Book Series Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts, vol. 1

Jutta and Hildegard: the Biographical Sources

Anna M. Silvas

  • Pages: 300 p.
  • Size:160 x 245 mm
  • Language(s):English
  • Publication Year:1999

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  • ISBN: 978-2-503-50779-8
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  • ISBN: 978-2-503-56231-5
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This book is a comprehensive collection of biographical sources, all translated from the latest critical editions, relating to Jutta of Disibodenberg (1092-1136) and Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179).

Review(s)

"It is splendid to have all these vitae and documents concerning Hildegard conveniently assembled in one place. The Latin originals are widely scattered, some of them quite hard to come by; and the important Life of Jutta (edited only in 1992) is still very little known.... The historical introductions [by Silvas] are both compact and accurate; they should serve veteran Hildegard scholars and novice readers alike.... The translations not only manage to convey the differing stylistic nuances of the various authors (Guibert, Theodoric, Hildegard herself), but they do so in a vivid, readable vernacular.... I think [this volume] will be among the most significant works of Hildegard scholarship ever to appear in English." 
Prof. Barbara Newman (Northwestern University)

"Silvas's introduction is a model for painstaking scholarship and an invaluable aid to serious students of Hildegard."
(Margaret Lindley, Journal of Religious History, volume 26, n° 3, p. 321-322)

"In her general introduction, Anna Silvas observes that the volume under review "is simply carrying out afresh Theodoric of Echternach's original commission: to collate and arrange the available sources in a comprehensible sequence, interspersed with commentary" (p. xvi). She has succeeded admirably." (M.E. Kalinke in Journal of English and Germanic Philology, July 2001, p. 408-410)

Summary

This book is a comprehensive collection of biographical sources, all translated from the latest critical editions, relating to Jutta of Disibodenberg (1092-1136) and Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). Except for the Life of Hildegard they have never been translated before. The Life of Jutta in particular is a major source recently discovered, throwing new light on the early life of Hildegard. The contents include translations with scholarly introductions of the following documents: The Chronicles of Disibodenberg (selections); Charters of Disibodenberg; Documents of Sponheim; The Life of Jutta; Guibert's Letter 38 to Bovo (including his incomplete Life of Hildegard); the Life of Hildegard; Eight Readings to be read on the Feast of St Hildegard; Guibert's Revision of the Life of Hildegard; Charters of Rupertsberg; Canonisation Proceedings.