The difficult, long and so cost-intensive process of producing manuscripts was one reason that works from medieval authors were only accessible to a small group of people. The invention of printing with flexible letters by Johannes Gutenberg in the middle of the 15th century resulted in a slow but constant change in this situation. In 1474, Hildegard’s famous letter to the clergy of Cologne, in which she preached against the Cathars, was printed. Apart from that, Hildegard’s works were excluded from early printing. The first print of Scivias was only made in 1513 by the humanist Faber Stapulensis (1450 or 1455-1536), who discovered the manuscripts when visiting the monastery on the Rupertsberg in 1509. He was particularly interested in visionary literature and combined Hildegard’s first work on the basis of the manuscript in the Giant Codex together with five other visionary writings of other authors. The nuns of the Rupertsberg were also interested in printing the scripture, because the desire for a formal canonization of Hildegard came up again at that time, and spreading her works further would increase her popularity and consequently would benefit this process.

The translations of Hildegard’s Vita, which was illustrated with 24 woodcuts, and of the biography of Saint Rupert written by Hildegard and translated into German by Jacob Köbel (approx. 1460-1533), the town writer of Oppenheim in 1524, were also an important contribution to the popular propagation of her worship. One of the few preserved copies is stored in the Abbey St. Hildegard in Eibingen. The texts on natural history and medicine, the letter (apart from some prints of individual letters) and Hildegard’s musical work, however, were hardly considered. Printings of these works were only initiated in the advanced 16th century. Over the course of the time, Hildegard’s texts were frequently used to achieve all kinds of goals. During the Mendicant Controversy, for example, both parties considered themselves confirmed and legitimated by her prophecies. Other quotations and mentions of her name were made in connection with speculations about the upcoming appearance of the Antichrist, for which Hildegard never named a specific time. Hildegard quotations were used far into Modern History in order to emphasize criticism aimed at the Pope and the Church. This often happened in the time of tension between Humanism and Reformation when Hildegard’s criticism of the Church was exploited within the contemporary argumentation by Lutherans and Catholics for their own purposes. Only in the 19th century did the attitude change to the extent that the texts by the Abbess of the Rupertsberg could be less seen as concrete prophecies of the future, but as a subject of scientific investigation, they rather informed about Hildegard and her era.