Hroswitha presenting a book to Emperor Otto I, with his niece,the Abbess of Gandersheim, in attendance.
Woodcut by Albrect Dürer.
She was a Benedictine nun of Gandersheim in Lower Saxony during the tenth century, highly educated, and the best Latin writer of her era. Her fame rests upon six “comedies” that resurrected the ancient drama and became the foundation for theater as we know it today.
Hroswitha von Gandersheim (c. CE 935-1002), the nun-poetess also known as “The Mighty Voice,” and “The Nightingale of Gandersheim” was a very special woman, a sister who became the mother of modern drama.
Her plays, originally in manuscript, were published in 1501 in the first edition of the first collection of modern, i.e. non-classical dramas to appear in print. The volume is a landmark in the history of drama forming “the visible bridge between the few earlier attempts at utilizing the forms of the classical drama for Christian purposes and the miracle plays” (A.W. Ward, Cambridge Modern History).
If you were an aristocratic woman of the tenth century, had a brain and wished to cultivate it, get thee, pronto, to the nunnery at Gandersheim.
“The wealth and privileges of Gandersheim made it a magnet for aristocratic women entering monastic life. In their case, the Benedictine Rule was relaxed, since they were not required to take the vow of poverty. The strength of the education of the Gandersheim nuns is reflected in Hroswitha, the best Latin writer in Europe in her day. She produced poetry and histories of her convent revealing a thorough mastery of the classical Latin authors in the school tradition. Her best known works, and deservedly so, are her six plays. Aside from being the first expression of non-liturgical drama since late antiquity, Hroswitha’s plays show her ability to draw independently on literary sources not in the school curriculum and to use them her own way, developing a distinctive literary style and outlook. She has two sets of models. One is the collection of saints’ lives celebrating the early Christian martyrs, the desert ascetics, and the sinners they had converted to a life of repentance and austerity.
Hroswitha von Gandersheim (c. 935-1002 CE).“The second is the Roman comedian Terence (195/85-159 BC) … He is a surprising source for a nun whose protagonists are Christian martyrs, Magdalenes, and virgins. Hroswitha chose Terence because he taught her how to write humorous dialogue and how to manage the flow of events from scene to scene. She ignores or allegorizes the racy passages. As for her hagiographical sources, they typically exalt the male saint who counsels virgins and martyrs or who converts harlots. In Hroswitha’s hands, the female characters become the protagonists and the role of their male mentors is downplayed or ignored. The result is a series of plays that are genuinely comic, that play very well on stage, and that have happy endings spiritually. They are entertaining and edifying at the same time. Hroswitha’s use of her sources as a springboard for her own innovations, in style and substance, is as noteworthy as the high literary finish of her plays” (Colish, Marcia L. Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition 400-1400. Yale University Press, 1997).
What is particularly noteworthy about her work is that Hroswitha rejected the depiction of women in ancient, classical drama as emotionally unstable and frail; her women are chaste, strong and persevere; they are not weak sisters. Her “comedies” are love stories, as in the original Terence, but the women are not foolish ninnies: There were no silly geese at Gandersheim Abbey.
The original tenth-century manuscript was discovered and edited by Conrad Celtes, the great German humanist and founder of the literary soldality named after him.
Two of the eight (one repeated) woodcuts are by Albrecht Dürer, one depicting Celtes presenting this book to Elector Frederick the Wise, the other representing Hroswitha presenting a book to the Emperor Otto I in the presence of his niece, Gerberga, Abbess of Gandersheim.
This is an extremely rare book with OCLC/KVK noting only two copies in institutional holdings worldwide.
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HROSWITHA VON GANDERSHEIM. Opera / Hrosvite illustris virginis et monialis Germane gente Saxonica orte; nuper a Conrado Celte inventa. In hoc libro haec continentur : Comedie sex in emulationem Therencii … Gallicanus … Dulcicius … Callimachus … Abraham … Paffnucius … Fides et Spes. – Octo sacrae hystorie versu hexa, et pentha. Hystoria beate Marie virginis. Hystoria resurrectionis domini. Hystoria et vita sancti Gangolfi. Hystoria sancti Pelagii. Hystoria conversionis sancti Theophili. Hystoria Proterii et sancti Basilii. Hystoria passionis sancti Dyonisii. Hystoria passionis sancte Agnetis. Panegiricus .. in laudem … Oddonis … primi … Impr. Norimbergae : sub Privil. Sodalitatis Celticae a Senatu Rhomani Imperii impetrato, 1501.
First edition. Small folio. 82 ff, 8 full-page woodcuts, including two by Albrecht Dürer.
Fairfax Murray 210. Brunet III, 356. BMC 21, 1185.736.