A letter from Hrotsvit, nun of Gandersheim ()

Translated letter:

Her letter to certain learned men, patrons of this book. To those with learning and good customs who do not envy others' progress but, as befits learned men, rejoice in it, Hrotsvit, small in knowledge and goodness, [sends] present health and perpetual joy. I can not admire the magnitude of your praiseworthy humility enough, I do not suffice to repay the fullness of your magnificent kindness and love towards my low state with worthy recompense since, nourished especially with philosophical studies and perfected far more excellently in learning, you considered the little work of a low little woman worthy of your admiration and you praised the giver of the grace working in me rejoicing with fraternal affection, thinking I had some knowledge of the arts whose subtlety far surpasses my womanly wit. I have scarcely dared up to now to show the crudeness of my little composition to a few and only those I am most intimate with. So the work of composing beyond something of this kind almost ceased because as there were few who saw what I produced, so there were not many who could either correct or encourage me to something similar. But now, since the testimony of three determines truth, strengthened by your opinions, I presume to do the work of composing most faithfully, when God grants the ability, and submit it to the examination of learned people. In these, I am drawn to different feelings of joy and fear: for God, by whose grace alone I am what I am, I rejoice profoundly that he is praised by me; but I fear to seem greater than I am, since I do not doubt that it is wrong to deny the gift of God or to pretend to have received [such a gift] if one has not. I do not deny that, through the grace of the creator, I know something about the arts, since I am an animal capable of learning, but I confess that I do not know anything by my own efforts. I know that a sharp wit was divinely conferred on me but was uncultivated and neglected when the diligence of my teachers [masc] ceased and the laziness of my own apathy numbed it. On that account, to keep the gift of God from being annulled in me because of my negligence, I have tried to remove some threads or even pieces of cloth from Philosophy's robe(1)which I took care to insert in the foresaid little work, so that the baseness of my ignorance would be enlightened by the mixture of nobler matter and the bestower of wit would be more fully praised in me as womanly sense is believed to be slower. This is my intention in composing, this alone the cause of my sweat/effort; I do not pretend to know when I am ignorant but I know this much, that I do not know. But inclined by your favor and request, like the reed [Matth.11:7], I decided to offer openly the little book, which I prepared with such an intention but have up to now kept hidden because of its worthlessness, for you to examine. It is for you to investigate and emend it with the diligence of no less sollicitude than if it were your own work. Then send it back to me reworked to the correct form so that, with your teaching to show me, I may recognize in what ways I particularly sinned.

Original letter:

Plene sciis et bene moratis nec alieno profectui invidentibus, sed, ut decet vere sapientes, congratulantibus, Hrotsvit nesciola nullaque probitate idonea praesens valere et perpes gaudere. Vestrae igitur laudandae humilitatis magnitudinem satis admirari nequeo magnificaeque circa mei vilitatem benignitatis atque dilectionis plenitudinem condignarum recompensatione gratiarum remetiri non sufficio, quia, cum a philosophicis adprime studiis enutriti et scientia longe excellentius sitis perfecti, mei opusculum vilis mulierculae vestra admiratione dignum duxistis et largitorem in me operantis gratiae fraterno affectu gratulantes laudastis, arbitrantes mihi inesse aliquantulam scientiam artium, quarum subtilitas longe praeterit mei muliebre ingenium. Denique rusticitatem a meae dictatiunculae hactenus vix audebam paucis ac solummodo familiaribus meis ostendere; unde paene opera cessavit dictandi ultra aliquid huiusmodi, quia, sicut pauci fuere, ui me prodente perspicerent, ita non multi, qui vel quid corrigendum inesset enuclearent, vel ad audendum aliquid huic simile provocarent. At nunc, quia trium testimonium a constat esse verum, vestris corroborata sententiis fiducialius praesumo et componendis operam dare, si quando deus annuerit posse, et quorumcumque sapientium examen subire. Inter haec diversis affectibus, gaudio videlicet et metu, in diversum trahor; deum namque, cuius solummodo gratia sum id quod sum, in me laudari cordetenus gaudeo; sed maior, quam sim, videri timeo, quia utrumque nefas esse non ambigo, et gratuitum dei donum negare, et non acceptum accepisse simulare. Unde non denego praestante gratia creatoris per dynamin me artes scire, quia sum animal capax disciplinae, sed per energian fateor omnino nescire. Perspicax quoque ingenium divinitus mihi collatum esse agnosco, sed magistrorum cessante diligentia incultum et propriae pigritia inertiae torpet neglectum. Quapropter, ne in me donum dei annullaretur ob neglegentiam mei, si qua forte fila vel etiam foccos de panniculis, a veste Philosophiae abruptis, evellere quivi, praefato opusculo inserere curavi, quo vilitas meae inscientiae intermixtione nobilioris materiae illustraretur et largitor ingenii tanto amplius in me iure laudaretur, quanto muliebris sensus tardior esse creditur. Haec mea in dictando intentio, haec sola mei sudoris est causa; neque simulando me nescita scire iacto, sed, quantum ad me, tantum scio, quod nescio. Quia enim attactu vestri favoris atque petitionis harundineo more inclinata libellum, quem tali intentione disposui, sed usque huc pro sui vilitate occultare quam in palam proferre malui, vobis perscrutandum tradidi, decet, ut non minoris diligentia sollicitudinis eum emendando investigetis, quam proprii seriem laboris. Et sic tandem ad normam rectitudinis reformatum mihi remittite, quo, vestri magisterio praemonstrante, in quibus maxime peccassem, possim agnoscere.

Historical context:

Hrotsvit reminds her patrons of their past encouragement and asks them to correct her current work.

Scholarly notes:

(1)A reference to Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy, and a way of showing that Hrotsvit does indeed have some education.

Printed source:

Hrotsvithae Opera, ed. H. Homeyer (Munich: Schöningh, 1970), 235-37