Hrotsvitha

Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim (Latin: Hrotsvitha Gandeshemensis), (c. 935 – c. 1002), was a 10th-century German secular canoness, as well as a dramatist and poet who lived and worked at Gandersheim Abbey in modern-day Bad Gandersheim, Lower Saxony, established by the Ottonian dynasty. She wrote in Latin, and is considered by some to be the first person since antiquity to compose drama in the Latin West. She has also been called "the most remarkable woman of her time."

Hrotsvitha's name appears variously in the forms Hrosvite, Hroswitha, Hroswithe, Rhotswitha, Roswit and modernized Roswitha. The name is Old Saxon for "strong honour", which she rather adventurously re-interpreted to mean "a clarion voice"

Life and background

Hrotsvitha’s family lineage, at what time she entered the nunnery, and what reasons led her to take the veil are unknown. There is no direct evidence concerning the dates of her birth, consecration, and death. Hrotsvitha’s biography largely depends on her own accounts or results of inferential reasoning. For instance, in her historical poem, “Carmen de Primordiis Coenobii Gandersheimensis”, she tells us that she entered the world a long while after the death of Otto (the father of Henry the Saxon), which occurred in 912. From the overall disposition of her works, scholars are sure she lived at Gandersheim, and they infer that she was born into the Saxon nobility. Due to the depth of her point of view in her writings, it is widely believed that she took the veil later in life. Also, some scholars think it is quite possible that she had gone through some of the experiences of love and renunciation that are so persistent throughout her legends and plays.