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Library Hildegard of Bingen

The Book of Life's Merits (The Book of the Rewards of Life) — Hildegard of Bingen

Written work

The Book of Life's Merits (The Book of the Rewards of Life)

Liber vitae meritorum

Hildegarda recibe la visión y la dicta a Volmar (Scivias de Rupertsberg)
byHildegard of Bingen

Second visionary work: a cosmic man whose gaze sweeps the four cardinal points sustains thirty-five pairs of vices and virtues in dialogue (Love of the World against Heavenly Love, Petulance against Discipline, Despair against Hope), each vice described through a grotesque image and each virtue answering soberly. There follow the purgatorial pains of each vice and the corresponding penances, which has led readers to see the book as a forerunner of otherworld literature, and it ends with the praises of the blessed.

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Editions and translations · 3

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Authorship note

Composed between 1158 and 1163 at Rupertsberg, with Volmar as secretary. Critical edition: Carlevaris, CCCM 90 (1995).

Editions and translations

Editions in your language first, without hiding the others. Each with its cover and its store.

English

Deutsch

  • Der Mensch in der Verantwortung. Das Buch der Lebensverdienste

    Otto Müller Verlag, 1972

    Translation: Heinrich Schipperges

    ISBN 9783701304677

Latín

Other works by Hildegard of Bingen

Sources

  • Hildegardis Bingensis. Liber vite meritorum. Ed. Angela Carlevaris. CCCM 90. Turnhout: Brepols, 1995. Trad. inglesa: Bruce W. Hozeski, The Book of the Rewards of Life. Nueva York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

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