Table Of ContentA Companion to Hrotsvit of Gandersheim (fl. 960)
Brill’s Companions to the
Christian Tradition
A series of handbooks and reference works
on the intellectual and religious life of Europe,
500–1800
Editor-in-Chief
Christopher M. Bellitto
(Kean University)
VOLUME 34
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bcct
A Companion to Hrotsvit
of Gandersheim (fl. 960)
Contextual and Interpretive Approaches
Edited by
Phyllis R. Brown and Stephen L. Wailes
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2013
Cover illustration: Part of the Otto-Mathilda Cross, © Domschatz Essen. Foto Jens Nober, Essen.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A companion to Hrotsvit of Gandersheim (fl. 960) : contextual and interpretive approaches /
edited by Phyllis R. Brown and Stephen L. Wailes.
p. cm. — (Brill’s companions to the Christian tradition, ISSN 1871-6377 ; v. 34)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-22962-4 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-23439-0 (e-book)
1. Hrotsvitha, ca. 935–ca. 975—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Christian literature, Latin (Medieval
and modern)—History and criticism. 3. Christianity and literature—Germany—History—To 1500.
4. Women and literature—Germany—History—To 1500. I. Brown, Phyllis Rugg, 1949– II. Wailes,
Stephen L.
PA8340.C66 2012
872’.03—dc23
2012028844
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ISSN 1871-6377
ISBN 978-90-04-22962-4 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-23439-0 (e-book)
Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations .......................................................................................... ix
Acknowledgments .......................................................................................... xi
Editions, Translations, and Abbreviations .............................................. xiii
Canon and Titles ............................................................................................. xv
PART I
INTRODUCTION
Hrotsvit and Her World ................................................................................ 3
Stephen L. Wailes and Phyllis R. Brown
Hrotsvit and Her Works ................................................................................ 23
Walter Berschin
Hrotsvit in Context: Convents and Culture in Ottonian
Germany ....................................................................................................... 35
Jane Stevenson
Hrotsvit’s Theology of Virginity and Continence .................................. 63
Gary Macy
PART II
HROTSVIT’S WRITINGS: CHARACTERISTICS AND PROBLEMS
The Sacred Stories in Verse ......................................................................... 85
Stephen L. Wailes
Hrotsvit’s Plays ................................................................................................. 121
Stephen L. Wailes
The Necessity of Hrotsvit: Evangelizing Theatre .................................. 147
Michael A. Zampelli, SJ
vi contents
David rex fidelis? Otto the Great, the Gesta Ottonis, and the
Primordia coenobii Gandeshemensis ..................................................... 201
Jay T. Lees
Hrotsvit’s Apostolic Mission: Prefaces, Dedications, and Other
Addresses to Readers ................................................................................ 235
Phyllis R. Brown
PART III
ENDURING ISSUES
Virginity and Other Sexualities ................................................................... 267
Lisa M.C. Weston
Strong Voice(s) of Hrotsvit: Male-Female Dialogue ............................. 287
Florence Newman
The Audiences of Hrotsvit ........................................................................... 311
Linda A. McMillin
Hrotsvit and Her Avatars .............................................................................. 329
Katrinette Bodarwé
Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 363
Contributors ..................................................................................................... 381
Index ................................................................................................................... 385
Figure 1: Das Otto-Mathilden-Kreuz © Domschatz Essen.
Foto Jens Nober, Essen.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1 Das Otto-Mathilden-Kreuz © Domschatz Essen.
Foto Jens Nober, Essen ........................................................................... vii
2, 3 and 4 Extracts from Manuscript 14485, © Staatsbibliothek
Munchen .................................................................................................... 32–34
cOVER ILLUSTRATION: At the foot of the Otto-Mathilda Cross (Cathe-
dral Treasury, Essen, late tenth century), a small enamel depicts the
siblings Mathilda and Otto, grandchildren of Otto the Great, niece and
nephew of Otto II. They were contemporaries of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim
and related by blood to her abbess, Gerberga II.
The inscription gives their historical identities: “Abbess [of the Essen
convent]” and “Duke [of Swabia],” but neither their courtly garments nor
any insignia connects them to office. Otto, for example, does not wear a
sword. They are shown equal in height, parallel in posture, and physically
linked by the shaft of the cross which they jointly hold. Both of Otto’s
hands touch it, although loosely; Mathilda grasps it strongly with her left
hand and gestures with her right either to Otto in salutation, or to Christ
Crucified, directly above, in homage.
Iconographic interpretation is not certain. The cross represented in the
enamel differs in form (Greek) from the (Latin) cross of which it is part, so
that the donation of this cross to Essen is apparently not depicted. Recent
scholarship reads the image symbolically. With the death of Otto in 982,
the male Ottonian line in Swabia came to its end and both its material
wealth, and responsibility for the veneration and commemoration of the
family, passed to Mathilda. The enamel may therefore represent this post-
humous passage from Otto (hands relinquishing their hold) to Mathilda
(seizing firmly).
This picture of Ottonian siblings, a woman and a man equal in dignity
and highly placed in the political and ecclesiastical orders, evokes the
larger context of Hrotsvit’s writing. (Photographs used by permission of
the Cathedral Treasury, Essen.)
