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.
  • BirthName: Anna Maria van Schurman
  • Nickname: The Tenth Muse
Photograph of a painting of Anna Maria van Schurman by Jan Lievens. She is seated at a desk with an inkwell and quill on it, and the book she holds appears to have blank pages: so she is shown as a writer. She is wearing a large, dark, fur-trimmed cloak over a white chemise with a low V neck; her dark hair is partly pulled back in a bun encircled with a strand of pearls, with the rest of her hair falling down around her shoulders. National Gallery.

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, 1991, 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, 1980, 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, 1980, 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, 1980, 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, 1980, 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, 1991, 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, 1980, 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, 1991, 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, 1980, pp. 68-85.
68-9

Please click on login button to check your access and/or enter your credentials. Alternatively if you don’t have access, please click on “Subscribe”.

Log inSubscribe