After Volmar

This chapter covers Hildegard’s turbulent last years. Her last theological treatise, Liber divinorum operum, was completed after Volmar died; his replacement, Gottfried of Disibodenberg, began Hildegard’s Vita but died before completing it. The monk Guibert of Gembloux transmitted the questions that generated her Solutiones triginta octo quaestionum and solicited an important description of the nature of Hildegard’s visions. The Dendermonde manuscript including her music was sent to the monks of Villers Abbey, and the Riesencodex (also with her music) was begun. Her community was placed under interdict for burying a supposed excommunicate in sacred ground, and Hildegard’s subsequent “Letter to the Prelates of Mainz” includes her most powerful statement about the importance of music. The chapter closes with a description of the heavenly lights that followed her burial.