Description
Book SynopsisAnna Maria van Schurman was widely regarded as the most erudite woman in seventeenth-century Europe. As “the Star of Utrecht,” she was active in a network of learning that included the most renowned scholars of her time. Known for her extensive learning and her defense of the education of women, she was the first woman to sit in on lectures at a university in the Netherlands and to advocate that women be admitted into universities. She was proficient in fourteen languages, including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Aramaic, Persian, Samaritan, and Ethiopian, as well as several vernacular European languages.
This volume presents in translation a remarkable collection of her letters and poems—many of which were previously unpublished—that span almost four decades of her life, from 1631 to 1669.
Trade Review“This volume of letters and poems, which comes at a propitious time in Anna Maria van Schurman scholarship, is far more inclusive than anything I have seen, and will interest a potentially large audience of knowledgeable readers. The letters included here, in superior translations, display the art of letter writing in all its facets and possibilities, trace the continued exchange of ideas with members of van Schurman’s circle, and exemplify the scholarly debates of the seventeenth century, with a woman as one of the debaters.” -- Cornelia Niekus Moore, University of Hawaii
Table of ContentsIllustrations
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
The Other Voice
Historical and Religious Context of the Early Dutch Golden Age
Life and Published Works
Anna Maria van Schurman and Her Mentor, André Rivet
Affairs of Church and State
Anna Maria van Schurman as Religious Polemicist
Anna Maria van Schurman and Female Members of Her Circle
Anna Maria van Schurman and Constantijn Huygens, 1633–1669
Anna Maria van Schurman, Latin, and Letter Writing
The Reception and Afterlife of Anna Maria van Schurman
The KB Collection
A Curious Addition to the Manuscript (no. 58, 1:71)
Note on the Text, Translation, and Cover Portrait
The Plan of the Book
PART 1: Letters and Poems to and from Her Mentor, André Rivet, and Other Members of Her Circle, 1631–1652
PART 2: Anna Maria van Schurman and Constantijn Huygens: Letters and Poems, 1633–1669
Appendix A: Part 1 and 2 Chronologies and Chronological Graphs
Appendix B: Additional Poems by Constantijn Huygens and Caspar Barlaeus to and about Anna Maria van Schurman, 1635–1650
Appendix C: Additional Letters to, from, and about Anna Maria van Schurman, 1636–1782
Appendix D: A Biography of Anna Maria van Schurman, by Pierre Yvon
Appendix E: Examples of Anna Maria van Schurman’s Latin and French Letters
Bibliography
Index
