Hrotsvitha

thumb|320px|Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim presents an aged emperor Otto the Great with her Gesta Oddonis, under the eyes of Abbess Gerberga II, Abbess of Gandersheim|Gerberga. 1501 [[woodcut by Albrecht Dürer.]]

Hrotsvitha (–973) was a secular canoness who wrote drama and Christian poetry under the Ottonian dynasty. She was born in Bad Gandersheim to Saxon nobles and entered Gandersheim Abbey as a canoness. She is considered the first female writer from the Germanosphere, the first person since the Fall of the Roman Empire to write dramas in the Latin West, and the first German female poet.