Women and words: texts by and about women

Abstract

The oldest known artistic work of literature by a Christian woman to survive intact is the Cento Vergilianus de laudibus Christi by a fourth-century noble woman commonly identified as Faltonia Betitia Proba. In the sixth century, the noble woman Anicia Juliana cited Eudocia's model in the elegant epigram she produced for inscription in the Church of Hagios Polyeuktos in Constantinople, a rare and sumptuous joining of literary and visual arts. The Christian literature by and about women surviving from late antiquity presents people with substantial evidence that the women authors whose names represent the tip of an iceberg. Aristocratic women sometimes obtained the same classical education as men; women of lesser means could still attain a high level of learning, particularly in Bible and other Christian literature, especially in convents where women were clearly expected to cultivate such learning as a part of their religious formation.