Deus enim in prima muliere presignavit

Antiphon at Lauds (likely for the Benedicite) for St. Ursula and Companions Back to Table of Contents
(D 168r, R 472ra) by Hildegard of Bingen

Deus enim in prima muliere presignavit ut mulier a viri custodia nutriretur.

For God has marked in the primal woman that woman should receive her care from the guardianship of man.

Latin collated from the transcription of Beverly Lomer and the edition of Barbara Newman; translation by Nathaniel M. Campbell.

Transcription and Music Notes
by Beverly Lomer

E mode
Setting: Primarily syllabic
Range: C below the final to E an octave above the final

In this short antiphon, the final, E, and B serve as the punctuating pitches for phrase demarcation. One can consider the first two lines of the transcription to be a single phrase, though the second line begins with the final. The following lines are also a single thought, and again Line 3 ends on B, which is not a final stop.

A Note on Liturgical Usage

As the fourth in the series, this antiphon would likely have been paired with the long canticle, Benedicite omnia opera, taken from the Vulgate text of Daniel 3:57-88, 56. This song, which appears originally only in the Greek text of the Septuagint (and thus is often classed in modern bibles as part of the “Apocrypha” or “Deutero-Canon”), was sung by the three Hebrew youths (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) when they were cast into the fiery furnace by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar.

Further Resources for Deus enim in prima muliere presignavit

• Hildegard of Bingen, Symphonia, ed. Barbara Newman (Cornell Univ. Press, 1988 / 1998), pp. 236 and 309-11.
• Berschin, Walter. “Eine Offiziendichtung in der Symphonia Hildegards von Bingen: Ursula und die Elftausend Jungfrauen (carm. 44).” In Hildegard of Bingen: The Context of her Thought and Art. Ed. Charles Burnett and Peter Dronke. London: The Warburg Institute, 1998, pp. 157-62.
• Flanagan, Sabina. “Die Heiligen Hildegard, Elisabeth, Ursula und die elftausend Jungfrauen.” In Tiefe des Gotteswissens - Schönheit der Sprachgestalt bei Hildegard von Bingen. Ed. Margot Schmidt. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: frommann-holzboog, 1995, pp. 209-22.
• Flynn, William. “Reading Hildegard of Bingen’s Antiphons for the 11,000 Virgin-Martyrs of Cologne: Rhetorical ductus and Liturgical Rubrics.” Nottingham Medieval Studies 56 (2012), pp. 174-89.
• Flynn, William. “Hildegard (1098-1179) and the Virgin Martyrs of Cologne.” In The Cult of St Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins. Ed. Jane Cartwright. University of Wales Press, 2016, pp. 93-118.
• Walter, Peter. “Die Heiligen in der Dichtung der hl. Hildegard von Bingen.” In Hildegard von Bingen, 1179-1979. Festschrift zum 800. Todestag der Heiligen. Ed. Anton Ph. Brück. Mainz: Selbstverlag der Gesellschaft für mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte, 1979, pp. 211-37, at 223-29.
• For a discography of this piece, see the comprehensive list by Pierre-F. Roberge: Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) - A discography