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Margarethe von Trotta's Vision - Aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen (2009) gives us a pretty good idea of what life was life in a cloister in the Middle Ages. It also brings into view the very interesting life's arc of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179).
Vision also brings in Brother Volmar, Hildegard's fellow Benedictine buddy and scribe.
Hildegard von Bingen was just sainted in 2012 -- some 833 years after her death. She has also been designated a Doctor of the Catholic Church.
By way of comparison, Hildegard was like a mix of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. She was a Renaissance Woman well before the Renaissance. Botany, music, art, writing, and leading a social cohort -- she did it all.
Meanwhile, the USA has yet to elect its first woman president.
Vision: nuns with books in the woods.
Vision: nuns on horseback. Hildegard was very aware of the greater world of and before her time. At one point in Vision, she laments that she has only 400 manuscripts in her library, whereas the Caliph of Córdoba had access to 400,000 volumes. "Can you imagine?" she askes Brother Volmar. She could and she did. The Feast Day of Saint Hildegard? September 17.
Today's Rune: Journey.
2 comments:
Erik-as I child I was fascinated with nuns-and kinda scared of 'em. It just seems like they know secrets!
Even in those days, there were book lovers.
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