00 omslag 18-08-2010 22:43 Pagina 1 The first female university student: The first female university student : Anna Maria van Schurman (1636) Anna Maria van Schurman (1636) The first female university student: Who was the first female university student in the Netherlands? Pose this question to anyone in the Netherlands and the incorrect answer Aletta Jacobs will probably come your way. But more than two centuries earlier, in 1636, Anna Maria van Schurman had become the first female university student in Utrecht, and thereby the first in the Netherlands and even in the whole of Eu- rope. Anna Maria van Schurman attended not only private lectures at the University of Utrecht, but also public disputations and “listening” lectures in the fields of languages and medicine, but especially in theology. She wrote poetry in many languages and published a dissertation on women’s rights to academic study. Her book Opuscula Hebraea Graeca Latina et Gallica was reprinted several times and was noted internationally. Her knowledge of lan- guages was astounding. She was proficient in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syrian, Samaritan, Arabic and Ethiopian, to name but a few. Van Schurman was well-known internationally and became a key figure within a European network of learned women which included Birgitte Thott, Christina of Swe- den, Marie le Jars de Gournay, Bathsua Makin and Dorothea Moore. But in 1669 Anna Maria van Schurman, watched by many in disbelief, left the city, church and university of Utrecht to join the Labadists, a radical Protestant Anna Maria group. She attempted to explain the reasons for this turnabout in her Latin autobiography, the Eukleria. van Schurman (1636) The first female university student: Anna Maria van Schurman (1636) provides a detailed picture of the life and times of Anna Maria van Schurman: her po- sition in the academic world of the seventeenth century, her role within the Republic of Letters, and the content and influence of her publications in the Netherlands and Europe. ISBN 978-90-6701-030-6 Pieta van Beek 9 789067 01 0306 00 omslag 18-08-2010 22:43 Pagina 1 The first female university student: The first female university student : Anna Maria van Schurman (1636) Anna Maria van Schurman (1636) The first female university student: Who was the first female university student in the Netherlands? Pose this question to anyone in the Netherlands and the incorrect answer Aletta Jacobs will probably come your way. But more than two centuries earlier, in 1636, Anna Maria van Schurman had become the first female university student in Utrecht, and thereby the first in the Netherlands and even in the whole of Eu- rope. Anna Maria van Schurman attended not only private lectures at the University of Utrecht, but also public disputations and “listening” lectures in the fields of languages and medicine, but especially in theology. She wrote poetry in many languages and published a dissertation on women’s rights to academic study. Her book Opuscula Hebraea Graeca Latina et Gallica was reprinted several times and was noted internationally. Her knowledge of lan- guages was astounding. She was proficient in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syrian, Samaritan, Arabic and Ethiopian, to name but a few. Van Schurman was well-known internationally and became a key figure within a European network of learned women which included Birgitte Thott, Christina of Swe- den, Marie le Jars de Gournay, Bathsua Makin and Dorothea Moore. But in 1669 Anna Maria van Schurman, watched by many in disbelief, left the city, church and university of Utrecht to join the Labadists, a radical Protestant Anna Maria group. She attempted to explain the reasons for this turnabout in her Latin autobiography, the Eukleria. van Schurman (1636) The first female university student: Anna Maria van Schurman (1636) provides a detailed picture of the life and times of Anna Maria van Schurman: her po- sition in the academic world of the seventeenth century, her role within the Republic of Letters, and the content and influence of her publications in the Netherlands and Europe. ISBN 978-90-6701-030-6 Pieta van Beek 9 789067 01 0306 The first female university student: Anna Maria van Schurman (1636) Dedicated to my fiancé Erik Heijerman Pieta van Beek The first female university student: Anna Maria van Schurman (1636) This translation has been commissioned by the Executive Board and the former Rector Magnificus, professor Willem Hendrik Gispen of the University of Utrecht. This edition was made possible in part by the financial support of the University of Utrecht, in part by the Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde, Leiden. Thanks to Madelon Pieper for her friendship and moral support. Translated from De eerste studente: Anna Maria van Schurman (1636). Utrecht: Matrijs, 2004 (2007) Translators: Anna-Mart Bonthuys (DLitt et Phil (SA)) Dineke Ehlers (MA (SA)) Translators’ notes: 1. For the convenience of the reader, quotations and titles of texts have been paraphrased, and either the quotation or the relevant paraphrase have been given in square brackets. 