Author Biography:
Sabina Flanagan is Australian Research Council Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Melbourne. Her most recent publication is a collection of her own translations from Hildegard's writings Secrets of God: Writings of 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.