Anna Maria van Schurman

-
AMS , living in seventeenth-century Utrecht, became not only a living proof of women's talents and capacity for education, as equal to those of men, but also a public advocate for opportunities for women to develop their God-given capacity. Later, as a leader of the religious sect of the Labadists , she renounced worldly learning and wrote only devotional works. Throughout her life she wrote letters in which she records the life of her mind and the development of her opinions.

Milestones

5 November 1607

AMS , scholar, religious leader, and proto-feminist, was born in Cologne.
Waithe, Mary Ellen. “Anna Maria van Schurman 1607-1678”. Modern Women Philosophers, 1600-1900, edited by Mary Ellen Waithe, Kluwer, pp. 210-11.
210
Irwin, Joyce L. “Anna Maria van Schurman: The Star of Utrecht (Dutch, 1607-1678)”. Female Scholars: A Tradition of Learned Women Before 1800, edited by Jeanie R. Brink, Eden Press, pp. 68-85.
68-9

1638

AMS composed a treatise on education for women, Amica dissertatio . . . de capacitate ingenii muliebris ad scientias, which reached print about three years later.
Irwin, Joyce L. “Anna Maria van Schurman: The Star of Utrecht (Dutch, 1607-1678)”. Female Scholars: A Tradition of Learned Women Before 1800, edited by Jeanie R. Brink, Eden Press, pp. 68-85.
72

1641

Johan van Beverwyck edited AMS 's treatise Dissertatio, de ingenii muliebris ad doctrinam and published it at Paris
Irwin, Joyce L. “Anna Maria van Schurman: The Star of Utrecht (Dutch, 1607-1678)”. Female Scholars: A Tradition of Learned Women Before 1800, edited by Jeanie R. Brink, Eden Press, pp. 68-85.
72
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

June 1659

Clement Barksdale 's English translation of AMS 's De ingenii muliebris, 1641, was published in London as The Learned Maid; or, Whether a Maid may be a Scholar?
English Short Title Catalogue. http://estc.bl.uk/.
Irwin, Joyce L. “Anna Maria van Schurman: The Star of Utrecht (Dutch, 1607-1678)”. Female Scholars: A Tradition of Learned Women Before 1800, edited by Jeanie R. Brink, Eden Press, pp. 68-85.
72, 84

5 May 1678

AMS , scholar, religious leader, and proto-feminist, died at the Labadist community near the village of Wieuwerd in Holland.
Waithe, Mary Ellen. “Anna Maria van Schurman 1607-1678”. Modern Women Philosophers, 1600-1900, edited by Mary Ellen Waithe, Kluwer, pp. 210-11.
210
Irwin, Joyce L. “Anna Maria van Schurman: The Star of Utrecht (Dutch, 1607-1678)”. Female Scholars: A Tradition of Learned Women Before 1800, edited by Jeanie R. Brink, Eden Press, pp. 68-85.
68, 80

Biography

Birth and Background

5 November 1607

AMS , scholar, religious leader, and proto-feminist, was born in Cologne.
Waithe, Mary Ellen. “Anna Maria van Schurman 1607-1678”. Modern Women Philosophers, 1600-1900, edited by Mary Ellen Waithe, Kluwer, pp. 210-11.
210
Irwin, Joyce L. “Anna Maria van Schurman: The Star of Utrecht (Dutch, 1607-1678)”. Female Scholars: A Tradition of Learned Women Before 1800, edited by Jeanie R. Brink, Eden Press, pp. 68-85.
68-9