Allegorical Architecture in Scivias: Hildegard's Setting for the Ordo Virtutum

Allegorical Architecture in Scivias: Hildegard’sSetting for the Ordo Virtutum

MARGOT E. FASSLER

Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) received the command to beginScivias, the first volume of her massive theological trilogy, in theyear 1141:1

And behold! In the forty-third year of my earthly course, as I was gazing withgreat fear and trembling attention at a heavenly vision, I saw a great splendor inwhich resounded a voice from Heaven, saying to me, “O fragile human, ashesof ashes, and filth of filth! Say and write what you see and hear. . . .” (Scivias I,preface; 43A:3; 59)2

Other details from her vita and her letters suggest that she finished inaround 1152, although subsequent revisions were certainly possible (and

1. Scivias is an abbreviated form of scitote vias Domini, which can be translated “know theways of the Lord.” The full title of the treatise (see, for example, Wiesbaden 2, fol. 1v) is Sciviassimplicis hominis (that is, Scivias by a Simple Person).My own ways have been lighted by the anon-ymous readers of this article, by Barbara Newman, by Katie Bugyis, and by my fellow Hildegar-dians in the musicological sphere, Honey Meconi, Tova Leigh-Choate, and William T. Flynn,and by the assistance of Jeffrey Cooper; the nuns of the Abbey of St. Hildegard at Eibingen havebeen wise in their suggestions and most generous with their time. I am grateful for the encourage-ment of Susan Rankin and the students of her graduate seminar at the University of Cambridge.The paper was written while on leave with fellowships from the American Council of Learned So-cieties and the Guggenheim Foundation.

2. The critical edition of Scivias, by Adelgundis Führkötter, with Angela Carlevaris, is inCorpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 43 and 43A. The other two major treatisesconstituting her trilogy are her Liber Vite Meritorum (Book of Life’s Merits), ed. AngelaCarlevaris, written in around 1158–63, and Liber Divinorum Operum (Book of Divine Works),written in around 1163–74. All references are to these editions, and, in the case of Scivias, tothe English translation (sometimes with modifications) as prepared by Mother Columba Hartand Jane Bishop. For references to Scivias in the discussion to follow, the volume and page ofthe Latin citation is given first, followed by the page of the English translation. The critical edi-tion of the text of the Ordo Virtutum is by Peter Dronke in Opera minora, 505–21. The musicof the play has been edited by Vincent Corrigan,Ordo Virtutum: A Comparative Edition. Thereare two copies of Hildegard’s oeuvre from the twelfth century, and prepared in her own mon-astery: Hildegard of Bingen, Lieder: Faksimile Riesencodex (Hs. 2) der Hessischen Landesbiblio-thek Wiesbaden, fol. 466–481v., ed. Lorenz Welker, with comm. by Michael Klaper; andHildegard of Bingen, Symphonia harmoniae caelestium revelationum: Dendermonde, St.-Pieters& Paulusabdij, ms. Cod. 9; intro. by Peter van Poucke. Only the former contains the OrdoVirtutum.

Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 67, Number 2, pp. 317–378 ISSN 0003-0139, electronic ISSN1547-3848. © 2014 by the American Musicological Society. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permis-sion to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissionswebsite, www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintInfo.asp. DOI: 10.1525/jams.2014.67.2.317.

even likely).3 Clearly, she started to write the treatise while in residenceas the leader of a community of nuns affixed to the male BenedictineAbbey of St. Disibod, and by the time she completed it she had movedwith her female community to nearby Bingen, where she established amonastery dedicated to St. Rupert in the late 1140s. A chapel for worshipwas dedicated by the archbishop of Mainz, in 1151 or 1152, with thechurch apparently consecrated somewhat later.4 In 1165 she set up a sec-ond women’s monastic community at Eibingen, just across the river, as thenumber of nuns at the Rupertsberg had grown large. Both these commu-nities were located on hillsides surrounded by vineyards, near the intersec-tion of the Nahe and the Rhine rivers.5 This activity means that in additionto her numerous other accomplishments, Hildegard was involved in theplanning of monastic buildings for years, including churches with theirtowers. For much of her life, she was surrounded by piles of stones, wood-en scaffolding, craftsmen, glaziers, and carvers, and this doubtless helpsexplain her obsession with architectural imagery, so important especially inher treatise Scivias and, I will argue, in the play Ordo Virtutum, works

3. Hildegard says she was commanded to write in 1141, but that she then “refused towrite for a long time” Scivias I, preface, 43:5; 60. From this evidence alone it is not pos-sible to tell precisely when she began the treatise. For opinions on the dates as related toevents in Hildegard’s life, see Iversen, “Réaliser une vision,” esp. 59–63, and a further expan-sion of these ideas in her “O Virginitas”; new light on the Ordo Virtutum: Hildegard,Richardis, and the order of the virtues, inDramatic Tradition of the Middle Ages, ed. CliffordDavidson, 63–78. She does say in the vita that her nun Richardis was with her until she fin-ished, and Richardis departed the Rupertsberg in 1152. See Theodoric of Echternach, “TheLife of Holy Hildegard,” II.v, trans. in Jutta and Hildegard: The Biographical Sources, ed.Silvas, 119–212, at 165.

4. There is disagreement about the date and the nature of the building consecrated at first,although most scholars stay with 1151 or 1152. For discussion and bibliography, see Leigh-Choate, Flynn, and Fassler, “Hearing the Heavenly Symphony, 174–76.

5. The Disibodenberg was located near the intersection of the Nahe and Glan rivers;the building does not survive, but there are some ruins on the site. The ruins of theRupertsberg, on the other hand, were demolished for the building of a railroad in thenineteenth century (but see below). The Abbey of Eibingen was reestablished in the earlynineteenth century near its original location, and is a functioning monastery today. A par-ish church, just down the hill from the present monastery, is a restoration of the old con-vent church of Eibingen, and retains the relics of Hildegard of Bingen. For Hildegard’s lifeas the leader of a religious community, see especially two chapters in Voice of the LivingLight, ed. Newman: Newman, “ ‘Sibyl of the Rhine’: Hildegard’s Life and Times”; andVan Engen, “Abbess: ‘Mother and Teacher.’ ” She apparently never had the title of abbess,although it appeared in one document, and was called rather “magistra,” as was commonof female heads of communities operating in the sphere of the Hirsau reform movement.Hildegard’s vitae (biographies) and the work that went forward in her lifetime and immediatelyafter to establish her fame are discussed in Newman, “Three-Part Invention”; Van Engen, “Lettersand the Public Persona ofHildegard”; andmy “Volmar,Hildegard, and St.Matthias.”The texts ofall three lives in English with commentary are found in Silvas, Jutta and Hildegard: The Biograph-ical Sources.

318 Journal of the American Musicological Society

created when there was both building at the Disibodenberg and intenseplanning for the complex at the Rupertsberg as well as actual building.6

The play Ordo Virtutum is a complex musical work that can be dividedinto several acts (see Table 2 below). It takes nearly an hour to perform, hasa cast including a large group of virtues, a Soul, and the Devil, and has beencalled the first “morality” play.7 Among the most innovative aspects of theplay are its systematic progressions through tonal areas, and various theorieshave been offered for the dramatic meanings of the musical structure of thework as a whole.8 Hildegard’s treatise Scivias is a theological summa in threebooks, one of the earliest works of its type from the central Middle Ages.Book III of Scivias is based on an allegorical walled edifice comprised ofseveral columns or tower-like structures, representing the manifold progres-sions that a soul can undergo on its life-long journey.9 Incorporated into theend of Hildegard’s Scivias are both the text for a version of theOrdo Virtutumand the texts for fourteen of her chants.

My thesis is that theOrdo Virtutum and the treatise Scivias were designedto be understood interactively within Hildegard’s community, and indeedthat the form of the play and its music were developed within the allegoricaledifice Hildegard constructed in Scivias Book III. The works, then, werecreated at the same time. After an introduction to the treatise and its sources,the main argument of this study unfolds in three sections. The first describesthe allegorical Edifice of Salvation found in Scivias III and the manner inwhich Hildegard has set the Ordo Virtutum within this structure. Next,I look more closely at the music of the play and the ways it embodies a for-mal journey related to selective parts of the Edifice of Salvation, incorpora-ting details from later visions from Book III as well, and showing how theplay depicts a journey especially related to the lives of female monastics. This

6. There was also building going on at the Disibodenberg in the years before Hildegard andthe nuns departed. See Falko Daim and Antje Kluge-Pinsker, eds., Als Hildegard noch nicht inBingen war.

7. Although now widely anthologized, Hildegard’sOrdo Virtutum was not included in ear-lier general studies of medieval liturgical drama, in part because the nature of the work as “litur-gical” has never been established. It was not considered in Young’s classic Drama of theMedieval Church; in Smoldon, Music of the Medieval Church Dramas; in Hardison, ChristianRite and Christian Drama in the Middle Ages; in Flanigan, “Comparative Literature and theStudy of Medieval Drama”; or in Rankin, “Liturgical Drama.” One of the first studies of theplay in a collection is Dronke’s introduction to the work in his Nine Medieval Latin Plays,147–57, now expanded upon in his edition in Corpus Christianorum.

8. See for example, Davidson, ed., Ordo Virtutum. Stefan Morent includes an overview ofthe modal assignments of each speech in the OV and shows that there is progression from lowerto higher; see Morent, “Ordo virtutum.” Dabke, “Hidden Scheme of the Virtues in Hildegardof Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum,” is also attentive to mode, with reference to an unpublished studyby Susan Rankin. These studies are reprised in Leigh-Choate, Flynn, and Fassler, “Hearing theHeavenly Symphony.”

9. Hildegard uses the words columna (column or pillar) and turris (tower) in her descrip-tions of the edifice. Both structures are characterized by some kind of gradation, rungs, or stairs.

Allegorical Architecture in Scivias: Hildegard’s Setting for the Ordo Virtutum 319

leads to a concluding discussion of the relationships between the Ordo Vir-tutum (the fully neumed play) and the Exhortatio Virtutum (the dramaticscene without music included near the end of the treatise).

The Nature of the Sources

Because the treatise Scivias includes fourteen texts of her chants—the so-called Scivias songs—and a short dramatic text copied without music, theExhortatio Virtutum (EV), the treatise is witness to the earlier stages ofHildegard’s compositional activities. Apparently by the time that Scivias wasfinished, Hildegard had already composed a number of chants, and, I willargue here, the neumed version of her play, as well as, of course, the un-noted truncated version that appears at the close of the treatise itself. AlbertDerolez claims that the major campaign of copying her works took place atthe Rupertsberg during the last decade or so of Hildegard’s life, that is fromaround 1170–79, and indeed both surviving copies of Hildegard’s musicaloeuvre belong to this decade: Wiesbaden, Hessische Landesbibliothek 2(the so-called Riesencodex); and the fragmentary Dendermonde, Abteibi-bliothek, Ms. 9 (which very likely once contained the Ordo Virtutum, butpresently does not).10 The early years of the campaign were doubtless super-vised by Hildegard and her secretary and life-long friend Volmar, who diedin 1173.11 As Volmar related in a letter of around 1170, Hildegard nearlydied at that time, and this may have put a scare into the community, and adesire to place her works—by that time nearing completion—into order forwider distribution.12

10. Earlier scholarship on Hildegard’s scriptorium has been refined by Derolez, beginningwith his “Genesis of Hildegard of Bingen’s Liber divinorum operum” continuing with the pref-ace to his edition of the Liber divinorum operum (with Dronke, 1996), and his overview: “NeueBeobachtungen zu den Handschriften der visionären Werke Hildegards von Bingen.” Still use-ful are Baillet, “Les miniatures du Scivias de Sainte Hildegarde,” and the foundational work ofSchrader and Führkötter,Die Echtheit des Schrifttums der heiligen Hildegard von Bingen. A full-length study of the manuscripts has been published by Michael Embach: Die Schriften Hilde-gards von Bingen, and updated in Embach and Wallner, “Der ‘Conspectus’ der HandschriftenHildegards von Bingen.”

11. For a dated list of manuscripts of the three major treatises, see Derolez, “NeueBeobachtungen zu den Handschriften der visionären Werke Hildegards von Bingen,” 482. Hedates theRupertsberg copies as follows: TheRisencodex (Wiesbaden 2), the core of which he datesfrom 1175–79, contains all three treatises (among other works). Scivias (ca. 1141–52) is found inWiesbaden 1, 1170–79 (now missing, but photographs survive of the original), and Vatican, Bibl.Vat. Pal. lat. 311, 1170–1179. Liber vite meritorum (ca. 1158–63) is in Dendermonde, Abteibi-bliothek, Ms. 9, 1170–79; Trier, Seminarbibliothek, Ms. 68, 1170–79; and Berlin, Staatsbiblio-thek, Ms. Theol.lat. fol. 727, 1170–79. Liber divinorum operum (ca. 1163–74) is found inGent, Universitätsbibliothek, Hs. 241, 1170–74; and Troyes, BM, Ms. 683, 1170–79.

12. Volmar closed the letter asking that God would restore Hildegard’s good health so thather God-given gift might be “abundantly spread . . . for the edification of the whole Church.”


The copying of the sources demonstrates, according to Derolez, thatwork went on fairly quickly and that the manuscripts provided for the scribesto work from were in various stages of development, even of disarray.13 Ac-cordingly, Rupertsberg codices were not made from a set of carefully pre-pared and standardized exemplaria, but rather were made in a scriptoriumin which the major works were themselves in flux. This accounts for the nu-merous errors of a great variety, and the ongoing correcting witnessed with-in many of the surviving copies, including the two copies of Hildegard’smusic mentioned above, which are quite different one from the other intheir surface details. Volmar’s death in the midst of the campaign was surelydisruptive.

We know from Guibert of Gembloux, Hildegard’s secretary late in lifeand one of her biographers, that she heard music during her visions and thatshe later remembered the wordless melodies she heard, and put words tothem for singing in the liturgy of the church.14 So Hildegard herself(through the mouthpiece of Guibert) tells us that the music came first andthen the texts. I have argued elsewhere that many of the chants do indeedpresent formally as if they were received as sets of grand repeating melismas,later provided with the prosulae of Hildegard’s poetry.15 Chronologicallayers—early, middle, and later—can be tentatively identified respectivelywith the Sciviasmaterial as the earliest layer; the so-called “miscellany” (a listof sung texts found in the Riesencodex) reflecting a somewhat later develop-ment; and at least some of the works associated with particular saints cults as

For the letter in English see Letters of Hildegard of Bingen, 2, Letter 195, 168–69, at 169. Thecritical edition is Epistolarium, letter 195, vol. 91A, 443–45, at 445.

13. Gent 241, the earliest of the group, is the most interesting in this regard. Derolez,“Genesis of Hildegard of Bingen’s Liber divinorum operum,” argues that it proves thatHildegard’s works were indeed copied from wax tablets, creating a kind of autograph, whichthen was revised and corrected before fair copy was made. Gent 241 represents the stage beforefair copy, and Volmar died in the midst of its production.

14. From a letter written in 1176, in which Guibert describes Hildegard’s visions: “More-over, returning to ordinary life from the melody of that internal concert, she frequently takes de-light in causing those sweet modes which she learns and remembers in that spiritual harmony toreverberate with the sound of voices, and, remembering God, making a festive day from whatshe remembers of that spiritual music, and often, delighted to find those same melodies in theirresounding to be more pleasing than those of common human effort, makes words for them forthe praise of God and in honor of the saints, to be sung publically in church. . . .” (Inde est quodad communem hominum conuersationem ab illa interni concentus melodia regrediens, dulcesin uocum etiam sono modos, quos in spirituali armonia discit et retinet, memor Dei, et in reli-quiis cogitationum huiusmodi diem festum agens, sepius resultando delectatur, eosdemquemodulos, communi humane musice instrumento gratiores, prosis ad laudem Dei et sanctorumhonorem compositis, in ecclesia publice decantari facit. . . .; translation modified by Fassler.) Asfound in Guibert, Epistolae que in codice B.R. Brux. 5527–5534 inveniuntur, 1, 226–34, at 231.See also Letters of Hildegard of Bingen, 2, no. 104, 30.

