Hrosvit, also known as Hroswitha and Hroswitha of Gandersheim, was a female 10th century (c. 935 - 1001) Christian poet in Latin from Saxony. She was a nun at a Benedictine abbey in Gandersheim and was of a noble family. Her work shows familiarity with not only Church fathers, but also Classical poetry, including Vergil, Horace, Ovid, Plautus and Terence. She modelled her verse on that of Terence.

Her Latin poetry was discovered and printed in 1501. The manuscript is divided into eight saint's poems, six plays, and a panegyric on kings Otto. Her Passio Sancti Pelagii is derived, she says, from an eye witness to the martyrdom of Pelagus. Her other saintly poems deal with St. Dionysius, St. Basil, St. Agnes, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her plays feature the chastity and perseverance of Christian women and contrast these to the Latin portrayal of women as weak and emotional. She has been called the first dramatist after the Dark Ages, although all claims to primacy and the definition of "Dark Ages" are in doubt.

In her own day, her work was encouraged and supported by the monastic scholars of her world, but her work was forgotten after her death. Translations of her works have begun appearing in contemporary times, and she is now beginning to receive critical attention.

External link

• Hroswitha bio (http://www.valpo.edu/home/staff/kinnes/medieval/hroswitha.html)

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