After years of having had visions, Hildegard heeded the unmistakable message of the voice of the living light: she should write what she saw and heard, in other words, to lend credence to what she had previously doubted. For the first illumination of the treatise Scivias, Hildegard portrayed herself in full visionary experience, with the living light descending to surround her head. In order to write down the vision, Hildegard holds a stylus to her wax tablet, while her amanuensis Volmar of St. Disibod peers into her chamber, transcribing her words onto parchment. When Hildegard moved from St. Disibod to St. Rupert, Volmar came along with her community, with which he continued in his capacity as scribe for Hildegard's prolific production of treatises and music.

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