15. See my “Angels and Ideas—Hildegard’s Musical Hermeneutic as Found in Scivias andReflected in ‘O splendidissima gemma,’ ” forthcoming inUnversehrt und unverletzt. HildegardsMenschenbild und Kirchenverständnis heute, ed. Rainer Berndt with Maura Zátonyi.


among the last of the works.16 But the state of sources themselves, all ofthem copied late in Hildegard’s lifetime, create problems for the develop-ment of any hard and fast chronology of all her musical works, which mayhave existed, in one form or another, apart from the texts themselves. Nocopies of the melodies alone are extant, and other than the fair copies of hermusic, we have little evidence of her compositional processes, the letter ofGuibert quoted above serving as an important piece of evidence. Accordinglythen, Hildegard clothed divinely received melodies with words of her owninvention, this process forming a parallel with the ways in which ideas fromthe divine intellect were shaped through allegorical figures in her play and thetreatise Scivias.

There is yet another aspect of Hildegard’s Scivias that bears directly uponher creative output and the meanings of its theological program as a whole:at least two copies of the treatise were illuminated in the twelfth century.One of these, now found in Heidelberg, was made at the Cistercian Abbeyof Salem (near Konstanz in southwestern Germany).17 But the other wascopied at the Rupertsberg scriptorium during the campaign describedabove—Wiesbaden, Hessische Landesbibliothek 1. Our access to this sourceis complicated by the fact that the manuscript is presently missing, havingdisappeared when it was taken with other sources to Dresden for safekeepingin WWII; it has not been seen since 1945. However, in the late 1920s andearly 1930s some nuns of Eibingen, under the direction of Sr. JosephaKnipps, made a handwritten copy of the treatise, duplicating it with extra-ordinary care.18 The roles of the anonymous twelfth-century scribes weretaken by particular nuns, each of whom practiced the writing until she couldcopy with fluidity and precision.19 Black and white photographs of the

16. For an overview of what is presently known of the layers within Hildgard’s musical oeu-vre, see Leigh-Choate, Flynn, and Fassler, “Hearing the Heavenly Symphony,” 174–78.William T. Flynn has a study forthcoming of the “miscellany,” in which he argues that it reflectsa stage of development of Hildegard’s compositional oeuvre. For an earlier view of the miscel-lany, see Newman’s introduction to her edition/translation of the Symphonia (1998), and alsoher recent critical edition of the texts in Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Medievalis 226.A second neumed copy of the Ordo Virtutum is found in British Library add. 15102, part ofa book prepared for the polymath Trithemius (1462–1516) while he was abbot of Sponheim(1482–1505). See Davidson, “Another Manuscript of the Ordo Virtutum.” This fifteenth-century neumed copy of the play was not directly prepared from that found in the Riesencodex,and hence we know that yet another version must have been extant at the time of its copying;moreover this is not the lost Vienna codex, described in Denis, Codicis manuscripti theologiciBibliothecae palatinae, vol. 2, part 2, cols. 1723–31, which closely follows the Risencodex in itsorganization. For further discussion, see Dronke’s introduction to the critical edition of the text;Corrigan’s edition compares the music of both the Wiesbaden and the London sources.

17. See Liber Scivias: Farbmikrofiche-Edition, ed. Kohle. This manuscript has been digitizedand placed online at the library’s website: http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/salX16.

18. A facsimile of this modern manuscript has now appeared: Liber Scivias: RüdesheimerCodex: aus der Benediktinerinnenabtei St. Hildegard.

19. The names of the specific Eibingen nuns who made the copy are presently unknown.


original twelfth-century manuscript survive as well (see Fig. 1a), and one cansee from the details how close the handwriting samples and the illuminationsfrom the twelfth-century manuscript are to the copy made by the nuns ofEibingen in the twentieth century (see Fig. 1b).20 The colored copies of theilluminations often seen today are all taken from this modern work, as arethe colored plates found in the online version of the Journal.

The situation, then, is complex. We have (1) a treatise, Scivias, that in-cludes chant texts and a version of the play, both copied without music(and with no intention of providing neumes, at least in any of the survivingcopies); (2) two sources that contain neumed versions of the fourteenchant texts (in addition to other pieces as well); (3) a single neumed copyof the Ordo Virtutum dating from Hildegard’s lifetime; and (4) a singleilluminated Rupertsberg copy of Scivias, copied in Hildegard’s monasteryduring the last decade of her life, but now missing, and believed lost. Wealso have (5) a very precise twentieth-century hand-painted copy of theilluminated Scivias made by nuns of Eibingen. In addition, (6) the state ofthe twelfth-century sources, including the two copies of Hildegard’s musi-cal oeuvre, is such that all the surviving manuscripts produced in theRupertsberg scriptorium were made in the last decade of Hildegard’s life,and so postdate the period in which Hildegard wrote Scivias, and the textsof the musical works associated with it, by around two decades.21

These vexed circumstances should not detract from the unique richness ofthe sources. Indeed what we have—taken as a whole—is the only survivingprogram from the Middle Ages, and indeed from the entire Western canon,that includes: a major theological treatise by a gifted composer, and one thatfeatures texts of some of her compositions, both lyrical and dramatic, as a partof its workings; a program of illuminations that were most probably executedunder the control of this theologian/composer; and lastly, the music for thedramatic and lyrical texts found in the treatise. In combination—as theywere surely meant to be known—these items offer a vast twelfth-centuryGesamtkunstwerk, and one that would have been comprehended over timeby the very community responsible for production of the artifacts that con-tain its individual elements. The manuscripts are witnesses to the twelfth-century material culture of these Benedictine nuns from the Rhineland, and

20. The nuns of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Hildegard of Eibingen own both the manu-script prepared under the auspices of Sr. Josepha Knipps, as well as a set of black and white pho-tographs of the original twelfth-century manuscript, and the visuals presented in this study havebeen made available with their kind permission.

21. Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Cod. 963 is a thirteenth-century manu-script from St. Maria in Rommerdorf (Premonstratensian). Van Acker has argued convincinglythat it was copied from Volmar’s earliest edition of Hildegard’s letters, ca. 1170: see Van Acker,“Der Briefwechsel der heiligen Hildegard von Bingen.” The version of the so-called miscellanyfound in Cod. 963 contains an early copy of the final song of the OV, demonstrating the fluidnature of Hildegard’s dramatic materials.


close study of them will continue to reveal how they preserved theology, art,music, and drama, and for what particular purposes.

Scivias is comprised of three books, each of which relates to the creationstory of Genesis and the subsequent recreation narrative that begins forHildegard with the Incarnation. Although the openings of each of the threebooks are parallel expositions of common themes, each is very different, and

Figure 1a The angelic hosts, an illumination accompanying Scivias I.vi, as found in the original12th-century manuscript; Wiesbaden 1, fol. 38r


makes a preface appropriate to the arguments and subjects of that particularbook. The illuminations from Wiesbaden 1 are representations of whatHildegard saw in her prophetic visions, and the text of the treatise consists

Figure 1b The angelic hosts, an illumination accompanying Scivias I.vi, as found in a 20th-century copy of the source represented in Figure 1a; Rüdesheimer Codex, BenediktinerinnenabteiSt. Hildegard, fol. 38r. This figure appears in color in the online version of the Journal.


of her recalling the visions one by one, with each followed by an explanationof the vision.22 There are a total of 26 visions (27 counting the author’s por-trait, which shows her receiving messages from the Living Light), eachvision creating a kind of chapter for the book in which is it contained, andso driving the form of the whole: Book I: 7 visions (including the portrait);Book II: 7 visions; and Book III: 13 visions. The number of illuminations inWiesbaden 1 is somewhat greater than the number of visions describedbecause some of the visions are depicted with more than a single illumina-tion. The numbers of illuminations are as follows: Book I (including thepreface): 9; Book II: 9; Book III: 17, for a total of 35 paintings, most occu-pying a full page, but a few smaller in size. There is a kind of symmetry in thetwo sets of numbers, for if the ongoing story described at the end of the trea-tise were complete, there might then be four sets of 7 and four sets of 9, butthe progression is not “finished,” as the process of salvation described in thetreatise as a whole reveals. The themes suggested by these numbers are em-bodied as well in the scenes of the Ordo Virtutum and its formal structure asdescribed below, which is also deliberately open-ended. Number symbolismoften matters to thinkers who were also involved in designing and producingbuildings, as was Hildegard.23

The Setting of the Ordo Virtutum

Table 1 below offers a kind of compendium of the virtues as Hildegard pre-sented them in Scivias, which includes the Exhortatio Virtutum (EV) at itsclose, comparing these to the virtues found in the Ordo Virtutum. The vir-tues are the major “characters” of Hildegard’s Scivias and of her musicdrama, and their natures are derived from several works that Hildegard knewwell in her voluminous reading of both common and uncommon texts, al-though created with powerful Hildegardian twists. Two of the many sourcesespecially important to Hildegard’s development of these “characters” were

22. The only illumination that does not depict one of Hildegard’s visions is the first one, herfamous portrait, found in Wiesbaden 1 as part of the preface of the first book. For further dis-cussion of the portrait, see my “Volmar, Hildegard, and St. Matthias.” In Rupertsberg copiesof Scivias, the texts revealing the actual visions are marked with small red cedillas in the marginsof each line; in modern editions (and in this article), the texts of the visions proper are italicized.

23. For a good example, see Overesch and Günther, Himmlisches Jerusalem in Hildesheim.Scivias contains an exposition of the number ten as related to the construction of the temple andthe perfection that will be achieved in heaven when human beings fill in the missing number ofthe tenth rank of angels that fell with Lucifer (Scivias III.ii.18–20, 43A:363–66; 334–36). Thetwo numbers in the series mentioned here would be made complete by seven, the days of theweek, moving to eight, with the coming of a completing Sunday; and nine, of course, has manyTrinitarian implications. Nine also suggests eventual arrival at ten, the architectural number ofcompletion that fascinated Hildegard, who thought of the incomplete church as a replica of theincomplete body of Christ, to which souls were being won.


Table 1 Virtues in Scivias, compared to the Ordo Virtutum (OV) and Exhortatio Virtutum(EV), the Speculum Virginum (SV) and the Rule of St. Benedict (SB)

Virtues italicized and in bold are in both the EV and the OV

Numbers represent the order of the virtue in the OV. The RB column has a yes for Virtues par-ticularly singled out, but “no’s” are not provided as sometimes the virtue may be implied or ismentioned in passing.

Scivias OV/EV In SV In RB

Book II, i.Fear of the Lord (timor Domini) 4/No Yes YesPoor in Spirit (pauperes Domini) No/No No

Book III.iFear of the Lord 4/No Yes YesFaith 6/No Yes

Book III.iiFaith (fides) 6/No YesFear of the Lord (timor Domini) 4/No Yes YesJustice (iusticia) No/No Yes: MajorKnowledge of Good and Evil No/No NoRighteousness (rectum opus) No/No No

Book III.iii (Tower of the Anticipation of God’s Will)Love of heaven (amor caelestis) 11/No NoDiscipline (disciplina) 12/No Yes YesModesty (verecundia) 13/No Yes YesMercy (misericordia) 14/No Yes YesVictory (victoria) 15/Yes NoPatience (patientia) 17/No Yes YesLonging (gemitus) No/No No

Book III.iv (Pillar of the Word of God)Knowledge of God (1) 1/1 No(Scientia Dei)

Book III.vi (The Triple Wall)Abstinence (abstinentia) No/No NoLiberality (largitatis) No/No NoPiety (pietas) No/No YesTruth (veritas) No/No YesPeace (pax) No/No YesBeatitude (beatitudo) No/No NoDiscernment (discretio) 16/No Yes YesSalvation No/No No

Book III, viii (Pillar of the Savior’s Humanity)Humility (humilitas) (also xiii) 2/Yes Yes: Major YesCharity (caritas) 3/No Yes: Major YesFear of the Lord (timor) (also I and II) 4/No Yes YesObedience (obedientia) 5/No Yes YesFaith (fides) 6/No Yes: Major YesHope (spes) 7/No Yes: Major Yes

(Continued)


the Rule of St. Benedict (RB) and the Speculum Virginum (SV), a treatisewritten in the Rhineland in around 1140 for the edification of nuns.24 Boththese works are also represented in Table 1.25 Hildegard’s virtues are ideas,

Table 1 continued

Scivias OV/EV In SV In RB

Chastity (castitas) 8/No Yes Yes(Innocence innocentia), (OV only) 9/No NoGrace of God (gratia dei) No/No Yes

Book III, ix (The Tower of the Church)Wisdom (sapientia) No/No NoJustice (second time) (iusticia) No/No Yes as aboveFortitude (fortitudo) No/No Yes: MajorSanctity (sanctitas) No/No No

Book III, x (The Son of Man)Constancy (constantia) No/No YesCelestial Desire (but see above) No/No NoCompunction of the Heart No/No NoContempt of the World 10/No YesWords of Concord (concordia) No/No No

Book III, xiiiHere is found the EV that features:A generic group of VirtuesKnowledge of God (see above)Humility (see above)Victory (see above)

24. Hildegard wrote a commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict, and in it she mentions theDiscernment of God, applying this Virtue to Benedict; she says Benedict made a wall of sanctityfrom Charity; that he wrote in Fear and in Piety, in Charity and in Chastity. These are the onlyVirtues Hildegard mentions in her commentary. On discretio, see Böckmann, “Discretio inBenedict’s Rule and Its Tradition.”Humility, Hildegard’s Queen of the Virtues, is essential in theRule of St. Benedict. See Hildegard’s De Regula Sancti Benedicti, ed. Feiss, especially at 68. TheSpeculum Virginum (SV) sometimes contained music, and Hildegard may have seen a notedcopy. British Library, Arundel 44 from the Cistercianmonastery Eberbach amRhein is the earliestknown copy of the Speculum Virginum. Hildegard visited Eberbach, and a now-lost twelfth-cen-tury copy of Scivias was in this monastery as well: see Scivias, ed. Führkötter and Carlevaris. Co-logne, Historisches Archiv der Stadt Köln, W 276a (destroyed in the tragic collapse of thebuilding in 2009) from the Augustinian house of St. Maria in Andernach was seemingly a directcopy of Arundel 44: see Seyfarth, “The Speculum Virginum: The Testimony of theManuscripts,”in Listen, Daughter: The Speculum Virginum and the Formation of Religious Women. This collec-tion contains many important essays on the treatise: especially useful is Jeffreys, “ ‘Listen, Daugh-ters of Light’: The Epithalamium and Musical Innovation in Twelfth-Century Germany.” Thetreatise itself has been edited by Jutta Seyfarth in Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis5, and translated by her into German: Speculum virginum=Jungfrauenspiegel.

