This volume presents five works by Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) that relate to Benedictine life and liturgy, a unique collection among the known writings of medieval women. The magistra of Rupertsberg expounded the Benedictine Rule, the Athanasian Creed, and the Gospels; in addition, she composed a play: the Ordo virtutum, and numerous liturgical songs, arranged in the Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum. The fifty-eight Expositiones evangeliorum demonstrate remarkably creative readings of twenty-seven pericopes common to monastic lectionaries.  Introductions for each of this volume’s five works assess the respective texts, discuss the manuscripts with care, and establish the principles of the editions.  The extraordinary ensemble of these works demonstrates the remarkable richness and range of Hildegard’s œuvre, as she applied her genius to everyday Benedictine practice at Rupertsberg. The volume will be of great interest to scholars of women’s spirituality, monastic studies, liturgy, sermon literature, and medieval Latin literary and religious culture.

"These editions are meticulously done throughout. [...] This reviewer admires not just the thoroughness of the editors but their tracking of judgments made by themselves and others in the study and editing of these texts. The cumulative intellectual effect of reading the introductions and studying the editions is illuminating."

(Th. M. Izbicki, in The Medieval Review, 09.07.02)

"This book deserves a prominent place in the field of Hildegardian studies."

(R. Andersson, in Medieval Sermon Studies 53, 2009, p. 77)

"The volume deserves to be used by those who wish to introduce students to Latin of great freshness and vitality, presented in exemplary fashion."

(Constant J. Mews, in The Journal of Medieval Latin 20, 2010, p. 307)