The Well-Laden Ship (Fecunda ratis) is an early eleventh-century Latin poem composed of ancient and medieval proverbs, fables, and folktales. Compiled by Egbert of Liège, it was planned as a first reader for beginning students. This makes it one of the few surviving works from the Middle Ages written explicitly for schoolroom use. Most of the content derives from the Bible, especially the wisdom books, from the Church Fathers, and from the ancient poets, notably Vergil, Juvenal, and Horace; but, remarkably, Egbert also included Latin versions of much folklore from the spoken languages. It features early forms of nursery rhymes (for example, "Jack Sprat"), folktales (for instance, various tales connected with Reynard the Fox), and even fairytales (notably "Little Red Riding Hood"). The poem also contains medieval versions of many still popular sayings, such as "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," "When the cat's away, the mice will play," and "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." The Well-Laden Ship, which survives in a single medieval manuscript, has been edited previously only once (in 1889) and has never been translated. It will fascinate anyone interested in proverbial wisdom, folklore, medieval education, or medieval poetry.

The complete works of the first known woman playwright

Hrotsvit, a canoness at the convent of Gandersheim in Saxony during the tenth century, is the first Latin dramatist since late antiquity whose work survives. While her plays are still frequently performed, her other works are not readily available in English.

A desire to provide a morally superior, elegant alternative to Terence motivated Hrotsvit—instead of lascivious women, chaste virgins; instead of misbehaving young men defying their fathers, well-behaved young women obeying their mothers and defying male superiors; instead of erotic love, the love of Christ. Her plays are preeminently women’s plays: written for an audience of women and principally about women. Her female characters have extensive speaking parts; they are active, assertive, and self-directed.

In addition to the plays, Hrotsvit composed poems centered on saints and holy persons such as the Virgin Mary, Saint Denis, and the early Christian martyr Agnes. She also wrote epics on Otto the Great and on the founding of Gandersheim Abbey. Her poems for Theophilus and for Saint Basil both present versions of the Faustus legend. The Works of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim includes all of these texts, plus her introductory letters and several shorter poems, in this first complete translation of Hrotsvit into English.