25. Hildegard writes with a prophetic voice, and so rarely offers direct quotations from hersources (except for the Bible); see Kienzle and Stevens, “Intertextuality in Hildegard’s Works.”This can make fathoming the works she drew upon difficult. The most important works to


come forth from the mind of God to illuminate and to teach, and ultimatelyto lead people back to God by entering into their intellects. The virtues arenot living creatures, although they appear in human form. According toHildegard, they have always been perceptible by humans, both before theFall and after it. However after the Incarnation they became much strongerand greater in number, meaning that the truth of God’s revelations wasmore accessible to human beings because God had appeared to them in theflesh, making divine intentions clearer than they had been before.26 Whenspeaking of the virtues that comprise Scivias III.iii, a group featured in ActIII of the Ordo Virtutum, Hildegard says:

. . . they do not work in a person by themselves, for the person works withthem and they with the person; just as the person’s five senses do not work bythemselves, but the person with them and they with the person, to bear fruittogether. (Scivias III.iii.3; 43A:376; 345–46)

The information contained in Table 1 is revelatory. The first column liststhe virtues found in Scivias, book by book, vision by vision. Column two in-dicates which virtues found in Scivias are also found in the OV and the EV,providing numbers for the order of appearance in the OV. Column threeindicates if each of the virtues of Scivias is found in the Speculum Virginum(SV), and whether it has a major role, and column four indicates with a“yes” if a virtue is given prominence in the Rule of St. Benedict. It can beseen immediately from column two that the virtues featured in the play op-erate in particular towers or pillars of the Edifice of Salvation (see Figs. 2aand 2b); they have been deliberately selected for theOrdo Virtutum becauseof their “locations.” In addition, Hildegard has created the groupings inScivias so that the Benedictine virtues are concentrated in those very alle-gorical towers/pillars where she will situate the play, pointing to the con-clusion, developed further below, that the Ordo Virtutum is a play aboutand for monastic life, especially that of nuns. Virtues that are encountered

influence Hildegard’s Scivias in general are Gregory the Great’s sermon on Luke 15 (no. 34),discussed in my “Hildegard’s Virtues”; for the text of the sermon, see Ehrman, Homiliae inEvangelia. Also seemingly influential was Shepherd of Hermas, a second-century mystical treatisethat Hildegard knew in one form or another; see Ehrman, ed., Shepherd of Hermas, andBogdanos, “Shepherd of Hermas and the Development of Medieval Visionary Allegory.” TheShepherd of Hermas was originally written in Greek, but survives whole only in the Latin, ofwhich nearly twenty copies were made in the Middle Ages. Most of these copies postdate thetwelfth century, a time when the work was exceedingly rare, but Hildegard surely found her wayto a copy (as she was able to do with many obscure theological works). She also doubtless knewPrudentius’s Psychomachia, a work that was highly influential throughout the Middle Ages, andwas sometimes illuminated. Hildegard seems to have been an early student of the writings of thelate eleventh-century Anselm of Canterbury as well, although the relationship between thesetwo authors is yet to be worked out, as is Hildegard’s place in the world of twelfth-century the-ology and philosophy of religion in general.

26. These ideas are explored in some detail in my “Angels and Ideas.” A concise introduc-tion to Hildegard’s thoughts on the subject are found in Scivias III.ii.1.


multiple times in Scivias were also chosen from among the Benedictinevirtues.

The general statement made by all the virtues featured in Scivias can befound by tracing the journey through The Edifice of Salvation, depicted inthe illumination accompanying Scivias III.ii (Fig. 2a) and in the paintedversion of the image (Fig. 2b). In the subsequent visions in the treatise,Hildegard leads the reader systematically around the circle, beginning in the

Figure 2a The Edifice of Salvation, an illumination accompanying Scivias III.ii, with East atthe top of the edifice, as found in the original 12th-century manuscript, Wiesbaden 1, fol. 130v


Figure 2b The Edifice of Salvation, an illumination accompanying Scivias III.ii, with East atthe top of the edifice, as found in a 20th-century copy of the source represented in Figure 2a;Rüdesheimer Codex, Benediktinerinnenabtei St. Hildegard, fol. 130v. This figure appears incolor in the online version of the Journal.


East (top of the page), circling to the viewer’s left (the North), moving downto the West, and ending the journey in the South, with the approach to theincomplete body of Christ that reigns in the East, which was the beginning ofthe journey. This depiction of motion through an allegorical architectureleads to a conclusion of struggles with the Antichrist, a period of judgment,and then the glorious singing that will prevail at the end of time (Psalm 150).In the course of this journey through Scivias III, the reader encountersthirty-four virtues (give or take depending on reckoning), some more thanonce. Fear of the Lord and Poor in Spirit (a counterpart of Humility), bothof which are crucial in theRule of St. Benedict, play significant roles in Book Ias well. According to Hildegard’s reworking of Luke 15, God (like thewoman in the parable) had ten coins but humankind fell and was lost. In theact of redemption Christ, again like the woman in the parable, “calledtogether His friends, namely earthly deeds of justice, and His neighbors,namely spiritual virtues, and said ‘Rejoice with Me in praise and joy, andbuild the celestial Jerusalem with living stones, for I have found Man,who had perished by the deception of the Devil!’ ” (Scivias III.ii.20;43A:366; 336).27 Music plays a major role in this work because it is afeature of angelic praise, and humankind is to win back the spaceamong the heavenly hosts that Lucifer and his band lost when they fell.The work will be to unite humankind with the angelic hosts, regainingthe space that belonged to the original tenth order of angels, and joiningin their song.28

Spiritual virtues aid in recovering the prey of Satan, by inspiring appropri-ate penance, good works, and acts of praise. Through discussions in severalpassages found in Scivias III Hildegard explains the major ways the virtueswork within and for human beings: (1) They encourage humans to build theHeavenly Jerusalem of faith and works within themselves, so they mayreturn to their rightful place in the cosmos;29 (2) They act out, or display,the ways that humans struggle, lamenting their failings: according to

27. The parable of the lost drachma, or coin, is found in Luke 15, a chapter of the New Tes-tament that Hildegard cites in several places in Scivias, an expansion upon Gregory the Great’ssermon referenced above. Luke 15 also contains the parable of the lost sheep and the story ofthe Good Samaritan. She quotes directly from the parable in the Ordo Virtutum: Humility’sopening charge to the virtues is to find the lost drachma. In other references to Luke 15: thevirtues console and encourage Anima through hope in the Good Shepherd; the virtues’ hymnof praise at the close of the play speaks of God’s destruction of the hellish draught in “publicansand sinners.” For discussion, see my “Angels and Ideas”; Flynn, “Singing with the Angels”; andIversen, “ ‘O Vos Angeli’: Hildegard’s Lyrical and Visionary Texts.”

28. Scivias III.ii.19; 43:364; 335: “. . . in this height of blessedness, he was to augment thepraise of the heavenly spirits who praise God with assiduous devotion, and so fill up the place leftempty by the lost angel who fell in his presumption.”

29. See especially Scivias III.ii.2–3; 43A:351–52; 326 and the discussion of the two virtues,Faith and Fear of the Lord: “. . . fear is the beginning of a just intention, and when that flowersinto sanctity by good works, it joins with blessed faith and reaches God in full perfection.”


Hildegard, the result of a successful struggle is penance followed by the praiseof God;30 (3) When the virtues win a soul from the Devil, they, in conjunc-tion with angels and saints, celebrate victory.

But the general journey of Book III and the many virtues encounteredin the process has been transformed and streamlined within the play OrdoVirtutum. Many more virtues operate in the treatise Scivias than are foundin the neumed play Ordo Virtutum; and only three individual virtues arefound in the dramatic scene at the close of the treatise (the EV). Table 1 dem-onstrates not only that Hildegard was selective in the virtues she chose to usein her dramatic works, but also that she has designed Scivias so that the playmakes sense within it, especially as a manifestation of the virtues important toBenedictines, and even more to Benedictine nuns (see column 4).

Hildegard makes both play and treatise give special prominence to Knowl-edge of God. She is the individual virtue that begins the play, and indeed she isby herself in Scivias III.iv, placed in a scene in the treatise and near a tower thatexplains the opening of the play itself. She is crucial to understanding bothBook III of Scivias and the OV (and the EV) because the virtues are ideas, andthe process of acquiring them is about knowing. The other virtues found in theOV are grouped together in two columns/pillars of the Edifice of Salvationfound in Scivias III. These several virtues appear in two large sets, just as theydo in Scivias. The play, then, has been carefully set by Hildegard within partic-ular places in the allegorical architecture of Book III; but Book III was special-ly designed itself so this could happen. At the end of the play, the actionreturns to virtues that entered earlier, Humility, and above all to Chastity.

So whereas the treatise follows a trajectory that moves systematicallythrough the allegorical space of this walled and turreted edifice—from East, toNorth, to West, to South—the play does not. The play’s characters crisscrossthe structure, minimizing some towers or columns and their characterizationsin the process and emphasizing others. As can be seen in Table 1, the play offersa customized journey, showing how a particular soul achieves victory, with aparticular group of virtues especially involved. Hildegard argues that each per-son is engaged in a struggle of his or her own, so it would not be surprising thathe or she would come to the edifice in a unique way. 31 However, the nature ofthe specialized journey of the soul in the Ordo Virtutum has been tailored toemploy virtues of special importance inmonastic life, and, we will see, especiallyin that of nuns. It would seem that the Ordo Virtutum was conceived withHildegard’s own convent in mind, whereas the treatise as a whole (and theEV at its close) offers a more general theological statement. The allegorical

30. In Scivias III.iii.13; 43A:387; 353, Hildegard describes the virtue Longing as “pale andtroubled, because her faith always sighs and sobs for eternal felicity. . . .”

31. Hildegard says of the operation of the virtues: “But there are differences among these vir-tues; which is to say that, though they are unanimous in their desire, they work diverse works inpeople” (Scivias III.viii.17; 43A:504; 442).


architecture of the Edifice of Salvation is modular: there is default motionaround the whole, and then there are specialized journeys for particular groups.The Ordo Virutum offers one of these, that designed for nuns; and the Exhor-tatio Virtutum offers another, that designed for virtually any person, or thegeneral reader.

In the analysis presented here it will be seen that the groupings of virtuesfound in the treatise are foundational to and interactive with the Ordo Virtu-tum; indeed the allegorical architecture of the treatise forms an imagined“setting” for the play, and explains its form and accounts for the character ofits music. There is a lack of this kind of study—that is repositioning the playwithin the treatise—probably because most scholars have believed that theplay was created after the treatise was written, and was generated later out ofthe shorter version that Hildegard includes at the end of Scivias (the EV) (seediscussion below and note 53). But analysis of the treatise and of the neumedplay suggests the interdependence of the two works, with the Exhortatio com-ing at the end as a version of the larger, and already extant, Ordo Virtutum.

Table 2 lays out the form of the play as based on the appearance of virtuesfound in Table 1, showing the mode of each of the major pieces and shifts ofmode within the acts and interludes. It must be said at the outset that in gen-eral Hildegard does not use the church modes (1–8) alone, but rather under-stands tonality through the maneriae, that is in paired scales, four totalitiesthat offer the full range of both—authentic and plagal—with common finals.It is for this reason that I will say Hildegard writes “in D,” and by that I meanshe explores the entire range of the pair of scales with a final of D. But shealso commonly transcends the D–E–F–G finals of the maneriae, and writesin both A and in C, and even occasionally will use a short piece with a finalof B in the OV, always for dramatic effect.32 The music in Hildegard’s OrdoVirtutum must “climb” and “descend” according to motions of the soul’sjourney depicted in her dramatic work. Hildegard has a strong sense of tonalstructures and of moving upward and downward through themaneriae, andbeyond their traditional boundaries, creating delays and expectations that re-flect character development and dramatic action.

The acts of her play explore this dramatic sense of musical motion because,as can be seen in Table 2, all acts of the play unfold within or at the foot ofthe allegorical towers or columns of Scivias III, whereas the interludes are char-acterized by longer chants that serve to move the action from one tower toanother, as a kind of processional music. The form of the play found in Table 2is based completely on motion through Hildegard’s Edifice of Salvation(Scivias III), and it is through this allegorical understanding that Hildegard

32. Hildegard’s use of modes andmaneriae is in keeping with twelfth-century views of musicexpressed in theorists associated with the Hirsau reform. For discussion, see McCarthy, “Aribo’sDe Musica and Abbot William of Hirsau”; and his Music, Scholasticism and Reform; as well asBain, “Hildegard, Hermannus, and Late Chant Style”; and her “Hooked on Ecstasy.”


Tab

le2

SmallerDramatic/MusicUnitsas

foun

din

theOrdoVirtutum

(line

nos.from

Dronk

e’sedition

ofthetext,C

CCM,2

26)GeneralLocationin

Scivias:

Edificeof

Salvationof

Boo

kIII

OV/LineNos.

Characters/Action

Locationin

theEdifice

Mod

e/s

Act

IPillar

oftheWordof

God

,Scivias

III.iv

...a

ndshelookssom

etim

esat

thepillar

andsometim

esat

thepeoplewho

aregoingto

andfro

Scen

e1,

1–22

Patriarchs

andProp

hetsaddressthe

Virtues,who

reply;

trappedsouls

lamen

t

Pillarof

theWordof

God

Eto

Dto

E

Scen

e2,

23–66

Kno

wledg

eof

God

confrontsAnima

Pillarof

theWordof

God

Dto

E

BetweentheActs:

Interlud

e:Sc

ene3,

70–79

“O

Plangens

Vox

”Lam

entforAnima

Transition

E

Act

IIPillar

oftheHum

anityof

theSa

vior,S

civias

III.viii..

.inthepillar

thereisan

ascentlike

aladd

erfrom

bottom

totop

Scen

e4,

80–14

2CalltoActionwith

Devil’s

Interrup

tion

Pillarof

theHum

anity

oftheSavior

D/Ealternation

Order

ofVirtues:Hum

ilias;K

aritas;Tim

orDei;O

bedientia

;Fides;S

pes;Castitas

(with

Inno

centia)

BetweentheActs:

Interlud

eSc

ene5,

143–

166

“Flos

campi

cadit”

andCon

tempt

Transition

alternation,

but

with

aclim

bto

A

Act

IIITow

erof

theAnticipationof

God

’sWill,S

civias

III.iii

...seven

giftso

ftheHolySpirit

Scen

e6,

167–

218

Journeyto

theFo

untain

ofLife

Tow

erof

theAnticipationof

God

’swill

alternation,

butwith

someC

andclim

bto

BOrder

ofVirtues:Amor

celestis;

Disc

iplin

a;Verecun

dia;Misericordia;Victoria

;Discretio;P

atientia

(Continu

ed)


Tab

le2

continue

d

OV/LineNos.

Characters/Action

Locationin

theEdifice

Mod

e/s

Scen

e7,

219–

271

The

soul

becomes

penitent

andis

received

back

continue

sSo

ulmoves

from

Eto

Dandcansin

ganew

BetweentheActs:

Scen

e8,

272–

283

Virtue

ssin

g“O

vivens

fons”

(OLivingFo

untain)

Transition

Emoves

toD

phrases;cade

nceon

EMovem

entto

theplaceof

battle,n

earthePillarof

theHum

anity

oftheSavior

ACT

IVBattlean

dReturnto

thePillar

oftheHum

anityof

theSa

vior

Scen

e9,

284–

313

The

battleandvictory.

Dto

CThe

Devil(4)addressesthe

Soul,w

horespon

dsto

him

nowin

D,and

calls

upon

Hum

ility

andtheotherV

irtuestoaidherinthebattle(m

ostly

inD);Hum

ility

calls

onVictory

tolead

thecharge,and

Victory

respon

dsandcompletes

theworkof

defeat,w

ithacryof

triumph

thathasb

eenforeshadow

edmusically(inC),

apassagefrom

theMarianantip

hon“Ave

regina

caelorum

”;the

Virtues

respon

dbriefly

inE.

Scen

e10

,314

–34

0Chastity

hasthelastword,

with

along

solo,repliedto

bytheDevil(5);Chastity

givesansw

er.

Virtue

ssin

gasong

ofpraise

toGod

:“O

Deus.”

Mostly

inD

Preface

tothene

xt“Act”:T

heGap

intheWall

Scen

e11

,341

–36

0Po

stlude:the

strugg

lego

eson

,and

theVirtuessing

adescriptionof

the

workthat

remains.

