Hildegard of Bingen

About Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) was a towering figure of the High Middle Ages, earning an HPI rank of #691 due to her extraordinary polymathic contributions. As a Benedictine abbess, she was a prolific writer whose theological treatises, visionary experiences, and groundbreaking works on natural history and medicine made her one of the most influential women in medieval Europe. Her surviving compositions in music, particularly her morality play *Ordo Virtutum*, are seminal to the history of Western music and religious devotion.

In 2025, her 638K annualized Wikipedia views suggest a sustained, though modest, level of interest, showing a healthy +21.0% year-over-year growth. However, this attention level translates to an Attention Gap of approximately 1x, indicating that modern internet traffic is roughly proportional to her historical importance. This contrasts sharply with figures like Brigham Young, another religious figure ranked lower (#947), who captured 2.7 million views last year—over four times Hildegard's attention despite lesser historical influence by the HPI metric.

While her overall traffic is steady, the 2025 Momentum data reveals a slight cooling, with interest dropping by 6% between Q1 and Q3. This suggests that current online discourse has not yet significantly elevated the profile of this complex medieval polymath.