2. Passages from the Bible were quoted from the Authorized King James Version (Kenneth Cope - land Reference Edition). 3. In the interest of consistency regarding spelling and language usage, UK (Oxford) English refer- ence sources were used (e.g. various Oxford English dictionaries and the New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors, 2005). The first female university student: Anna Maria van Schurman (1636) was published by Igitur, Utrecht Publishing & Archiving Services. The text was composed in the typeface Minion, book design by AlfaGrafica, Hilversum, the Netherlands. First edition: 2010 © Igitur, Utrecht Publishing & Archiving Services Heidelberglaan 3, Utrecht, The Netherlands www.uu.nl/igitur isbn 978-90-6701-030-6 All rights reserved. No part of this edition may be reproduced or stored by automated means, or be made public in any form or in any way without prior permission from the the publisher. Contents Preface . 7 Part i anna maria van schurman before the establishment of the university of utrecht Chapter 1. ‘The spirited young woman’ [‘De geest-rijcke jonge dochter’] 1607-1636 . 13 Her life . 13 The Republic of Letters . 28 Education . .34 Part ii anna maria van schurman and the university of utrecht 1634-1669 Chapter 2. ‘Sun of justice, illuminate us’ [‘Sol iustitiae illustra nos’]: the Utrecht Republic of Letters . 47 Establishment of the University of Utrecht . 47 The first female university student . 55 Studies . 62 ‘The Utrecht Republic of Letters’ . 94 Chapter 3. ‘Oh, blossom of the country’ [‘O bloeme van het land’]: the Dutch Republic of Letters . 103 The Opuscula Hebraea Graeca, Latina et Gallica . 103 The Republic of Letters . 108 The Women’s Republic of Letters in the Netherlands . 144 Educated women in the Netherlands . 150 Chapter 4. ‘The pride of Europe’ [‘Het pronksel van Euroop’’]: the European Republic of Letters . 157 ‘Drottning Kristina’ . 157 The European Republic of Letters . 159 The European Women’s Republic of Letters . 176 6 Contents Differences . .194 The first female university student . 199 Part iii anna maria van schurman leaves utrecht 1669-1678 Chapter 5. ‘With clouded judgement?’ [‘Een wolk voor haar verstand?’]: severing ties with Utrecht . 203 Utrecht . 203 ‘Republic of Letters?’ . 208 Women’s issues . 219 ‘Respublica Labadiana’ . 220 Epilogue . 243 Endnotes . 251 Bibliography and references . 262 Register of names . 275 About the author . 279 Illustration credits . 280 Preface ho was the first female university student in the Netherlands? Pose this question to Wanyone in the Netherlands and he or she would either plead ignorance or give the incorrect answer – Aletta Jacobs. It is time to change this. In this book, I will show that Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1678) was the first female university student, not only in Utrecht, but also in the Netherlands and probably also in the whole of Europe. She was the first woman to participate in the academic landscape and to be regarded as an absolute equal. Her erudition is the reason why she features so often when one delves into the seven- teenth century. For instance, in a portrait hanging in the lounge of a Frisian house in 1680, and denoted as ‘the Pride of Europe’ [‘het Pronksel van Euroop’’]. In the poem that the Frisian poetess Titia Brongersma wrote on this painting, she praised Van Schurman as learned woman, who had been born, as it were, straight from Pallas [Athena’s] brain, who had ‘brought about a series of miracles’ [‘een Reex van wonderen geteelt’], and so surpassed so many literary heroes [‘soo menig Letterhelt’].1 But not only in Leeuwarden or Leiden, London, Basel or Paris, also in the gallery of portraits of the Italian Academy of Science in Rome or in the royal palace in Stockholm, Van Schurman’s picture hung on the wall. Van Schurman’s erudition may only be understood against the background of the humanistic Republic of Letters – a fraternity of scholars in Europe, who transcended the normal barriers of social class, faith, language and nationality. The language medium in this Republic of Letters was Latin. Very few women were admitted, but Van Schurman had been learning Latin from age eleven, and had managed to acquire such an extensive knowledge of Latin that in 1636, she was asked to write a praise poem in Latin, in honour of the establishment of the University of Utrecht. In that poem, she lamented the exclu- sion of women from the institution and pleaded for admission. She was then granted per- mission to attend lectures – not only the private lectures, but also the public lectures and disputations. Thus she became the first female university student. She attended lectures in the undergraduate Faculty of Letters and in the Faculty of Medicine, but her main goal was theology, a field of study that was regarded all over Europe as the most important.