Translated by Anna Silvas
["Hildegard von Bingen dictating to her secretary" (probably Volmar)
Rupertsberg Codex, Source: Wikimedia Commons]
To claim that this scholarship is unnecessary is to close off a way of looking at this extraordinary woman that could help us understand her better. Not only that, but it is to deny others the right to look back into the past and see someone who has suffered the same pain.
[The Creation of the World in Six Days, Scivias, Source: Wikimedia Commons]
**It is also worth noting that scholars have also suggested that she might have experienced synaesthesia or temporal lobe epilepsy. All three are entirely possible on their own and none is incompatible with the others.
Hildegard von Bingen. Scivias. Translated by Columba Hart and Jane Bishop. Mawah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1990.
Silvas, Anna. Jutta and Hildegard: the Biographical Sources. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999.
Flanagan, Sabina. Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179: a Visionary Life. London: Routledge, 1989.
Lerman, Kristina. "The Life and Works of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)." Internet History Sourcebooks Project. Fordham University. Accessed 10 Nov. 2013. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/hildegarde.asp.
Sacks, Oliver. Migraine: Understanding a Common Disorder. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
Hildegard von Bingen - Dictionary of Hallucinations
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) - Migraine Aura Foundation
Migraine Cannot Explain HIldegard - The Telegraph
Were Hildegard von Bingen's Visions Caused by Migraines? - Hoydens and Firebrands