InE


has structured the drama and grouped the characters. The outline of the playpresented in Table 2 is, therefore, different from that offered by Dronke andothers, and this is so because I follow the form that comes from studying themusic of the play and of the characters, but in the context of their locationswithin this allegorical setting.33 When one follows Hildegard’s design themusic falls into functional areas, demonstrating that she has employed bothmode and melody type to shape the ongoing narrative and the actions of thecharacters within it.

Hildegard’s employment of tonal areas in theOrdo Virtutum has been dis-cussed in the scholarly literature. There has been less work, however, on theways she uses particular melodies and phrases of melodies, in combinationwith tonal areas, to define dramatic actions and characters. In the argumentto follow, I will claim that her sophisticated compositional strategies, unlikeanything else found in medieval sung drama, are related to Hildegard’s archi-tecture allegory. This strategy created an opportunity to compose within alarge-scale sense of form, using tonal areas and melodic formulae to createdelay, build suspense, provide a sense of completion, and yet to keep theending deliberately unresolved, as is the case with the allegorical edifice inwhich she has situated the play. Both play and the parts of the treatise it ex-plored are left open, making room for each nun to situate her own actions andacquisition of virtues within the ongoing drama of monastic life.

Act I: At the Pillar of the Word of God

The opening of the play itself demonstrates that Hildegard has situated theOrdo Virtutum in Scivias III, and reveals a great deal about the virtues, whothey are and how they work in the history of humankind:

Patriarchs and Prophets:Who are these, who are like clouds?Virtues: You holy ones of old, why do you marvel at us?The Word of God grows bright in the shape of humankindAnd so we shine with him,Building up the beautiful limbs of his body. (OV, 1–9)

In this opening scene, the patriarchs and prophets marvel at ideas thatgrow brighter after the Incarnation, that is the virtues can gleam with thegreater understanding made possible by God’s appearance in humanflesh. These divine ideas, when known by humans, change them anddraw them into the church, which is the allegorical representation of thebody of Christ. These opening actions take place in Scivias near the Pillarof the Word of God, located (see Figs. 3a and 3b) on the northeast section

33. See Ordo Virtutum, ed. Dronke, in Nine Medieval Latin Plays, and the works citedabove in note 8.


of the Edifice, and described in Scivias III.iv. The virtues announce theirgoal from the start, to gather souls within the heavenly embrace.

The Pillar of the Word of God as described in Scivias III.iv is locatedin the North of the Edifice (that is on the left) and has three sides. The

Figure 3a The Pillar of the Word of God, an illumination accompanying Scivias III.iv, asfound in the original 12th-century manuscript; Wiesbaden 1, fol. 145v. This pillar is located onthe left, or north side, of the Edifice of Salvation (depicted in Figures 2a and 2b).


Law faces east: golden branches grow out of this side from the root to thesummit, supporting Patriarchs and Prophets, sitting in chronological order,beginning with Abraham. As in the opening of theOrdo Virtutum, these OldTestament figures marvel at the Incarnation, locating the opening of the play

Figure 3b The Pillar of the Word of God, an illumination accompanying Scivias III.iv, asfound a 20th-century copy of the source represented in Figure 3a; Rüdesheimer Codex,Benediktinerinnenabtei St. Hildegard, fol. 145v. This figure appears in color in the onlineversion of the Journal.


specifically in this column. The second side is the wall of Grace, facing North,so figures from the New Testament can stand in opposition to the Devil, typi-cally located in the North in allegorical treatments. Standing in the light of theGospel are apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins (Hildegard singles out thevirgins as those following “the Supernal Branch”), and other saints. Clearly,Hildegard had the Scivias songs in mind when she wrote this part of thetreatise, for they include not only songs for the Patriarchs and Prophets, butalso songs for each category of saint specifically mentioned here.34 The thirdside of the tower faces South, and is concerned with the exposition ofScripture, and is peopled by the doctors of the church, the kind of work thatHildegard herself was doing (and for which she has recently been officiallyrecognized by the Roman Catholic Church).35

In addition to establishing the identity of the virtues, the opening section ofthe play sets up the musical tensions that will be explored throughout the workas a whole. Melodic qualities are used to make dramatic points and tomanifestthe psychological states represented by or appealed to through particular vir-tues while situating the action within the allegorical structure of Scivias III.36

The Prophets and Patriarchs are seen as the roots of a vast tree-like plant,whereas the virtues are the lofty branches, able to be seen and contemplatedbecause they grow so bright after the Incarnation and the understanding itmakes possible for the human intellect to learn new things. The play’s musicunderscores the relationship: the Patriarchs and Prophets explore only thelower part of the D-centered music, whereas the Virtues soar into the upper

34. The text is crucial for understanding not only the meanings of Hildegard’s dramaticworks, but also her Scivias songs, identified and discussed in my “Composer and Dramatist,” andin Leigh-Choate, Flynn, and Fassler, “Hearing the Heavenly Symphony.” The songs are orderedfollowing the position of saints in the Pillar of the Word of God, and resound in this section of thearchitectural scheme: Scivias III.iv.11; 43A:397; 361–62: “And in the radiance, which is so widelydiffused, you see apostles, martyrs, confessors, and virgins and many other saints, walking in great joy.For in the clear light in whichMy Son preached and spread the truth there have grown up apostleswho announce that true light, and martyrs who faithfully shed their blood like strong soldiers,and confessors who officiate after My Son, and virgins who follow the Supernal Branch, and allMy other elect, who rejoice in the fountain of happiness and the font of salvation, baptized bythe Holy Spirit and ardently going from virtue to virtue.” “Virtue to virtue” is a quotation fromVulgate Psalm 83:8, which relates directly to the building of the Heavenly Jerusalem: “For thelawgiver shall give a blessing, they shall go from virtue to virtue: the God of gods shall be seenin Sion.” There were altars dedicated to these categories of saints at the Disibodenberg, andHildegard may have established such holy places in her new church as well.

35. Hildegard was named a saint on May 10, 2012, and a Doctor of the Church onOctober 7, 2012. For an overview of the processes of canonization and bedoctoring, seeNewman, “St. Hildegard, Doctor of the Church,” and Ferzoco, “Canonization and Doctoriza-tion of Hildegard of Bingen.”

36. Jungian psychoanalyst Joerg Rasche has said in private discussion that the great therapistis able to imagine inner states of good health for and with his/her patient. Hildegard tried to dothis for her own community through the virtues: allegorical characters given form through art andmusic help those who come to know them imagine various stages of goodness within themselves.


part of the octave in D material, making a graphic contrast. For example, theinitial question of the Patriarchs and Prophets—“Who are these likeclouds?”—is in the lower part of the range, whereas the Virtues’ lofty responsereaches upwards (see Ex. 1a). Hildegard’s use of graphic literalism in hermusic provides numerous clues both for performance and for staging of thework. Hildegard is quick to establish the other musical polarity operating inthe play, and that is the lamenting music composed in E. The lost souls thatappear at the opening of the play provide a simple and memorable example;soon afterwards, when the virtues sense that Anima is slipping, they sing toher in E (Ex. 1b).

The Patriarchs and Prophets address all the virtues, but Knowledge of Godis the first individual virtue to appear in the play, and is a dominant character inScivias III.iv as well. In Scivias this virtue has many attributes, but Hildegardgives her one that will be taken up especially in the play Ordo Virtutum:

Knowledge of God knows those who leave the wickedness of infidelity and, bythe power of God’s work, put on the new self in baptism for the sake of eternallife. And she warns them not to turn backward and go toward the Devil, or, ifthey do thus stray, that they should return to God their Creator, as she says toeach of them in the words of her admonition quoted above. (Scivias III.iv.22;43A:407; 368)

The admonition mentioned in the treatise for this virtue contains precisely thewords that Knowledge of God sings in the Ordo Virtutum to the waveringAnima: “Consider the garment you have put on, and do not forget your CreatorWho made you” (Scivias III.iv.preface; 43A:392; 358). Knowledge of God iscentral both to the play and the treatise, and is the only virtue in the illumina-ted Scivias to have her own painting. Knowledge of God explains the truth ofScripture, mediating between angels, who knowGod all at once, and humans,who are serial learners (Fig. 4), and so she is preacher-like in her stance, andappropriately located near the Pillar of theWord of God, ready to expound thesense of Scripture.

Here, at the opening of the play, melodic material in D associated with thevirtues also helps to define the character of Anima, the soul, who will begin herlong journey, after she falls, toward the recovery of her original melodicmaterial. 37 In her opening joyful speech, Anima answers the virtues in kind,with the same D melody heard in their opening chant (compare Ex. 2a toEx. 1a). But a bit later, when the Soul’s “garment” grows heavy, and she wantsto cast it off, she can no longer make the opening interval of a fifth that char-acterizes this particular melody (see Ex. 2b).38 Anima is weighed down, and

37. Scivias I.vi.4; 43:103–4; 141: “For people have within themselves struggles of confes-sion and of denial. How? Because the one confesses Me and that one denies Me. And in thisstruggle the question is: ‘Is there God or not?’ ”

38. I make this point also in Leigh-Choate, Flynn, and Fassler, “Hearing the HeavenlySymphony,” 187.


cannot join fully in the virtues’ characteristic D melody. The music makes itclear both that she cannot respond in kind, and that to respond—to sing backthe virtues’ encouraging and self-defining Dmaterial—is a musical allegory for

Example 1a The patriarchs and prophets sing to the virtues, who respond; Wiesbaden 2, fol.278v. A sound recording of this example appears in the online version of the Journal.

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œQui sunt

Patriarche et prophete

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œhi, qui ut nu bes?-

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œO an ti qui san cti,

Virtutes

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œquid ad mi ra mi ni in no- - - - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œbis?

Patriarchs and Prophets: Who are these like clouds?Virtues: O ancient holy ones, why do you wonder at us?

Example 1b The virtues sing a warning to the Soul; Wiesbaden 2, fol. 479r. A sound record-ing of this example appears in the online version of the Journal.

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œO a ni ma, uo lun ta te de i con sti

Virtutes ad animam illam

- - - - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œtu ta, et o fe lix in stru men tum, qua re tam- - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œe bi lis es con tra hoc, quod de us con tri- - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ m œ œ œ œ œ œ œuit in uir gi ne a na tu ra? tu de bes in no- - - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œbis su pe ra re di a bo lum.- - - - --

O soul, established by the will of God, and O blessed agent, why will you weep when confronted with the evil God conquered through the virginal nature? You must conquer the Devil among us.


the hope that drives the drama. It is not until late in the play that Anima willexhibit a musical as well as a dramatic recovery. To encourage in D is one ofthe virtues’ functions, and the loss of the fifth in Anima’s D material providesa fine example of the ways Hildegard works in her settings of the text and

Figure 4 The Virtue Knowledge of God, an illumination accompanying Scivias III.iv, as foundin the original 12th-century manuscript; Wiesbaden 1, fol. 146r. Knowledge of God stands at thefoot of the pillar of the Word of God.


the musical expectations she builds for the hope of Anima’s journey backto God.

Hildegard signals the end of every “act,” each of which is situated ina particular part of the Edifice, by a musical interlude. As suggested inTable 2, in each case the interludes feature an especially long chant, and onethat is foreshadowed by the action and the musical phrases that lead up to it,as a more inclusive statement, while also looking ahead, both textually andmu-sically to what is to come. If there were processions from one area of the church(or setting) to another for each act, these pieces would provide the necessarytraveling music. If, on the other hand, the play was enacted in choir, the inter-ludes would offer a time to ready the mind for encounters with new modes ofaction and groups of characters. Whatever the case of the physical setting, theinterludes serve to move musically and psychologically from one set of virtuesto another, and are a crucial aspect of the play’s allegorical setting.

The first of these processional pieces is the virtues’ song “Oplangens uox”(O wailing voice), separating Act I from Act II. “O plangens uox” forms acatalogue of E melodies that will continue to appear throughout the play,casting them in the form of a lament responding to the first example of the

Example 2a The joyful Soul; Wiesbaden 2, fol. 478v. A sound recording of this exampleappears in the online version of the Journal.

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ mO dul cis di ui ni tas, et o sua uis ui ta,

Felix anima œ- - - - - -

O sweet Divinity; O lovely life

Example 2b The weighed down Soul; Wiesbaden 2, fol. 479r. A sound recording of thisexample appears in the online version of the Journal.

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œO gra uis la bor et o du rum pon dus, quod ha be o

Sed grauata anima conqueritur

- - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œin ue ste hu ius ui te, qui a ni mis gra ue- - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mmi hi est con tra

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œcar nem pug na re.- - - - -

But the weighed down Soul complains: O oppressive work and O cruel weight that I bear in the garment of this life, since it is excessively hard for me to ght against the esh.


Devil’s “noise,” strepitus, the word Hildegard uses to describe his speech.The text mentions Innocence, a virtue who will soon be encountered in theplay. It is she who “lost no perfection . . . who did not devour greedily, withthe gullet of the serpent” (from “O plangens uox”), making the point thatthese virtues are in the company of unfallen angels, and their counterparts arethe rank of angels that are called “Virtues,” the living angelic embodimentsof the divine ideas represented by the virtues. Here the melody immediatelyunderscores text and dramatic situation: the opening of the piece movesupward from D in a line that includes the pitch F twice, up to B n, and thenback to F on “uox,” the phrase offering a tritonic cry of anguish (see Ex. 3).It is crucial for the dramatic sense that an editorial Bb not be supplied here,and that the singers take time with the phrase to create the full dramatic effectof wailing. The text of “O plangens uox” describes a soul filled with love forGod, but with the seeds of lust hidden within, in the ways that the opening isinfected by the tritone. The particular set of virtues operating in the play are,to a degree, concerned with the vice of lust, one that may have had specialprominence in the monastic life. Lust lies in wait, eager to become a strain ofthe mysterious love that a soul may feel for God.

“O plangens uox” exemplifies Hildegard’s use of melodic materials toreflect textual meanings and to provide continuity within a speech, either bya group of virtues or by an individual. The wailing introductory tritone is fol-lowed by cries of woe in E, on the words “ach, ach,” “heu, heu,” and “luge,luge.” As can be seen from the outline of the piece provided below, which in-dicates some groups of interrelated melodic material by letters, there are sev-eral such complexes, but much of themusic is generated out of what is labeledas “B” in the example. The various ways Hildegard unites a piece through thereuse of the same musical riffs is characteristic, and these repetitions makeher chant wonderfully singable and musically engaging. As the text of anygiven speech or section unfolds, the music offers points of restatement, andthe two modes of development–textual and musical—are in counterpoint, ascan be seen in “O plangens uox.”

O plangens uoxO plangens uox est hec maximi doloris ACH ACH[O wailing sound of great sorrow is this]A: quedam mirabilis uictoria [a certain amazing victory already arose]B: in mirabili desiderio dei c. surrexit[in its wondrous desire for God]B': in qua delectatio carnis se[in which delight of the flesh secretly hid itself]labenter abscondit HEU HEU (same music as Ach, ach)B: ubi uoluntas crimina nesciuit [where formerly the will knew no crime]B": et ubi desiderium hominis lasciuias fugit c. LUGE LUGE ERGO[and where desire fled human wantonness] [Therefore mourn, mourn]B Variation: in his innocentia que in pudore bono[for this, Innocence, who in your good modesty]


Example 3 The lament “O plangens uox”; Wiesbaden 2, fol. 479r. A sound recording of thisexample appears in the online version of the Journal.

