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Hrotsvithae Opera (Classic Reprint)
Excerpt from Hrotsvithae Opera
I asc.� asc. Caret prooemio, ut altera pars camini.: pr: of: �s separati: numquam edita peroratio:: em habet (v.147 - 150)
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Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
I asc.� asc. Caret prooemio, ut altera pars camini.: pr: of: �s separati: numquam edita peroratio:: em habet (v.147 - 150)
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
- GenresMedieval
582 pages, Paperback
First published February 12, 2010
11 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
About the author
Hrotsvitha
58 books9 followersOn ancient Roman plays, German nun and poet Roswitha (Hrotsvitha) (circa 935-circa 1000) modeled dialogs that represent an early stage in the revival of European drama.
With a name also spelled Hroswitha, Hrotsvit, or Hrosvit, this a 10th-century German secular canoness and dramatist, born into nobility, lived and worked in a community, the abbey of Bad Gandersheim in modern-day Lower Saxony, Germany. She attests her name as Saxon for "strong voice."
After antiquity, some critics consider her, who wrote in Latin, as the first person to compose drama in Latin-influenced western Europe.
Hrotsvit studied under Rikkardis and Gerberg, daughter of Henry the Fowler, king. Otto I the Great, emperor and brother of Gerberg, penned a history, one of poetical subjects of Hrotsvit in her Carmen de Gestis Oddonis Imperatoris , which encompasses the period to the coronation of Otto I in 962.
Gerberg introduced her, noted for her great learning, to Roman writers. Work of Hrotsvit shows familiarity with the Church Fathers and classical poetry, including that of Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Plautus, and she modellded her own verse on that of Terence. Several of her plays draw on the "Apocryphal gospels." Her works form part of the renaissance of Otto.
With a name also spelled Hroswitha, Hrotsvit, or Hrosvit, this a 10th-century German secular canoness and dramatist, born into nobility, lived and worked in a community, the abbey of Bad Gandersheim in modern-day Lower Saxony, Germany. She attests her name as Saxon for "strong voice."
After antiquity, some critics consider her, who wrote in Latin, as the first person to compose drama in Latin-influenced western Europe.
Hrotsvit studied under Rikkardis and Gerberg, daughter of Henry the Fowler, king. Otto I the Great, emperor and brother of Gerberg, penned a history, one of poetical subjects of Hrotsvit in her Carmen de Gestis Oddonis Imperatoris , which encompasses the period to the coronation of Otto I in 962.
Gerberg introduced her, noted for her great learning, to Roman writers. Work of Hrotsvit shows familiarity with the Church Fathers and classical poetry, including that of Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Plautus, and she modellded her own verse on that of Terence. Several of her plays draw on the "Apocryphal gospels." Her works form part of the renaissance of Otto.
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January 2, 2021I was surprised and very happy to find an English translation of Hrotsvit's works, never mind for free on Kindle.
Her work is always engaging if sometimes naïve in style. There seems to be a sort of undergraduate enthusiasm in her writing her own Christian substitutes for Terence's plays, although from a historical point of view this was a remarkable and daring cultural achievement. Hrotsvit mostly draws on early Christian literature for her themes. While she does produce some strong women characters, there is a slightly gloomy emphasis on penance and martyrdom which I suppose reflects the sources she had at had to some degree.
Her work is always engaging if sometimes naïve in style. There seems to be a sort of undergraduate enthusiasm in her writing her own Christian substitutes for Terence's plays, although from a historical point of view this was a remarkable and daring cultural achievement. Hrotsvit mostly draws on early Christian literature for her themes. While she does produce some strong women characters, there is a slightly gloomy emphasis on penance and martyrdom which I suppose reflects the sources she had at had to some degree.
July 15, 2018
It’s natural that Hrotsvitha’s plays overshadow her other writings: they are significantly the first dramas in Europe since antiquity, and the first at all written by a woman. But her poems, adroitly written in elegiac couplets and leonine hexameters, were way better! The plays’ dialogue was too wooden, the Christian messages too blunt, and the didactic sections too dull, to make them happy reading. I laughed when a martyr and her daughters gave a slow-witted emperor a condescending lesson about perfect numbers. But it’s a lot of slag for a little gold. Not so with her verse, however, which was smoother, lighter, more felicitous and more delightful! I hope it will get more attention.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews