At about the same
time, the famous Hrosvitha of Gandersheim writes her six Christian
dramas patterned after Terence, and in them uses Horace. Mention by
Walter of Speyer, and interest shown by the active monastery on the
Tegernsee, are of the same period. The tenth century is sometimes spoken
of as the Latin Renaissance under the Ottos, the first of whom, called
the Great, crowned Emperor at Rome in 962, welcomed scholars at his
court and made every effort to promote learning.
The momentum of intellectual interest is not lost in the eleventh
century. Paris becomes its most ardent center, with Reims, Orleans, and
Fleury also of note. The _Codex Parisinus_ belongs to this period.
German activity, too, is at its height, especially in the education of
boys for the church. Italy affords one catalogue mention, of a Horace
copied under Desiderius. Peter Damian was its man of greatest learning,
but the times were intellectually stagnant. The popes were occupied by
rivalry with the emperors. It was the century of Gregory the Seventh and
Canossa.
In the twelfth century came the struggle of the Hohenstaufen with the
Italian cities, and the disorder and turmoil of the rise of the communes
and the division of Italy.
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