& œ mO

Virtutesœ œ œ œ œ mplan gens

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ muox est haec ma xi

œ œ œ œ œ œmi- - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mdo lo ris. Ach

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œach que dam mi

A

- - --

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mra bi lis ui cto

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œri a in mi ra bi li de si de ri o

B

- - - - - - - - - - - -

& œ mde

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œi sur rex it, in qua de le cta ti o

c B'

- - - - - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mcar nis se la ten ter abs con

œ œ œ œdit.- - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œHe u he u u bi uo lun tas cri mi na

B

- - - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mne sci uit, et u

B'' œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œbi de si de ri um ho mi nis- - - - - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œla sci ui am fu git. Lu ge, lu ge er go in his, in no cen

c B variation

- - - - - - - - - -

& œ œ mti

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ma, que in pu do re bo

œ œ œ œ œ œ œno in te gri

A'

- - - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mta tem non a mi

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œsi sti, et que a ua ri- - - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ mci am gut tu

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mris an ti

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mqui ser pen

œ œ œtis- - - - - - -


A': integritatem non amisisti [lost not your virginity]et que auaritiam gutturis antiqui serpentis [and did not devour withthe greed of the gullet of the old serpent.]A": ibi non deuorasti

Act II: The Pillar of the Humanity of the Savior and the FloweringBranch of the Virgin

The processional music “O Plangens Uox” moves the action of the play to adifferent structure in the Edifice of Salvation, to the Pillar Savior’s Humanity(located to the Southwest of the edifice depicted in Fig. 2, and seen there withtwo people climbing upwards). The first major group of virtues found in theOV appears in the same order as found in Scivias III.viii, where they work aspart of the Pillar of the Savior’s Humanity.39 As can be seen in Figure 5, thedetailed illumination of the pillar features a ladder on which the virtues moveup and down; in the description, they are carrying stones that relate to the de-velopment of goodness within human souls. There are seven virtues especiallyassociated with this tower and these are the first group in the sung play as well,their particular cluster forming Act II (there is an eighth, Grace, in Scivias, butHildegard does not include it in the play; she wants seven, with Humility).This first group of virtues summoned by Humility includes Charity, Fear ofthe Lord, Obedience, Faith, Hope, and Chastity (expanded with Innocencein the OV and included in the Interlude following Act II). Hildegard’s ladderfor virtues (unlike the figure found in the Speculum Virginum) features fe-cund figures, seated in the position of the Virgin Mary as in Seat of Wisdom(Sedes Sapientiae) iconography, producing knowledge of Christ within thetabernacles of their wombs (see Figs. 5a and 5b).40 The play arrives in this part

Example 3 continued

& œ œ œ œ œ œ mi bi

A''

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mnon de

œ œ œ œ- -

& œ œ œ œ muo ra

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œsti.- - - - -

39. This pillar or column has many aspects, some of which relate to Scivias I.iv, the forma-tion of human souls and their paths to salvation, travelling from good work to good work, as ledby the virtues. Of importance to the OV is the discussion in I.iv.8, which includes the lament ofa soul, and in I.iv.9 of Scientia Dei, who sees all things and who looks upon the clear statementmade by the Incarnation.

40. An introduction to the image and its meanings in the twelfth century is found inForsyth, Throne of Wisdom.


of the walled city because of the special nature of the virtues found here:they can teach the faithful soul to call Christ beloved (Scivias III.viii.16), andwhen they do, there is music within (see Scivias III.viii.16 discussed below).

Hildegard explains the importance of this group of seven in Scivias III.viii. They are linked to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, featured in Isaiah11, a passage that describes the messianic lineage sprouting from Jesse, the

Figure 5a The Pillar of the Humanity of the Savior, an illumination accompanying Scivias III.viii, as found in the original 12th-century manuscript; Wiesbaden 1, fol. 178r


Figure 5b The Pillar of the Humanity of the Savior, an illumination accompanying Scivias III.viii, as found a 20th-century copy of the source represented in Figure 5a; Rüdesheimer Codex,Benediktinerinnenabtei St. Hildegard, fol. 178r. This figure appears in color in the online versionof the Journal.


father of David, King and Psalmist.41 This shoot from Jesse’s root blossomsthrough allusion to Numbers 17, which depicts the flowering rod of Aaronthe priest. Speaking in the terms of Christian allegory, the shoot is the VirginMary, and the flower is her son, and the plant blooms through incarnationalpower. This theme was expressed in many media in Hildegard’s lifetime, andits iconography is often based on the office responsory “Stirps Jesse” (attrib-uted to Fulbert of Chartres), a chant that Hildegard would have known.42

Hildegard is surely thinking of this chant when she draws out the meaningsof the flowering stalk: “from the root of that branch arose the sweet fra-grance of the Virgin’s intact fecundity; and when it had so arisen, the HolySpirit inundated it so that the tender flower was born from her . . .” (SciviasIII.viii.15; 43A:497; 437). The iconography of Hildegard’s newly builtchurch may well have included some representation of this highly favoredimage, for it is foundational to Scivias, as well as to the play and the songs.

The idea that this shoot and its pure flower can triumph over evil is crucialfor Hildegard’s theological viewpoint, for her notated play and its use of mu-sical symbolism, and for her work as a leader of a group of consecrated vir-gins. The flower “was born in the sweetness of divinity, untouched byunworthy sin, without the knowledge and utterly without the influence of thedevious serpent” (Scivias III.viii.15; 43A:497; 437). Hildegard’s interpreta-tion places great emphasis on virginity as the means by which sin and deathwere ended; her incarnational theological themes give the miraculouslyfecund Virgin Mary a substantive role as mediatrix in the story of salvation.

Here, in the Pillar of the Savior’s Humanity, Hildegard described theappeal of the virgin-like longing of the faithful Christian soul: “And why isHe beloved? Because he treads underfoot whatever obstructs the faithfulsoul, which is hastening to the heavenly places” (Scivias III.viii.16; 43A:502; 440). The ideal state of the human soul is that of the Virgin Mary, asoul in a pristine condition, longing for God. In accordance with the setting

41. Isaiah 11: [1] And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flowershall rise up out of his root. [2] And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wis-dom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, andof godliness. [3] And he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. He shall not judgeaccording to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears. [4] But heshall judge the poor with justice, and shall reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and heshall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slaythe wicked. [5] And justice shall be the girdle of his loins: and faith the girdle of his reins.

42. The chant is found for the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (Sept. 8), in EngelbergStiftsbibliothek Cod. 103, fol. 145r. Tova Leigh-Choate argues (see Leigh-Choate, Flynn, andFassler, “Hildegard as Musical Hagiographer,” at 195–99) that this early thirteenth-centurymanuscript was made for an abbey in Sponheim, the town where Hildegard’s teacher Jutta wasraised and where Hildegard lived as a very young child. See also Felten, “What Do We Knowabout the Life of Jutta and Hildegard at Disibodenberg and Rupertsberg?” On the history ofthe responsory and exegetical themes associated with it, see my “Mary’s Nativity, Fulbert ofChartres, and the Stirps Jesse.”


offered for the two groups of virtues in Scivias, we know that they are inmotion, up and down allegorical ladders—with reference to the shoot ofJesse, as described above, the ladder of Jacob (Genesis 28:11–19), and theTwelve Degrees of Humility (found in the Rule of St. Benedict, chap. 7).They move within mystical pillars/columns, doing their triple work of encour-aging, lamenting, and presenting. In Wiesbaden 1, the virtues are depictedin the detailed images, as here in Figure 5, whereas human figures are shownon this same pillar in the edifice of salvation, lower right (Fig. 2).

This aspect of the setting gives Hildegard a rationale for climbing higher inher music incrementally, as she does in both Act II and Act III, and thendescending after the climb. Each of these parts of the play is set in an impliedtower or column with either a ladder or with divisions into seven stages. Theindividual virtues, located on the ladder of the Pillar of the Savior’s Humanity,for example, interact with Humility, who is their queen, and who calls them toaction. The music binds the collective virtues to her in the first set of speeches,as both reply to the challenging words of the Devil. Humility says she recog-nized the Devil as the ancient dragon who wished to rise up to the highestplace, but ended in the abyss. The music used for the phrase “qui super sum-mum uolare uoluisti” (Ex. 4a) is repeated by the virtues, who taunt the Devilthrough their response by singing that they are all in the highest place, to thesame notes Humility used to describe the place Satan aspired to earlier in hiscareer (see Ex. 4b). It is clear that the virtues have been summoned forth fromtheir place within the mind of God, expressing the joys of heaven to challengedsouls, and lifting them upwards through inspiring songs and words (descend-ing through the humanity of the Savior; ascending through His divinity). TheDevil has lost the place to which the virtues would see humans return, regain-ing the original place of Lucifer, mightiest of angels, once the sign of the dawn,and of his minions.43 The virtues move up the ladder depicted in the treatise onthis pillar, and Humility initially stands at the bottom, on the lowest step.

The connection of the virtues of Act II to the flowering branch ofVirginity that grows upward from Jesse’s root can be seen throughout in thetexts Hildegard has written, filled with allusions to the flower and thebranch. Depicted in terms of the Song of Songs, the virtues encounteredhere are held fast in the bedchamber of the Bridegroom, and they both en-joy and model their place for souls in transition. These texts and the musicmake it clear that this particular group moves slowly upward. Humility laysthe foundation on which all other good actions can be built; Love (Caritas)

43. Russell, Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages; and Oldrige, Devil: A Very Short Introduc-tion are useful overviews. For ideas about Satan as they play out in one of Hildegard’scontemporaries, see Torrell and Bouthillier,Pierre le Vénérable. TheDevil’s lasciviousness—centralto Hildegard’s understanding and her works on him—is a theme in many media in the MiddleAges; see for example, Makhov, “The Devil’s Naked Tongue as an Iconographic Motif.” TheDevil’s male sexuality with allusions to the phallus makes it difficult to assume that either gendermight take the Devil’s role in the Ordo Virtutum, though in my view flexibility is desired.


teaches the commandment of Luke 10:27: to love God and neighbor; Fearteaches people not to trust the ways of the flesh; Obedience keeps to theway; Faith trusts; Hope looks to the world to come; and Chastity longs forher Sweet Lover, taking the journey of the Soul to its highest point in Act II.

At first the calls and responses between solos of individual virtues and theresponses of the whole in Act II persist in the D and E realms that character-ize Act I. But midway through, after a speech of the Devil, the tonal areastoo climb upward. One of the responses cadences on G, another on B, andthen the long response of the virtues to Chastity cadences on A (“Floscampi”), but with a great emphasis on the pitch C (see Table 2 above). “FlosCampi,” like “O plangens uox” discussed above, serves to mark a transitionalpoint, at the end of this act and the action of a particular group of virtues cho-sen from Scivias, and serves as an interlude thus dividing Act II from Act III.The chant represents the climb upwards of this particular ladder, but alsoforeshadows the musical climb of the next group of virtues, which will rise toeven greater heights on their journey, with emphasis on the pitch C as a finaltonal area (see Ex. 5). It too, like “O plangens vox,” is a long chant, differentin style from what comes before and after it.

Example 4a Humility and the virtues taunt the Devil; Wiesbaden 2, fol. 479r. A soundrecording of this example appears in the online version of the Journal.

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œE go cum me is so da li bus be ne sci o, quod tu es il le

Humilitas

- - - - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œan ti quus dra co, qui sup er sum mum uo la re uo lu- - - - - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ m œ œi sti, sed i pse De us in a bys sum pro ie cit te.- - - - - - -

Humility: I with my companions know very well that you are the ancient dragon, who wished to y over Highest one, but God himself threw you into the abyss.

Example 4b Humility and the virtues taunt the Devil; Wiesbaden 2, fol. 480r. A soundrecording of this example appears in the online version of the Journal.

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œNos au tem om nes in ex cel sis ha bi ta mus.

Virtutes

- - - - - --

Virtues: But all of us dwell on high.


Act III: The Tower of the Anticipation of God’s Will, Scivias III.iii

Act III of the Ordo Virtutum also has a setting identified by the virtuesHildegard chose as characters in this part of the play: they are located in SciviasIII.iii, the Tower of the Anticipation of God’s Will: Heavenly Love, Discipline,Modesty, Mercy, Victory, Discernment (Discretio) (borrowed from Scivias III.vi), and Patience.Once again,Hildegardwanted a cluster of seven virtues in thisgroup, and she chose all but one of them from the Tower of the Anticipationof God’s Will, and several of these are found in theRule of St. Benedict as well,continuing this emphasis in the play.44 In this tower, located on the Northeastside of the edifice, the virtues are found in arcades that are part of the tower, orlocated at the foot of the structure. To choose seven virtues once again pro-vides continuity with the seven virtues selected for Act II, for she says that thistower is “seven cubits high,” for there were “Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit.”Through this group, too, Hildegard references Isaiah 11 and the floweringbranch that sprouts from the root of Jesse, by mentioning the seven gifts ofthe Holy Spirit. The ways in which the links between these virtues (both textu-ally and musically) make a path for the journey of the soul could be explored ingreat detail; here discussion is of only two features of this second upward climb.

Contempt of the World (Contemptus mundi) is the virtue featured in theInterlude before Act III (Scene 5, see Table 2), and calls the virtues to theFountain of Life (Fons uitae). Here, as in so many other ways, Hildegardputs Act II and Act III in parallel, expanding and intensifying tonal motionfound in Act II again in Act III, and creating the sense of two distinct alle-gorical climbing structures. In this case, the call to the virtues by Contemptparallels that given by Humility in Scene 4. Although the word “fons”appears several times in Scivias, Hildegard uses the phrase “Fountain of Life”very rarely in the treatise,most notably in Book III.viii, 13, just before the pas-sage in which she references Isaiah 11, her description of the virtues in thatchapter as part of the flowering branch. In this description, the Fountain of

Example 5 Phrases in C that represent the climb upwards to the tonal area of C in Act 2;Wiesbaden 2, fol. 480r.

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ m œ œ œ œFlos cam pi

Virtutes, two phrases from “Flos campi”

- - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ m œ œ œ œ œ œ œb œO uir gi ni tas,- - - - - - --

44. For discretio, see The Rule of St. Benedict 64, where it is called the mother of all virtues,and relates especially to the conduct of the abbot/abbess.


Life is the Savior who runs in torrents, open to all who care to drink. But thereis more to know, and she provides this understanding in Scivias II.ii.4, wherethe emphasis is on penance as the crucial state necessary to drink from theFountain of Life: “That through this Fountain of Life came the embrace ofGod’s maternal love, which has nourished us unto life and is our help in perils,and is the deepest and sweetest charity and prepares us for penance” (SciviasII.ii.4; 43:127; 162). Penitence is the cure for the proud persuasions of Satan,for he does not understand it and cannot practice it; penitence “will never failin efficacy” (ibid.). Hildegard links this group of virtues as well with the waterimagery of the Fountain toward which this group of virtues is called.

The virtues selected from Scivias III.iii, and placed in Act III, are preparingsouls for the penitence that will secure the victory of Act IV. They model ajourney to the Fountain to which Contempt of the World called them, andthis is reflected in powerful tonal motion to C, motion that was foreshadowedby parallel development in Act II. As with Act II, here also Hildegard beginswith her two well-establishedmusical polarities and their by-now-familiar me-lodic complexes, one in D and one in E. Heavenly Love leads off in D andis responded to by the virtues with their characteristic melodic phrases. Disci-pline then sings its solo in E, with the commonmelodies, and in the low rangethat is typical of this tonal area.45 She sings a text thatHildegard underscores ina dramatic response from the virtues, claiming to be the lover of simple prac-tices, always looking toward the King of Kings. The virtues respond in C, withmelodic phrases that are mindful in style of the C area sections of “Floscampi” but that point ahead to the long section in C to follow, which, in thisparticular Act, features the first solo of Victory who continues with the martiallanguage that has been introduced by other virtues in this act as well. Victory’sfirst solo makes melodic allusions to the famousMarian antiphon “Ave ReginaCaelorum”—a piece to be featured in her singing in Act IV of the play—as canbe seen in the turn of phrase on “conculco” (I trample upon) (see Ex. 6, whichforeshadows phrases in C that will come later in the play, and compare withEx. 10). A reference to this familiar melody would have been understood byall in Hildegard’s community.

