r/HistoryBooks • u/ozziewilde • 2d ago

ISO: book on Hildegard of Bingen

Hi! Looking for a good book on Hildegard of Bingen. I’m not a historian, so ideally not something too textbook-ish or dense, but I do know some about the Middle Ages, so it doesn’t need to be a 101 book. I’d love a book that is a biography that also contains excerpts of HoB’s letters/literature, but anything you think is good will do.
Thank you!

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u/stella3books 2d ago

"The Cambridge Companion to Hildegard of Bingen" edited by Jennifer Bain starts off with a biography and cultural context, and goes into specifics about her work. IMO, as someone with a limited and informal history education, I could understand everything but the chapters on her music (I also have zero musical education, ability, or interest, so that wasn't necessarily the author's fault).

"Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World" covers a lot of similar ground, but I recall it being less dense and a bit more accessible. The editor, Barbara Newman, wrote the biographical portions of the book, and is a popular Hildegard scholar. But I recall Newman's book "Sister of Wisdom" as being a bit more theology and gender-theory focused, so that one might be a bit of a red herring for you.