Born: Unknown (early 300s CE), Italy
Died: Unknown (mid-300s CE)
Country most active: Italy
Also known as: Valeria Falcona (or Falconia) Proba
This biography was originally published in the World History Encyclopedia and was written by Joshua J. Mark. It is shared in line with the Encyclopedia’s policies under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Proba (l. c. 322-370) holds the distinction as the first female Christian writer solidly attested by documentation. She is known for the genre of literary work called a cento (‘patchwork’) in which an author used lines from established poetic works, woven with their own, to create a completely new work of art. In the present day, this would be ‘sampling’ in popular music where an artist borrows a well-known melody, in whole or in part, to inform their original piece. Proba came from a wealthy Roman family and was most likely raised in Roman pagan tradition before converting to Christianity sometime before embarking on her literary career. She combined the poetry of Virgil with biblical themes to emphasize the eternal and heroic aspects of Christianity. Her works were later used in Roman classrooms to teach upper-class children as they subtly combined the pagan history of the past with Christian ideals.