In order to keep her desired number of seven virtues and the allusion tothe flowering branch established in Act II, Hildegard turns to Discernment

45. There is one unnamed virtue in the Ordo Virtutum, due to a scribal omission.Böckeler, “Beziehungen des Ordo Virtutum der hl. Hildegard zu ihrem Hauptwerk Sci-vias,” 139–40 and 144, and her Der Heiligen Hildegard von Bingen, 63–65 and 70, madethe argument for Discipline, accepted by most scholars, and certainly in keeping with thevirtues as Hildegard takes them, as a group, from Scivias III.iii for this act of the play. Dabke,“Hidden Scheme,” disagrees with this interpretation, and makes a case for Heavenly Desire;this decision is crucial for her argument as a whole (see 25–30). A synopsis of her ideasabout the play can be found in Leigh-Choate, Flynn, and Fassler, “Hearing the HeavenlySymphony.”Whereas I find Dabke’s arguments useful in many of their aspects, I think the or-ganization of the play and of its virtues are based on the groupings presented in Scivias, andthat Discipline is the missing name.


(Discretio), borrowed from Scivias III.vi, who is depicted there carrying apalm in her hands from which three twigs have sprouted forth and flower.This major Benedictine virtue develops Hildegard’s chosen theme, as doesher parallel virtue in Act II, Contempt of the World, because her attributesbelong to the flowering branch, the controlling image for all the virtues fea-tured in Acts II–IV of the Ordo Virtutum and because of the importance ofBenedictine virtues (as discussed above). But her inclusion as the penultimatevirtue in the group allows Hildegard a chance to delight in yet another showof the graphic literalism that is explored in several instances throughout theplay, in this case the placing of Patience (Patientia) last in the group: she hasbeen patient! Her music too shows waiting and patience for she sings on B,the note that waits in anticipation of Victory’s final song in C that will be theclimax of the work as a whole in Act IV (see Table 2).

Humility then returns, singing in the D tonal area with characteristicmelodic phrases, and calls again to the virtues to remember the originalpre-lapsarian creation to which they inspire humans to return. They lamentcollectively in E, and at this point Anima arrives, but the soul has a newname: “penitens,” meaning that she has achieved that quality—penitence—encouraged by the virtues, and necessary for redemption. Anima sings in E,but adds a new dimension to this tonal area, reaching up to lament for thelofty beauty of the virtues on high, a beauty it once forsook (see Ex. 7), a strat-egy that will be underscored in the music of “Ouiuens fons,” discussed below(see Ex. 9 below).With encouragement from the virtues, the Soul thenmovesfrom E to D, a sign of restoration to health. The words of the fully penitentSoul, sung in the lower part of the D range, form a confession (Ex. 8), andHumility then asks the virtues to bring the soul to her so she can minister toher, applying medicine to the wounds of sin:

Soul: I am the sinner who fled from life: riddled with sores I’ll come to you—you can offer me redemption’s shield. All of you, warriors of Queen Humility,her white lilies and her crimson roses, stoop to me, who exiled myself from youlike a stranger, and help me that in the blood of the Son of God I may arise. . . .Humility: All you virtues, lift up this mournful sinner with all its scars, for thesake of Christ’s wounds and bring it back to me.

Example 6 Phrases that foreshadow Victory’s final song in Act 4; Wiesbaden 2, fol. 480r.A sound recording of this example appears in the online version of the Journal.

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mser pen tem an

from Victoria’s speech “Ego Victoria”œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mti quum con

œ œ m œ œ œ œ œ- - - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œcul co.- - -

... I crush the ancient serpent.


Example 7 The Lament of the Soul, penitent and invoking the virtues; Wiesbaden 2,fol. 480v. A sound recording of this example appears in the online version of the Journal.

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mO uos re ga les uir

Querela anime penitentis et uirtutes inuocantis œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œtu tes, quam- - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œspe ci o se et quam ful gen tes e stis in- - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œsum mo so le, et quam dul cis est- - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mue stra man si

œ œ œ œ mo, et id

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œe o o ue- - - - -

& œ œ œ œ mmi hi,

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œqui a a uo bis fu gi.- - - -

The lament of the Soul, penitent and invoking the virtues: O you regal virtues, how beautiful and how brilliantly gleaming you are in the highest sun, and how sweet is your dwelling place, and so woe is me who ed from you

Example 8 The sinsick Soul asks for medicine; Wiesbaden 2, fol. 481r. A sound recording ofthis example appears in the online version of the Journal.

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œEt o ue ra me di ci na, hu mi li tas, pre be

Anima illa

- - - - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ mmi chi au

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mxi li um,

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œqui a su per bi a in- - - - - - --

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œmul tis ui ci is fre git me, mul tas- - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œci ca tri ces mi hi im po nens, nunc fu gi o ad- - - - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œte, et id e o sus ci pe me.- - - -

And O true medicine, Humility, offer me aid since pride crushed me with many vices, giving me many scars, but now I ee to you, take me up.


The Final Interlude and Act IV: A Play without an End

The musical interlude “O uiuens fons” forms a fitting point of transitionfrom Act III to Act IV of the Ordo Virtutum, as is typical of the long chantsfound in each entr’acte (see Table 2). It has been demonstrated thatHildegard has used two tonal areas throughout the play, D and E, and thateach has characteristic melodic phrases, representative of the virtues’ work toencourage from on high, and to lament.46 Just before they sing “O uiuensfons,” the virtues sing in response to the penitent soul, in company withHumility: “We wish to lead you back and do not want to leave you, and thearmies of all of heaven will rejoice over you: therefore it is fitting that we singout in a symphony” (OV, 265-67). That symphony is “O uiuens fons.” Thepiece represents the joining of two things—of text and music, of body andsoul, and of humanity and divinity.47 Here the symphony is made fromHildegard’s two well-established musical dimensions, the melodic materialsof E and of D. This symphony begins in E but then is transformed to D,sounding out the familiar leaps up the fifth to the octave, with the characteristicdecorations of the key pitches, and then closes rather abruptly on E (see Ex. 9),fitting in that the virtues next encounter Satan, who speaks directly after thechant ends. The effect is the joining of two carefully established musical realmsinto one: the virtues are preparing for something new for themselves and forAnima, the taste of Victory. This music, sung in the face of Satan, representsthe one way that Satan was conquered, by the joining of two things neverexpected: divinity and humanity, brought about through the VirginMary. Theescaping prey, Anima, also has learned to conquer through the humility ofpenance, an action theMaster of Pride cannot comprehend. In the plan below,letters represent melodic material that is restated and played upon in the courseof the piece.

“O uiuens fons”O uiuens fons, quam magna est suauitas tua (lower part of e-range) (w)[O living fountain, how great is your sweetness]qui faciem istorum in te non amisisti (w expanded upwards, butcadencing on D)[you who did not reject the gaze of these upon you]sed acute preuidisti (compacted y)

46. It is to be noted that “O uiuens fons” is mistranscribed in the edition of Hildegard’smusic that is often followed by scholars and performers: Lieder, ed. Barth, Ritscher, andSchmidt-Görg; and as re-edited by Stühlmeyer.

47. “The Holy Spirit makes music in the tabernacle of Virginity; for she always thinks ofhow to embrace Christ in full devotion. She burns for love of Him and forgets the human frail-ties, which burn with carnal desire; she is joined to the One Husband Whom sin never touched,without any lust of the flesh, but flowering perpetually with Him in the joy of regal marriage”;Scivias III.viii.16; 43A:503; 440–41.


[but acutely foresaw]quo modo eos de angelico casu (x+z)[how you could avert them from the fall the angels fell]abstraheres qui se aestimabant (y)[who thought they possessed a power]illud habere (low range)quod non licet sic stare (y)[which no law allows to be thus]

Unde gaude (z)Filia Sion (x)So rejoice Daughter Sion

quia Deus tibi multos reddit quos serpens de te abscidere uoluit (x+y')qui nunc in maiori luce fulgent, quam prius illorum causa fuisset (x+y')For God is giving you back many whom the Serpent wanted to cut from youWho now gleam in a greater brightness than would have been possible before.

Act IV contains the musical and dramatic resolutions of the work, spun outin several ways, and closing on a note of lament, lacking resolution. The firstof these is manifested in the words and music of Anima. The Soul was able tosing in D once more at the end of Act III, acknowledging the wounds thatPride had made, and accepting Humility’s medicine. But it sings only in thelower part of the range. At the opening of Act IV, the Devil speaks to theSoul, wondering how she, once locked in a Hellish embrace, has been lost.The Soul then fights back, claiming that now it can recognize Satan’s workingmethods. Still fearful, the “penitent soul” (as labeled in the manuscript) callson Humility, requesting her medicine, and in its call for need is able for thefirst time since it became “heavy” to make the octave that characterizes thefull complex of D melodies, which have just been heard in “O uivens fons.”Inner victory has been achieved through desiringHumility’s salvific ointment.

Much of what Hildegard has done with the music of the play has antici-pated the moment when Anima becomes penitent and then can be free fromSatan’s harm. Victory sings over the bound body of the Devil (if staged,ideally with her heel grinding into his head).48 This is an allegory for the soulthat has bypassed its love of the wrong things, especially in the case of lust,and become capable of having Christ within through an act of penance,which requires the full participation of Humility. The Virgin Mary is theproper model for the Christian soul in this and other contemporary theolog-ical works, including Hugh of St. Victor’s De Sacramentis Christianae Fidei,a treatise that Hildegard seems to have known, at least indirectly. Victory’s

48. Genesis 3:15 (God to the serpent): “I will put enmities between thee and the woman,and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.”


Example 9 “O uiuens fons”; Wiesbaden 2, fol. 481r. A sound recording of this exampleappears in the online version of the Journal.

& œ œ œ œ mO ui

Virtutesw

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œuens fons, quam ma gna est su a ui tas- - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mtu a, qui fa ci em i sto rum in

w expanded upwards œ œ œ œte non- - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œa mi si sti, sed a cu te pre ui

compacted y

- - - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œdi sti, quo mo do e os de an ge li co

x+z

- - - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œca su ab stra he res, qui se e sti

y

- - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mma bant il lud

low range

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œha be re- - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ œ mquod non li cet sic

y

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œsta re.- -

& œ mUn

z œ œ œ œ mde gau

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œde, li a Si on,

x

- - - - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mqui a de us ti bi mul tos red dit,

x+y' œ œ œ- - - - -

& œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œquos ser pens de te ab sci de re uo- - - - -

& œ œ œ œlu it,

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œqui nunc in ma io ri lu ce ful gent,

x+y'

- - - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œquam pri us il lo rum cau sa fu is set.- - - - - -


final song is in C, and is a direct restatement of a passage from the famousMarian antiphon, “Ave Regina Caelorum,” long anticipated by C materialin the play. Victory sings a quotation taken from the part of the chant thatbids the Virgin to rejoice (see Ex. 10a and 10b, material from “Aue reginacelorum,” Victory’s triumphant speech, and the opening of “O nobilissimauiriditas”), so forming both a musical and textual link to the antiphon.49

Hildegard wished the audience to hear the carefully planned foreshadow-ing she built into earlier C material, creating in those who knew the piecewell an expectant longing for the famous “Ave Regina Caelorum.” The pen-itent soul achieves final Victory when it can join fully with the Virgin Mary asits model, encouraged by the Virtues. TheMarian melody quoted in the playis directly tied to one of the Scivias songs as well, “O nobilissima uiriditas,”the responsory written for Virgin saints, and so is a further celebration ofthe power of the Supernal Branch that includes the virtues who represent thespecial gifts of virginity, especially as embodied within Mary. Hildegard hasdesigned the text of this responsory interactively with the text she wrote forthis part of the play, using music to link the works in yet other ways, thus cre-ating a powerful link between the play and the songs:

O most noble greenness, which grows from the splendid Sun. Your brightserenity shines in the Wheel of Godhead. Your greatness surpasses all earthlyknowledge, and heaven’s amazement surrounds you in an embrace, as youglow like the dawn and burn like the glory of the Sun.50

The connections with the particular set of virtues developed in theOrdo Vitutum are consistent, in text, in music, and in direct connection tothe Scivias songs. They belong to the virginal Supernal Branch referred to inScivias III, iv, arrayed among the saints on the wall of Grace, positioned toconfront the Devil (who lords over the northern part of Hildegard’s cosmos)face to face.

The Ordo Virtutum has a very different ending, both from the EV (seeTable 3 and discussion below) and from the close of Scivias. It includes a fi-nal confrontation between Chastity (in D) and the Devil, who tells her thatshe is not real because her womb has not produced children. Chastity retortsthat her womb did produce, and that the child is the Devil’s undoing. Andthe virtues respond in D, with the triumphant song “O Deus, quis es tu” inwhich the virtues ask that they may “guide your children with a favorable

49. The source of Victory’s song was first identified in my “Composer and Dramatist,”without exploration of the full implications of this borrowing. Relationships between e-melodiesin Hildegard’s songs and the OV are explored in Stenzl, “Wie hat ‘Hildegard vom Disiboden-berg und Rupertsberg’ komponiert?” Hildegard’s reference to “Ave regina caelorum” also al-lows for emphasis on the stirps Jesse theme that is fundamental to the play, for Mary is hailedas “radix,” root, in the chant.

50. The text of this song is found both in Latin and in English in Hildegard of Bingen,Symphonia, ed. and trans. Newman, 2nd ed., 218–19 (translation modified by Fassler).


Example 10b Victory’s song and its model, showing “Aue regina celorum” (open noteheads =borrowed music), and below that, the opening phrase of the responsory “O nobilissima,”(Wiesbaden 2, fol. 471r) modeled on the antiphon “Aue regina celorum” A sound recordingof the responsory appears in the online version of the Journal.

&

&

&

œ œb œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œA ue re gi na ce

˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ m ˙ ˙ m ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙O

˙ œ œ ˙ ˙ œ ˙ m ˙ œ œ ˙ m ˙ ˙ œ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙no bi lis si

b

“Aue regina celorum”

Responsary “O nobilissima”

- - - - - -

- - - - - - - - -

&

&

&

œ œ œ œlo rum

œ œ œ œ œ m œ ˙ ˙ ˙

œ m œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ m œ œ ˙ ˙ ˙ma ui ri di tas

- - - - - - -

- - - - - - -

Example 10a Victory’s song and its model, showing “Gaude virgo,” from the antiphon“Aue regina celorum,” and, below that, Victory’s song, based on “Aue regina celorum” (opennoteheads = borrowed music). A sound recording of Victory’s song appears in the online versionof the Journal.

&

&

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œb œGau de uir go glo ri o sa su per

˙ ˙ m ˙ œ œ œ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ œ œ ˙ ˙ œ ˙Gau de te o so ci i qui

“Gaude virgo”

Victory’s song

- -

- - - - -

- - - -

&

&

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œo mnes spe ci o sa

˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ œ œ ˙ ˙ œ ˙ ˙ œ œb œ œ œ œ œa an ti quus ser pens li ga tus est

- - - -

- - - - - -


&

&œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œEx qua mun do lux est

˙ ˙ ˙ œ ˙ ˙ ˙ m œ ˙ œ œ œ œ œse re ni ta te

-

- - - - - - -

&

&

œ œ œ œ œor ta

œ m œ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ œ œ m œ œ- -

wind . . .” and “lead them into the celestial Jerusalem” (this text is alsofound at the close of the EV in Scivias III.xiii.9; see Ex. 11).

