Until the last century, men dominated the realms of literature, letters, and learning. We read nothing of women exchanging rhetoric and positing thesis among the ancients and classic philosophers of Greece. In fact, the doors of academia and literature largely shut women out in Western culture, relegating them to second class citizenship for a variety of reasons not to be discussed here.
After the fall of Rome in the 5th century, the spread of Christianity allowed greater opportunities for women as readers and writers. Out of the chaos in the dark ages, ordered communities centered around the establishment of Christian monasteries and abbeys—the lifeline of literacy, scholarship, and intellectual life. Cloistered living afforded devout men and women a way to balance devotion, work, and study.
Into this world, Hrostvitha (rose-vee-tuh) was born in 935, a daughter of noble birth in Gandersheim, Germany. She could look forward to many privileges otherwise denied to the greater population of women, including education. Her faith, formed in childhood, put her on the path to the monastic life. She committed her life to the abbey as a “canoness,” a level allowing her free movement in and out of the cloister as a nun. She was schooled in reading and writing in a number of languages. A student of Greek and Roman classics, the plays of Terence captivated her imagination, even though she feared the subject matter would corrupt Christian readers.