Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1678) – the Ocellus of the Netherlands

Abstract

Anna Maria van Schurman was a seventeenth-century scholar, poet, and painter. Becoming proficient in many languages, she was greatly admired by her contemporaries. She wrote poetry, prose works, and produced paintings and engravings. Her best known text Dissertatio de ingenii muliebris ad doctrinam et meliores litteras aptitudine (1641) is dedicated to women’s rights to education. She also wrote De vitae termino (1639) and autobiography Εὐκληρία seu Melioris partis electio (1673). In the Eukleria she not only depicted her life, but also explained the reasons for joining the Labadists. Anna Maria van Schurman kept up correspondence with many people, for example, André Rivet (1572-1651), Marin Mersenne (1588-1648), Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655), Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (1597-1654). The Calvinist theologian and the opponent of philosophy of René Descartes, Gisbertus Voetius (1589-1679) was a very important person in her life. Thanks to him Anna Maria van Schurman could study at the University of Utrecht. This article presents the biography and works of Anna Maria van Schurman. Its author pays special attention to her connections with philosophy, with which she began to get acquainted at the age of 11 by reading Seneca's writings. The basis for these considerations is source materials about Anna Maria van Schurman’s life, her works and selected letters.