, her music is only a small aspect of her overall achievement.
0:52.9	Hildegarde was a 12th century nun in a scholar of impressive breads, sometimes known as the
0:58.1	Sible of the Rhine. She wrote a series of works documenting prophetic visions she'd experienced.
1:03.1	She was an accomplished here, Lodgen, also wrote about science,
1:06.6	medicine and the natural world. Held in high regard by Royalty and religious figures alike,
1:11.4	she's long been revered as a saint, although it was not until 2012 that she was officially canonised
1:16.8	by Pope Benedict. We'd mean to discuss Hildegarde of Bingen,
1:20.7	R, Miri Ruben, professor of Medieval and Early Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London,
1:26.9	William Flynn, lecturer in Medieval Latin at the University of Leeds, and Almutsu
1:32.2	Abar, professor of Medieval German at the University of Oxford. Many Ruben Hildegarde was born
1:38.4	around 1098 in the Rhine land, in what we now call Western Germany. Would you give us
1:43.3	some idea of what was going on then at that time? Yes, the Rhine land is part of what was
1:49.5	known by then the Holy Roman Emperor or the Holy Empire. Now this is the vast political entity
1:55.8	that englobes most of Germany of today, but also Italy and parts of Eastern France of today.
2:02.0	This is a vast continental block that was ruled by, from the year 800 on, by an emperor.
2:10.2	Now what makes an emperor different from a king, a mere king is that this is an emperor crowned
	...

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