But this glorious hymn in D is not the end of the OV. Instead, it isundercut by yet another song, a lament in E, whose text and music arecrucial for understanding the play, and its relationship to the treatiseScivias. The play, I have argued, is about one set of virtues (and one setof saints), those of the Supernal Branch, the Virgins, whose leaders are

Example 10b continued

&

&

&

œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œSal ue ra dix

˙ m œ ˙ œ ˙ ˙ ˙ œ ˙ ˙ œ œb œ m œ œ œ œque ra di cas in

˙ ˙ ˙ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ ˙ ˙ œ œ œ œ m œ œ œet que in can di

- -

- - - -

- - - - - -

&

&

&œ œ œ œ œ œ œsoœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ m

œ mœ œ m

œ œ œ œ œsal ue por ta

œ œ œ ˙ ˙ œble

œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ ˙ œda

- -

- - - - - - -

- - - - - - - -


Mary and the virtue she perfectly embodies, Humility, who is queen ofthe virtues in Hildegard’s play. These special groups of virtues have beendepicted especially through reference to Scivias III.ii as inhabiting partic-ular towers in the Edifice of Salvation, and they relate as well to the Ruleof St. Benedict. Through joining imagery from the Jesse tree, the flower-ing branch, and the Rule, Hildegard has created a play especially forBenedictine nuns. At the close of the Ordo Virtutum, the virtues refer-ence particular places in the Edifice of Salvation once again, the interrup-tions in the unfinished walls described in Scivias III.ii.18. Hildegard saysthe edifice remains imperfect, as does the Church.

The close of the OV repositions the virtues, still working, still trying tobuild the body of Christ that is depicted as unfinished at the eastern apex ofthe structure (see Fig. 2 above). And so they sing with material that relatesdirectly to that of the song “O uiuens fons” described above, the song theychanted at the moment that the Soul was strong enough to combat theDevilface to face. It is, as we have seen, E material moving to D, a symphony of thetwomusic polarities that are explored throughout theOrdo Virtutum. The textof “In principio” is a tale of fallen humankind, and a plea from Christ himselfto join, through the act of humility he modeled from the Cross. Here Hil-degard speaks of the golden number, the number of saints, which, onceachieved, will lead to the end of time. There is a longing for this, a lamentfor the completion that was referenced at the opening of the play.

The mystical sense of this final chant relates very much to Hildegard’sdescription of the lament of souls in Book I: “. . . I should have been a com-panion of the angels, for I am a living breath, which God placed in dry mud;thus I should have known and felt God. . . .” (Scivias I.iv.1; 43:62; 109).

Example 11 Opening of the penultimate song “O Deus, quis es tu” (“O God, who are you,who within yourself made such a great plan . . .?”) (Wiesbaden 2, fol. 481v). A sound recordingof this example appears in the online version of the Journal.

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ m œ œ m œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ m œO de us, quis es tu, qui

Virtutes

-

& œ œ œ œ m œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œin te met i pso hoc ma gnum- - - -

& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ m œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œcon si li um ha bu i sti,- - - - - - - -

O God, who are you, who within yourself made such a great plan. . . ?


Hildegard also links the chant to the tower found in Scivias III.viii, the Hu-manity of the Savior. The Ordo Virtutum ends near this tower, for it standsbeside a gap in the walled allegorical edifice, the place where the saved soulswill become living stones, layering soul by soul until the wall is completedand time will be no more. Mystically, Hildegard explains that Scivias I.vi.1and Scivias III.viii have the same location: “. . . this shadowed pillar is stand-ing in the same place in the building where you had previously seen . . . a greatfour-sided radiance of brilliant purity” (Scivias III.viii.12; 43A:494; 435).And next to the pillar is the break in the wall: “for the place of those yet tobe born is empty, and the wall of their good works has not yet been built”(Scivias III.viii.11, 43A:494; 434).

The work of the virtues is ongoing, and they cannot rest, ending with aplea for all to experience the feeling of sorrow that is crucial for true penance,and that will then prepare the redeemed for joyous praise at the end of time.“In principio” is meant to be a last interlude, sung before the final act of Hu-mankind’s great dramatic venture, which, in accordance with Hildegard andthe Book of Revelation, will be marked by return to a pre-lapsarian, even toa pre-hexaemeral, state.51 Accordingly, when the hand of the last human whocompletes the golden number reaches upwards in penance and praise, thenthe scrolls will roll, the trumpets will sound, judgment will come, and timewill be no more. The play’s ending is sung on an apocalyptic edge.

The Ordo Virtutum and the Exhortatio Virtutum

Hildegard chose the virtues who sing their roles in the Ordo Virtutum verycarefully, making them part of a specialized coterie taken from a far greatergroup that appears in the treatise as a whole (see Table 1). The virtues of theOV have a special role to fill in the journey of a soul toward God, that whichconditions the inner dynamic of the human/God relationship to work likethat of a bride who dances before her beloved, an image of particular impor-tance in monastic communities, especially those of nuns.52 But Hildegardfashioned another dramatic scene, one with text only that falls near theend of Scivias, and that she calls an Exhortation of the Virtues (EV).Although the treatise Scivias as a whole is usually not considered in the de-bate, scholars have long argued over the relationships between the freestand-ing, neumedOrdo Virtutum and the dramatic work incorporated into Scivias

51. Revelation 22:3–5: “And there shall be no curse any more; but the throne of God andof the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. And they shall see his face: and hisname shall be on their foreheads. And night shall be no more: and they shall not need the lightof the lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall enlighten them, and they shallreign for ever and ever.” In Scivias, the two thrones are positioned at the Eastern apex of theEdifice of Salvation, that of the Son of Man being incomplete.

52. Twelfth-century Cistericians emphasized a literary tradition in which the monk was thebride of Christ. For discussion, see Newman, “What Did It Mean to Say ‘I Saw’?”


(EV). Peter Dronke is one of the few scholars who believe that the OVcame first, and that the EV is derived from it, with cogent reasoningbased on the state of the sources. He observes that when the texts of theOV and the EV differ, the OV has the better reading. But most othersdisagree.53 In the larger sense, of course, it does not matter which camefirst: the grandiose chicken (as I believe along with Dronke) or the eggproduced by its body—Hildegard surely had both chicken and egg in hermind as she wrote Scivias. It is perfectly possible, as I and others have done, tosupply music for the text of the shorter version of the Ordo Virtutum givenat the end of Scivias and create a second work.54 And such a version canwork well dramatically, whetherHildegard intended this mode of performanceor not.55

Indeed, there are significant differences between the two dramatic works,and these help explain what Hildegard’s intentions were with the neumedplay, the Ordo Virtutum, the only one we know for sure that she intendedto be sung, and surely for performance within her community. Genre hasa great deal to do with the differences between the play (OV) and the dra-matic text (EV) at the close of Scivias, the latter being a theological treatisewith no music or implied performance directions. In the case of the OV, thegenre she plays upon is the Ordo Prophetarum, a widespread type of sungdramatic work performed in many medieval churches and cathedrals onChristmas Eve.56 In a traditionalOrdo Prophetarum, which is based on read-ings for the office adapted from a sermon by the fifth-century CarthaginianQuodvultdeus, characters from the Bible and sometimes from classicalantiquity come forth one by one to announce the coming of Christ. Inaddition to several shorter works in the genre, the Ordo Prophetarum wasalso adapted for the so-called Jeu d’Adam (originally called the Ordorepresentacionis Ade) and the Christmas play found in Carmina Burana.

53. For Dronke’s arguments, which are based on comparison of textual variants in severalparallel passages, see esp. his “Problemata Hildegardiana.” Contrariwise, Simon believes thatthe playlet at the end of Scivias is the source of the play, and cites some scholars who agree in“Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) and Her Music Drama Ordo Virtutum.”

54. An adaptation of the EV with music was created by Jane Huber and me at Yale Univer-sity in 2003, and produced on the quad of Yale Divinity Quadrangle, with Susan Hellauer play-ing the role of Humility. We did the obvious thing, taking music from the OV and using it forthe texts of the EV; I confess, however, that during this time of cutting and pasting, I did not yetunderstand the underlying musical form of the OV, and had not studied it carefully in conjunc-tion with Scivias.

55. Fontijn’s multimedia book Vision of Music in Saint Hildegard’s “Scivias” argues that theEV was created by Hildegard before the OV.

56. Dronke, in Nine Medieval Latin Plays, mentions the fact that Hildegard was referenc-ing the tradition of the Ordo prophetarum in the OV. For bibliography and an introduction tothe tradition, see Lagueux, “Sermons, Exegesis, and Performance”; Hodapp, “PerformingProphecy”; and Brockett, “Previously Unknown Ordo Prophetarum in a Manuscript Fragmentin Zagreb.”


TheDanielis Ludus of Beauvais is an entire work based around the prophecyspoken by Daniel in the traditional prophets’ play.57

Hildegard adapts this popular tradition through a strategy of reversals:instead of the Prophets, each announcing him or herself in a long exegeticalparade, the Prophets introduce a group of allegorical beings, who, each inturn, announce the particular characteristic she represents. The company ofvirtues takes the place of the Prophets (who are heard from no more), and ispresent throughout the play as a group responding to the solo statements ofeach virtue. Hildegard’s play is a way of representing a particular company ofcharacters, but superimposed upon this transformed genre is yet anotherplot, that of the epic journey of a soul, the character Anima, who is warredover by the virtues and Satan.

Hildegard transformed dramatic tradition twice, then, keeping the staticprocession fundamental to the Ordo prophetarum, but changing it by usinga group of “ideas” that lead in purposeful ways from one set of understand-ings to another. She then added a dynamic quality not found in the originaltradition, positing the journey of a soul from one set of virtues to the next, ina psychodrama that acts out a vision of regained spiritual health. The creativemingling of tradition and novelty is characteristic of Hildegard’s music, butthis play is the most complex individual undertaking in her musical oeuvre,rivaled only by the Scivias songs, the group of chants whose texts alone arefeatured near the close of the treatise (see Table 3), and her set of piecesfor St. Ursula. As a result, the Ordo Virtutum provides an opportunity forunderstanding Hildegard as a composer of a large-scale work, and, we haveseen, one with a sophisticated sense of narrative that is brought to lifethrough parallel tensions and resolutions created within the music.58

57. This reference is to fully sung liturgical dramas, and not to late medieval play texts withincidental music. Bibliography on the subject of meanings in sung liturgical plays is wide rang-ing, with each individual play, tradition, or playbook having its own set of problems and corre-sponding literature. As a result, there is at present no satisfying single volume work that focuseson medieval music drama, its contexts and meanings. On the Danielis Ludus, see my “Feast ofFools andDanielis Ludus”; Ogden, ed., Play of Daniel: Critical Essays; and the edition and com-mentary by Dronke in Nine Medieval Latin Plays, 110–46.

58. There have been many theories about the play’s purpose. Dronke (Nine Medieval LatinPlays and the introduction to his edition in Opera minora) has argued that it was created for thededication of Hildegard’s new church at the Rupertsberg. Sheingorn believes that it was createdfor the service of the consecration of nuns: “Virtues of Hildegard’s Ordo Virtutum; or, ItWas aWoman’s World.” Iversen explores the themes of loss surrounding the character Anima, relatingthem to Hildegard’s young friend Richardis von Stade, a nun at the Rupertsberg who leftagainst Hildegard’s wishes to become an abbess herself, and died shortly thereafter. Richardisdied in 1152, and so this is the date Iversen gives to the completion of Scivias and the writingof the OV. See Iversen’s “Réaliser une vision,” and her “O Virginitas.” I have argued that theplay was more important to the liturgical life of the community than has been previouslyrecognized, and have speculated that it may have served also as part of a ritual event to take placebefore the monthly reception of communion; see “Music for the Love Feast: Hildegard ofBingen and the Song of Songs.”


Table 3 compares theOV to the EV.59 It can be seen immediately that theOV is far longer than the scene in the treatise. The EV offers a general state-ment about all the virtues and their many workings in the treatise Scivias. SoHildegard selects out only three in this dramatic scene to work with the col-lective group: Humility, who is the general queen of all virtues; Knowledge

Table 3 Lines of the Dramatic Works (EV and OV) Compared

Ordo Virtutum: Noted Version Exhortatio Virtutum, Text OnlyScivias, Book III, Vision 13, Chapter 9

Ed. Peter Dronke, Corpus Ed. Führkötter and Carlevaris, CorpusChristianorum, Continuatio Medievalis, 227 Christianorum, Continuatio Medievalis. 43ALines 1–360 Lines 225–249

Dramatic work is prefaced by the ScivasSongtexts Chapters, 1–8

Mary (antiphon and responsory)Angels (antiphon and responsory)Patriarchs and Prophets (antiphon and

responsory)Apostles (antiphon and responsory)Martyrs (antiphon and responsory)Confessors (antiphon and responsory)Virgins (antiphon and responsory)

“Ordo Virtutum” “Exhoratio Virtututum”

1–13Patriarchs/Prophets/VirtuesAct I 14–69“Oplangens uox” 70–79Devil with Humility and Virtues 80–102

Not present, prose introduction instead245–311, basically the same

Found as prefatory material in chapter 8Same with much rearranging of lines; some

material appears later 313–349First set of Virtues, one by one 103–148 Missing entirelyInterlude: “Flos campi” with Innocence andContempt 149–166

Missing entirely

Second set of Virtues, one by one167–218

Missing entirely

Virtues with the Penitent Soul219–271

Present with some rearranging of lines350–407

Interlude“O uiuens fons”272–283

Found as prefatory material in chapter 8

The Battle284–313

Basically the same, 408–441

Ending, very different314–360

442–449 (different, for comparison only)

Long scene with Chastity Missing entirely“O Deus quis es tu” Included“In principio omnes” Missing entirely, prose ending instead

59. These ideas and a version of this table were offered as part my presentation on the OrdoVirtutum, given at the National Meeting of the American Musicological Society, Quebec,2007.


of God, who, as we have seen, helps to define the soul’s journey; and Victory,who represents the triumph of the Virgin Mary, the new Eve, over Satan andthe powers of Hell, through the joining of human flesh to divinity. There isno particular smaller set selected out to make a thematic point, no ordo vir-tutum. The EV closes with the text of Victory’s final song and the hymn ofpraise (which is the penultimate text of the OV). Missing completely is thelong scene between Chastity and the Devil. We can conclude that the EV atthe end of Scivias is not about the Supernal Branch that sprouts from Jesse’sloins, crucial in the theological universe of twelfth-century Benedictine nuns.

Study of the treatise, the play OV, and the short dramatic work, the EV,suggests that Hildegard wrote the musical work interactively with the trea-tise; at the same time she must have also been creating the Scivias songs, andcertainly was making the connection explored above between the music ofthe play and of the song “O nobilissima uiriditas.” She must have knownabout the songs and the musical play as she laid out the Edifice of Salvationin Book III of Scivias.Moreover, her emphasis on the virtues in Books I andII demonstrates that they were a well-worked out group of characters in hermind, or became well worked out, during the decade that she labored uponthe treatise. The emphasis that she gives to the particular group of virtuesfeatured in the play is carefully built up in the treatise Scivias. In addition, thelong chants found between the acts of the Ordo Virtutum, so deliberatelydesigned in both their textual andmusical dimensions, are fundamental to theaction of the play and the unfolding of its musical narrative. Yet, as can be seenin Table 3, two of these texts—“O plangens uox” and “O uiuens fons”—aresimply posited at the opening of the EV, one of several features that makesthis dramatic scene appear to be a skillful truncation of the OV, and so ashorter work crafted for the end of the treatise. Indeed even this reorderingof two of the interludes is not particularly troublesome if the dramatic sceneis viewed as part of a treatise, a work meant to be read. However, it must beasked if simply adding music to it could do violence to what is a skillfullywrought music drama, or if Hildegard had this possibility inmind as she wrotethe end of the treatise. For that we must look at the structure of Scivias III.xiii(see Table 4).

