The Praises of the Joyous Citizens of Heaven

Illustration 4. Book 3, Vision 13, Führkötter and Carlevaris, 620-21

Illustration 4

Hildegard envisioned cameos for the seven groups of citizens of heaven. For each, she wrote an antiphon and responsory at the opening of the Vision of Music. At the top sits Mary, crowned Queen of Heaven, with orb and scepter. Below her stand the six angels symbolizing their ranks in the celestial realm, below whom are five boys. Next down are the Patriarchs and Prophets with long beards, one of whom holds an enormous key. The apostles are found at the bottom of the longest column of cameo portraits, identifiable by their crowns and the cross that they bear. The leftmost column shows the martyrs, who, in the words of their antiphon: "have poured out … blood in triumph, and conquered a share in the blood of the Lamb who perished." The lamb bleeds from its neck, connecting to the eye of the martyr. With the lower cameo for the confessors, Mary's orb returns to the left hand of the confessor clothed in green with a red collar. In his right hand, he holds a large goose quill for writing. Finally, nine Virgins appear wedged in between the two vertical columns. The virgin clothed in green holds an object quite similar to the one in the hand of the confessor. Unlike in her other visions of Scivias, Hildegard was strangely reticent when it came to interpreting these images.

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