Quotation
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“…when I was forty-two years and seven months old, Heaven was opened and a fiery light of exceeding brilliance came and permeated my whole brain…”
Hildegard of Bingen · Christian mysticism · Medieval · the declaration describes 1141; Hart and Bishop's English 1990
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading takes the declaration as a report of vocation. At a dated moment in 1141, when she was forty-two years and seven months old, she says a light passed through her brain and, in the longer passage, warmed rather than burned. A competing reading treats the sentence as a clinical note about migraine, which can be a hypothesis about the experience and is not what she claims the light means. She goes on to interpret visions inside a theological system. The card quotes an excerpt from the prefatory declaration of Scivias, in Hart and Bishop's English of 1990, not a lyric detached from the book. The badge is Paraphrase or translation because the words are their English of her Latin. The feather proverb, already in this library, has no comparable address. This one does: a year, an age, and a book.
Did Hildegard of Bingen really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. An excerpt from the declaration that prefaces Scivias, in Mother Columba Hart and Jane Bishop's translation (1990), p. 59. The card keeps their wording, including “Heaven was opened”, and the ellipses mark that the declaration continues on either side. Other English versions differ in the adjectives. This is not the feather proverb.
Where it comes from
Scivias, Declaration, trans. Hart and Bishop, 1990, p. 59
Approximate date: the declaration describes 1141; Hart and Bishop's English 1990.
How to use it
A poster that shortens her to a feather skips the thing she dated. If the declaration matters, the next page is the vision and the interpretation, which is longer than a card. The sentence does not ask a reader to reproduce the experience. It asks them not to invent a simpler one and then attribute it.
A mindset reading
A vision claim can be cited without being believed, and believed without being reduced to a diagnosis that has not been argued. The habit is to keep the date and the book attached. Dropping either one is how a declaration becomes a proverb.
Understand the philosophy
Scivias means 'Know the Ways' and is the first of her visionary works. The key details in the declaration are the year 1141 and the light through the brain. Hart and Bishop's English, and translations close to it, supply this wording. The feather card remains Questionable because that neat English is not this declaration. A further sentence from the Book of Divine Works is a separate card.
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FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading takes the declaration as a report of vocation. At a dated moment in 1141, when she was forty-two years and seven months old, she says a light passed through her brain and, in the longer passage, warmed rather than burned. A competing reading treats the sentence as a clinical note about migraine, which can be a hypothesis about the experience and is not what she claims the light means. She goes on to interpret visions inside a theological system. The card quotes an excerpt from the prefatory declaration of Scivias, in Hart and Bishop's English of 1990, not a lyric detached from the book. The badge is Paraphrase or translation because the words are their English of her Latin. The feather proverb, already in this library, has no comparable address. This one does: a year, an age, and a book.
Did Hildegard of Bingen really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. An excerpt from the declaration that prefaces Scivias, in Mother Columba Hart and Jane Bishop's translation (1990), p. 59. The card keeps their wording, including “Heaven was opened”, and the ellipses mark that the declaration continues on either side. Other English versions differ in the adjectives. This is not the feather proverb.
Which work is it in?
Scivias, Declaration, trans. Hart and Bishop, 1990, p. 59 Approximate date: the declaration describes 1141; Hart and Bishop's English 1990.