In III.xiii.8 Hildegard has chosen two of the interlude chants from theOrdo Virtutum—“O plangens uox” and “O uiuens fons”—to serve as a pref-ace to the shorter dramatic scene in Scivias III.xiii, the EV (III.xiii.9). In theOV, these chants are of major importance: the first is a flat-out lament, amassive cry of pain; the second forms a point of resolution and transformationin the OV, moving from E to a middle section in D and back again. At theclose of chapter 7, Hildegard introduced “O plangens uox,” emphasizing thesorrowing over the people “who had to be brought back to that place.” Andthe short exegesis following “O uiuens fons” in chapter 8 addresses thesnatching of the prey from the mouth of the Devil, in the words of the


Living Light who speaks “of the people he rescued.” This text is not found inthe OV but relates very much to the meaning of “O uiuens fons” as that in-terlude appears in the play Ordo Virtutum.

After transforming “O plangens uox” and “O uiuens fons” into introduc-tory texts for the playlet, Hildegard supplies Visionary Statement C at the endof chapter 8, which will introduce the EV:

And again a song was heard, like the voice of a multitude, exhorting the virtuesto help humanity and oppose the inimical arts of the Devil. And the virtuesovercame the vices, and by divine inspiration people turned back to repentance.And thus the song resounded in harmony. (Scivias III.xiii.9; 43A:621; 529)

The virtues then offer an introduction, the unique text “We virtues are inGod, and there abide . . .” (Scivias III.xiii.9). And so the opening of the EVcannot be provided with music, at least not that survives from Hildegard.But the text itself is an excellent resume of the ways that virtues work theo-logically, and in accordance with both Hildegard’s treatise and her play theOrdo Virtutum: they abide in God (that is they are divine ideas); they arewarriors for God, and separate evil from good; they were present before theFall of Satan, and triumphed when he fell; they are ready for those who callon them, fighting for them, and serving as guides to heaven. These pointsdemonstrate how different the opening of the playlet is from that of OrdoVirtutum, sometimes through use of song texts found in the sung play, andsometimes by adding new material.

After this initial overview, texts used for the EV are borrowed from theOV and music could be set to them, as it exists in the OV. The texts offerthe opening of the OV that features the loss of Anima and the warning ofKnowledge of God; after this Humility calls the virtues in general to win thesoul back. The soul becomes “penitens” and then Victory enters to do herwork. The pillars of development found in theOrdo Virtutum are gone fromthe EV. It, like the treatise to which it is affixed, serves to show the general

Table 4 A Brief Outline of Scivias III.xiii

Materials Chaps.

Visionary Statement (A) and 14 Scivias Songs,followed by Visionary Statement (B) 1–7to introduce “O plangans uox” and “O uiuens fons”The lament “O plangens uox” and “O uiuens fons” 8Followed by Visionary Statement (C)Exhortatio Virtutum followed by Statement (D) 9Exegesis on Visionary Statement A and the Scivias Songs 10–12Exegesis on Visionary Statements B and C (with a bit of A) 13Exegesis on Visionary Statement D 14Exegesis on Praise and on Psalm 150 15–16


fight of virtues against the Devil, rather than the monastic play of the OV.The EV is a twelfth-century Everyman.60 The ending of the OV too is verydifferent from that of the EV. As the treatise ends praising on high, withexegesis on Psalm 150, so too the EV, which closes out with the hymn inD “Praise to You, O Christ.” If the EV were adapted for performance, thedramatic sense of the work would be completely different from that of theOV, which is, in accordance with the way the music has been composed, adeliberately open-ended dramatic work, and a call to penitence and toworship. The two works are clearly interrelated, but Hildegard created themfor two different purposes: one for performance by her community, and theother to close out her treatise.

Conclusion

Medieval music drama never played out of context. It was created by andwithin communities, over time, every work functioning in the local traditionand topography of church buildings, of a town and particular region, andagainst the backdrop of unique liturgical, hagiographical, and musical land-scapes. Its texts and music belonged to a communal art of memory, one con-ditioned over time in a particular place by commonly known bodies of texts,melodies, and themes. It is no wonder that the most difficult aspects of stag-ing, singing, and understanding medieval music drama relate to meanings.The plays often compare to stray historiated capitols, detached panes ofglass, lone statues found in museums today, difficult to date and place, andto put back into their original contexts. Even when this has been accom-plished to some degree, and iconographical puzzles solved, such objects mayprove difficult to re-imagine in their architectural contexts, as the buildingsfor which they were created no longer exist.

Hildegard’sOrdo Virtutum is a disembodied work, difficult to reposition,both dramatically and liturgically. Not only have Hildegard’s church and theother buildings associated with her disappeared, there are also no currentlyknown surviving liturgical books from the Disibodenberg or the monasteriesshe established.61 In this study we have argued that the best arena for situat-ing the play was created by Hildegard herself, and it is the treatise Scivias.

60. That is The Somonyng of Everyman, a late fifteenth-century English morality play. Formore on this tradition in German lands, see Ruhe, “VomHandbuch für Priester zumHausbuchfür Jedermann.”

61. Engelberg 103, an antiphoner/lectionary that Hesbert ascribed to St. Disibod in hisCorpus Antiphonalium Officii, is very likely not from that monastery. As stated above in note42, Leigh-Choate has argued it may well be from a church in Sponheim, the seat ofHildegard’s mentor Jutta (1091–1136). Engelberg 103 is now online, with a description andtable of contents prepared by William T. Flynn.


By putting the play back into the treatise one can imagine a great dealabout the composer’s intentions. This repositioning offers understandingconcerning the natures of the characters Hildegard chose from manypossibilities, including broader knowledge of the virtues, their groupings,and the ways their movements establish the play’s complicated meanings.It is now possible to see how Hildegard’s choices of musical materialsunderscore her dramatic and theological ideas. Repositioning the playwithin its allegorical setting also offers a fresh consideration of therelationships between the play and the dramatic scene at the close of thetreatise.

The play’s music unfolds in accordance with the allegorical architecturalsense developed in the treatise. We may imagine that this understandinghad its grounding in the physical circumstances of communal life and in theactual towers and arcades of the new church rising on the Rupertsberg underHildegard’s supervision.62 If this play were performed regularly, then thecommunity would learn a particular sense of the church in which its membersworshipped every day. Virtues as monastic helpmates would be ever in theimagination of this community, coming from behind the columns, climbingon the scaffolding, singing their warnings and their songs of victory.This understanding of the play may also be helpful for those who workwith it today, providing context and a framework of understanding. Toperform Hildegard’s Ordo Virtutum with knowledge of its indwellingarchitectural allegory also offers a chance to regain a sense of some of themean-ings the church Hildegard designed long ago had for this particular composerand her community.

Works Cited

Manuscripts

Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Ms. Theol. lat., fol. 727Cologne, Historical Archive, W 276aDendermonde, St.-Pieters & Paulusabdij, ms. Cod. 9Engelberg, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 103Gent, Universitätsbibliothek, Hs. 241London, British Library, MS add. 15102London, British Library, Arundel 44“Riesencodex.” See Wiesbaden, Hessischen Landesbibliothek, HS 2.

62. An engraving depicting the Rupertsberg by Daniel Meisner (ca.1585–1625) circulates onthe internet. It is found in his Thesaurus Philopoliticus, first published in 1623 by Eberhard Kieser.Five arcades from the main aisle of the twelfth-century abbey church are all that survive today of thecomplex; they are privately owned. For a plan of the complex, see Silvas, Jutta and Hildegard, 277.In his forthcoming book, Michael Dietz offers a reconstruction of the entire complex and carefuldescriptions of all various fragmentary ruins.


Trier, Seminarbibliothek, Hs. 68Troyes, BM, Ms. 683Vatican, Bibl. Vat. Pal. lat. 311Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 963Wiesbaden, Hessischen Landesbibliothek, HS 1Wiesbaden, Hessischen Landesbibliothek, HS 2. “The Riesencodex.” Accessed

September 2012. http://dfg-viewer.de/show/?set[zoom]=min&set[mets]=http%3A%2F%2Fdokumentserver.hlb-wiesbaden.de%2FHS_2%2Fmets17.xml

Editions and Translations

Ehrman, Bart D., ed. and translator. The Shepherd of Hermas. In The ApostolicFathers, 2:161–473. Loeb Classical Library 25. Cambridge, MA: HarvardUniversity Press, 2003.

Gregory the Great.Homiliae in Evangelia. Edited by R. Étaix. Corpus Christianorum.Series Latina 141. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1988/1989.

Guibert of Gembloux. Epistolae que in codice B. R. Brux. 5527–5534 inveniuntur,Pars I–II, edited by Alberti Derolez. Corpus Christionorum. Continuatio Mediae-valis 66/66A. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1988/1989.

Hildegard of Bingen.DeRegula Sancti Benedicti. Edited byHugh Feiss. InHildegardisBingensis Opera minora, edited by Peter Dronke et al., 67–97. Corpus Christiano-rum. Continuatio Mediaevalis 226. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2007.

———. Epistolarium. Edited by L. van Acker (91 and 91A) and by L. van Acker andM. Klaes-Hachmöller (91B). Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio Medievalis 91,91A, 91B. 3 volumes. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1991, 1993, 2001.

———. The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen. Translated by Joseph L. Baird and RaddK. Ehrman. 3 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994, 1998, 2004.

———. Liber DivinorumOperum. Edited by Albert Derolez and Peter Dronke. CorpusChristianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis 92. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1996.

———. Liber Scivias: Farbmikrofiche-Edition der Handschrift Heidelberg, Universi-tätsbibliothek, Cod. Sal. X 16. Edited by Antje Kohle. Munich: H. Lengenfelder,2002. Available online at http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/salX16.

———. Liber Scivias: Rüdesheimer Codex: Aus der Benediktinerinnenabtei St.Hildegard. Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 2013.

———. Liber Vite Meritorum. Edited by Angela Carlevaris. Corpus Christianorum.Continuatio Medievalis 90. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1995.

———. Lieder. Edited by Pudentiana Barth, M. Immaculata Ritscher, and JosephSchmidt-Görg. Salzburg: Otto Müller, 1969.

———. Lieder. Edited by Barbara Stühlmeyer. Rüdesheim/Eibingen: BeuronerKunstverlag, 2012.

———. Lieder: Faksimile Riesencodex (Hs. 2) der Hessischen Landesbibliothek Wiesba-den, fol. 466–481v. Edited by Lorenz Welker, with commmentary by MichaelKlaper. Wiesbaden: L. Reichert, 1998.

———. Ordo Virtutum. Edited by Peter Dronke. In Hildegardis Bingensis Operaminora, edited by Peter Dronke et al., 505–21. Corpus Christianorum. Continu-atio Mediaevalis 226. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2007.

———. Ordo Virtutum. Edited by Audrey Ekdahl Davidson. Kalamazoo, MI:Medieval Institute Publications, 1985.


———.Ordo Virtutum. InNine Medieval Latin Plays, edited and translated by PeterDronke, 147–84.

———.Ordo Virtutum: A Comparative Edition. Edited by Vincent Corrigan. Lion’sBay, BC: Institute of Mediaeval Music, 2013.

———. Scivias. Edited by Adelgundis Führkötter with Angela Carlevaris. CorpusChristianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis 43 and 43A. Turnhout, Belgium: Bre-pols, 1978.

———. Scivias. Translated by Mother Columba Hart and Jane Bishop. Classics ofWestern Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press, 1990.

———. Symphonia. Edited and translated by Barbara Newman. 2nd ed. Ithaca, NY:Cornell University Press, 1998.

———. Symphonia. Edited by Barbara Newman. In Hildegardis Bingensis Operaminora, edited by Peter Dronke et al., 373–477. Corpus Christianorum. Contin-uatio Mediaevalis 226. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2007.

———. Symphonia harmoniae caelestium revelationum: Dendermonde, St.-Pieters &Paulusabdij, ms. Cod. 9. Introduction by Peter van Poucke. Peer, Belgium: Alamire,1991.

Klaes, Monika, ed. Vita Sanctae Hildegardis Virginis. Corpus Christianorum. Con-tinuatio Mediaevalis 126. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1993.

Meisner, Daniel. Thesaurus Philopoliticus oder Politisches Schatzkästlein. Frankfurt:Eberhard Kieser, 1623.

Prudentius. Psychomachia. Text and commentary by Rosemary Burton. Bryn Mawr,PA: Thomas Library, Bryn Mawr College, 1989.

Seyfarth, Jutta, ed. Speculum Virginum. Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediae-valis 5. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1990.

———, trans. Speculum virginum = Jungfrauenspiegel. 4 vols. Freiburg and New York:Herder, 2001.

Secondary Literature

Baillet, Louis. “Les miniatures du ‘Scivias’ de Sainte Hildegarde, conservé à la bibliothè-que deWiesbaden.” InMonuments et mémoires publiés par l’Académie des Inscriptionset Belles-Lettres, edited by Paul Jamot, vol. 19, 49–149. Paris: Leroux, 1911.

Bain, Jennifer. “Hildegard, Hermannus, and Late Chant Style.” Journal of MusicTheory 52 (2008): 123–49.

———. “Hooked on Ecstasy: Performance ‘Practice’ and the Reception of theMusic of Hildegard of Bingen.” In The Sounds and Sights of Performance in EarlyMusic: Essays in Honour of Timothy J. McGee, edited byMaureen Epp and Brian E.Power, 253–74. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2009.

Böckeler, D. Maura. “Beziehungen des Ordo Virtutum der hl. Hildegard zu ihremHauptwerk Scivias. II. Die lebendigen Beziehungen zwischen Ordo und Scivias,”Benediktinische Monatschrift 7, no. 3–4 (1925), 135–45.

———. Der Heiligen Hildegard von Bingen Reigen der Tugenden. Ordo Virtutum:Ein Singspiel. Berlin: Sankt Augustinus, 1927.

Böckmann, Aquinata. “Discretio in Benedict’s Rule and Its Tradition,” Tjurunga 59(2000): 14–26.

Bogdanos, Theodore. “The Shepherd of Hermas and the Development of MedievalVisionary Allegory.” Viator 8 (1977): 33–46.


Brockett, Jr., Clyde. “A Previously Unknown Ordo Prophetarum in a ManuscriptFragment in Zagreb.” In Medieval Drama on the Continent of Europe, edited byClifford Davidson and John H. Stroupe, 114–27. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval In-stitute Publications, 1993.

Dabke, Roswitha. “The Hidden Scheme of the Virtues in Hildegard of Bingen’sOrdo Virtutum.” Parergon 23, no. 1 (2006): 11–46.

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Abstract

Hildegard of Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum has come to occupy a major roleamong Western European dramatic musical works, with scenes widelyanthologized, multiple studies in print, and several recordings. I argue thatthe “setting” of Hildegard’s Ordo Virtutum is the allegorical architecturecreated in her first major treatise, Scivias, written in the 1140s and early1150s. In this period, while Hildegard was composing the play and writingher first major theological work, she was also designing a complex of newmonastic buildings, which helps explain her concentration on architecturalthemes and images. Hildegard has situated the main “acts” of the playwithin allegorical towers, and the musical dimensions of the play are driven


by its unfolding within this architectural understanding, including the“climbing” through the modes and the development of longer processionalchants that link the action in one tower or pillar to that of another. We cansee that the particular characters chosen for the play from a broad array ofpossibilities, underscore themes that relate to the lives and governance ofBenedictine nuns. Hildegard’s work provided parallels for her communitybetween the allegorical architecture of Scivias, the play and its music, andthe new church whose building was overseen by Hildegard.

Keywords: Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias, Ordo Virtutum, virtues, medievaldrama and architecture


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Allegorical Architecture in Scivias: Hildegard's Setting for the Ordo Virtutum

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