Hrotsvithae opera, ed. by Conrad Celtius. Nuremberg, 1501.

Hrotsvithae opera, ed. on behalf of Paul von Winterfeld. Berlin, 1902: reed. in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum germanicarum, in usum scholarum. Berlin, Weidmann, 1965.

Hrotsvithae opera, ed. by Karl Strecker. Leipzig, 1906.

Hrotsvithae opera, ed. and German trans. by Helene Homeyer. Munich, Paderborn and Vienna, 1970.

Rosvita, Dialoghi drammatici, text and Italian trans. by Ferruccio Bertini, intro. by Peter Dronke. Milan, Garzanti, 1986.

Hrotsvitha de Gandersheim, Los seis dramas, ed. and Castilian trans. by Luis Astey. Mexico, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1990.

Hrotsvitha de Gandersheim, Obras dramáticas, Castilian trans. by Julián Pemartín and Fidel Perrino. Barcelona, Montaner y Simón, 1959.

Rosvita de Gandersheim, Dramas, trans. by Andrés José Pociña López. Madrid, Akal, 2003.

Hrotsvitha, canoness of Gandersheim, describes, in a dialogue between the Roman Emperor Adriano and his advisor Antioch, the danger that may be posed for the State – the maximum expression of the public in the western world- by the arrival in the capital of the empire of a Christian woman -called Sapientia or Wisdom- who, accompanied by her three daughters, preaches to women that they should neither eat with their husbands nor sleep with them.

In the court of Adrian in Rome

ANTIOCH, ADRIAN, WISDOM, FAITH, HOPE, CHARITY

ANTIOCH: Since I wish from the heart, oh Emperor Adrian, that the favourable occasioning of events may increase, as you desire, your power, and that the state of your empire continue to be happy and without trouble, it is my desire to eradicate and eliminate as soon as possible all that might trouble the state or interfere with your peace of mind.

ADRIAN: And it is not injustice; since our prosperity makes your fortune, given that we do not cease to raise you up, day after day, to the highest in command.

ANTIOCH: I give thanks to your serene majesty; because of this, when I see that something arises that seems to me resistant to your power, I do not hide it but rather, without delay, I make it clear.

ADRIAN: And you do well; that way you will not be accused of lese-majesty for hiding what you should not hide.

ANTIOCH: It is a crime that I have never committed.

ADRIAN: I remember; but, if you know something new, tell me what it is.

ANTIOCH: A woman, a foreigner, has arrived recently in this city of Rome, accompanied by three little children, fruits of her own body.

ADRIAN: What sex are the little children?

ANTIOCH: All feminine.

ADRIAN: And the arrival of a few little women may be of danger for the state?

ANTIOCH: Extremely dangerous.

ADRIAN: How?

ANTIOCH: It threatens the peace.

ADRIAN: In what way?

ANTIOCH: Is there anything that may break the harmony of civil peace more than the diversity of worship?

ADRIAN: Nothing more serious, nothing more pernicious. The Roman world is evidence of that since it has been infected everywhere by the mortal plague of Christian dirt.

ANTIOCH: The woman I am speaking to you about exhorts ours to abandon the ancestral rites and to give themselves up to the Christian religion.

ADRIAN: And do her exhortations by any chance prosper?

ANTIOCH: A great deal; since our wives have taken a strong dislike to us and despise us, to the point of refusing to eat and, even, sleep with us.

ADRIAN: I recognise the danger.

ANTIOCH: You should take precautions.

ADRIAN: It is logical. Call her here and let her discuss in our presence if she intends to stop.

ANTIOCH: You wish me to call her here?

ADRIAN: I do, for sure.

ANTIOCHUS, ADRIANUS, SAPIENTIA, FIDES, SPES, KARITAS

ANTIOCHUS: Tuum igitur esse, o imperator Adriane, prosperis ad vota successionibus pollere tuique statum imperii feliciter absque perturbatione exoptans vigere, quicquid rempublicam confundere, quicquid tranquillum mentis reor vulnerare posse, quantocius divelli penitusque cupio labefactari.

ADRIANUS: Nec iniuria; nam nostri prosperitas tui est felicitas, cum summos dignitatis gradus in dies tibi augere non desistimus.

ANTIOCHUS: Congratulor tuae almitati; unde, si quid experior emergere, quod tuo potentatui videtur contraluctari, non occulo, sed impatiens morae profero.

ADRIANUS: Et merito, ne reus maiestatis esse arguaris, si non celanda celaveris.

ANTIOCHUS: Huismodi commisso reatus numquam fui obnoxius.

ADRIANUS: Memini; sed profer, si quid scias novi.

ANTIOCHUS: Quaedam advena mulier hanc urbem Romam nuper intravit, comitata proprii faetus pusiolis tribus.

ADRIANUS: Cuius sexus sunt pusioli?

ANTIOCHUS: Omnes feminei.

ADRIANUS: Numquid tantillarum adventus muliercularum aliquid rei publicae adducere poterit detrimentum?

ANTIOCHUS: Permagnum.

ADRIANUS: Quod?

ANTIOCHUS: Pacis defectum.

ADRIANUS: Quo pacto?

ANTIOCHUS: Et quod maius potest rumpere civilis concordiam pacis, quam dissonantia observationis?

ADRIANUS: Nihil gravius, nihil deterius; quod testatur orbis Romanus, quid undiquesecus christianae caedis sorde est infectus.

ANTIOCHUS: Haec igitur femina, cuius mentionem facio, hortatur nostrates, avitos ritus deserere et christianae religioni se dedere.

ADRIANUS: Num praevalet hortamentum?

ANTIOCHUS: Nimium; nam nostrae coniuges fastidiendo nos contempnunt adeo, ut dedignantur nobiscum comedere, quanto minus dormire.

ADRIANUS: Fateor, periculum.

ANTIOCHUS: Decet tui personam praecavere.

ADRIANUS: Consequens est. Advocetur et in nostri praesentia, an velit cedere, discutiatur.

ANTIOCHUS: Vin me illam advocare?

ADRIANUS: Volo percerte.