Abstract
Elisabeth of Bohemia, Princess Palatine (1618–1680) was famous in her own time for her learning, her philosophical acumen and her mathematical brilliance. Her wide-ranging interests extended to religion, science, politics and philosophy, and she was well-connected with seventeenth-century intellectual circles. But she has since suffered the fate of so many brilliant women of the past.
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Notes
- 1.
Claude Clerselier’s edition of Descartes (1657–1667) prints 33 of Descartes’ letters to Elisabeth (31 in the first volume, and the two letters on mathematics in the second volume). But Elisabeth refused permission for her letters to be included. It was not until 1879, after Frederik Muller discovery of the only known manuscript copy of her letters to Descartes in the library of Rosendael Castle (Muller 1876), that Elisabeth’s letters were first published—in an edition by Louis Alexandre Foucher de Careil (Foucher de Careil 1879).
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
She had not originally accompanied her parents to Bohemia, but stayed with her brother Charles Louis and her grandmother in Heidelberg.
- 5.
Together with her brother Charles Louis (Karl Ludwig) (1617–1680).
- 6.
For more information, see Nadine Akkerman’s essay in this volume.
- 7.
While at the court in Brandenburg, Elisabeth was involved in the negotiations for the marriage of her sister Henriette Marie (1626–1651) to Prince Sigismund Kákóczy of Transylvania (1622–1652) (Wendland, 1906).
- 8.
Frederick William, the Great Elector, was the son of Elisabeth’s aunt Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate (1597–1660), sister of Frederick V, and George William, Elector of Brandenburg (1595–1640).
- 9.
See Carol Pal’s essay for details.
- 10.
See also Sarah Hutton’s essay in this volume For a first inventory of Elisabeth’s extant correspondence see Ebbersmeyer (2020).
- 11.
- 12.
Elisabeth was not the only member of her family to gain a reputation in the learned world: her brother Rupert (1619–1682) was one of the founding members of the Royal Society and her sister Sophia (1630–1714) would become famous as the patroness and correspondent of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716).
- 13.
- 14.
The extant correspondence comprises 59 letters, 33 from Descartes and 26 from Elisabeth. Some of the letters have been lost. Descartes publicly expressed his admiration for the princess in the dedication of his work Principles of Philosophy (1644) to Elisabeth (Descartes, 1996, AT VIII A, 1–4). On Elisabeth as a philosopher, see Zedler (1989), Harth (1992), Shapiro (1999), and Hutton (2005).
- 15.
Huygens was also acquainted with Descartes and assisted in the publication of Descartes’ work (Verbeek et al., 2003, 272–273).
- 16.
For more details on both, see Sabrina Ebbersmeyer’s essay in this volume.
- 17.
- 18.
Reynolds, would become leader of the moderate Presbyterians during the inter-regnum in England, and was appointed Bishop of Norwich after the Restoration.
- 19.
The book was reprinted many times, and was used as a university textbook at Oxford.
- 20.
See the Appendix below (p. 11) for a transcription and translation.
- 21.
In the dedication of the fifth volume of his Historiae Ecclesiasticae Novi Testamenti Seculum (1655–1667) to Elisabeth, Hottinger compared her to the Italian Protestant humanist, Olympia Fulvia Morata (1526–1555), who gave private lessons at the University of Heidelberg. After Elisabeth left Heidelberg in 1658, Elisabeth and Hottinger continued to correspond until Hottinger’s death in 1667 (Steiner, 1886).
- 22.
Spinoza declined the offer, despite Charles Louis being prepared to guarantee him libertas philosophandi (Spinoza, 1802, 638–641).
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Ebbersmeyer, S., Hutton, S. (2021). Introduction. In: Ebbersmeyer, S., Hutton, S. (eds) Elisabeth of Bohemia (1618–1680): A Philosopher in her Historical Context. Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71527-4_13
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