Sabina Flanagan provides a comprehensive and engaging introduction to the life and works of the visionary, mystic, poet, musician, naturalist, healer and theologian that was Hildegard of Bingen.

Drawing on contemporary sources, the text unfolds Hildegard's life from the time of her entrance into an anchoress's cell--where a woman would remain in pious isolation--to her death as a famed visionary and writer, abbess and confidante of popes and kings, more than seventy years later. Against this background the author explores Hildegard's vast creative work, encompassing theology, medicine, natural history, poetry, and music.