ABSTRACT
The tenth-century noblewoman Hrotswitha, canoness of the Benedictine monastery of Gandersheim in Saxony, was one of the most able and prolific writers of the Middle Ages. She produced a body of literature in three genres. These are her eight saints’ lives, celebrating the courageous faith of individuals in the unfolding struggle of Christianity; her dramas, which secure her place as the first Western nonliturgical playwright; and a pair of epics that identify the political and Christian purpose of her monastery and family. Hrotswitha learned of Pelagius from a visitor to Otto’s court. To the martyrdom of Pelagius, Hrotswitha adds background details on the history and description of Córdoba that are quite accurate and must have come from her informant. Her characterizations are lively; central comic scene is liberally seasoned with “kitchen humor,” a type of joke favored among earlier Latin writers, who saw the figure of the cook on a par with the vilest slave and therefore ripe for taunting.
