Wiesbaden Codex

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The Wiesbaden Codex (also Riesencodex "giant codex"), Hs.2 of the Hessische Landesbibliothek, Wiesbaden, is a codex containing the collected works of Hildegard of Bingen. It is a giant codex, weighing 15 kg and 30 by 45 cm in size.[1] It dates from ca. 1200, and was started at the end of her life or just after her death, at the instigation of Guibert of Gembloux, her final secretary.[2] The only segment of her work missing from the codex are her medical writings, which may be explained by assuming that they never existed in a finished format, and may have been ongoing projects in draft form.[3]

The codex does contain an extensive collection of her letters. According to scholar Lieven Van Acker, Hildegard in her last days agreed to the changes made by her editors in the collection included. The format was designed by her first secretary, Volmar, but was edited more heavily by Guibert of Gembloux, but nonetheless she apparently authorized the changes.[4]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Newman, 205 (note 119).
  2. ^ Newman, "Hildegard's Life and Times," in Newman, 27.
  3. ^ Florence Eliza Glaze. "Medical Writer," in Newman, 145-147.
  4. ^ Joan Ferrante, "Correspondent," in Newman, 91.

[edit] References

  • Barbara Newman. Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

[edit] External links

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