or Roswitha
born 0441; 935
died 0441; 1000
German writer, regarded as the first German woman poet.
Of noble birth, she lived as a nun in a Benedictine convent most of her life. There she wrote six prose comedies in Latin ( 0441; 960), based in form on those of Terence but embodying Christian themes, to edify her fellow nuns. She also wrote narrative poems based on Christian legends and two verse chronicles.