Abstract
The friendship between Elisabeth of Bohemia (1618–1680) and Anna Maria van Schurman (1607–1678) started in the early 1630s and continued for more than forty years. That their friendship lasted so long is really a matter for some surprise, if we consider that Elisabeth clearly developed an intellectual interest in Descartes’s new thinking and Anna Maria van Schurman adhered to the Aristotelian-Christian tradition and the scholastics. This paper seeks to address the following questions: How and when did the first contact between the young Elisabeth and her female mentor come about? What purpose, in their view, did study serve for women? And what linked them still, or again, when their paths crossed once more in the 1670s, Elisabeth then being the abbess of the Lutheran Frauenstift in Herford and Anna Maria van Schurman a member of the religious community of the Labadists founded by the radical Pietist Jean de Labadie? The paper provides new insights on the early years of their friendship as it argues that the first letter from Anna Maria van Schurman to Elisabeth in the Opuscula, d.d. 7 September 1639, was probably wrongly dated. A closer examination of the context shows that it is much more plausible that the date should be 7 September 1633.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
See for a slightly different English translation, Pal (2012), 74. Original text: “A Madame La Princesse de Boheme. Madame, Je ne puis exprimer l’excez de joye & de contentement que j’ay reçue en lisant la lettre que Vostre Altesse m’a fait la grace de m’escrire: Car outre l’invention, les pointes, & les periodes, qui pourroient remplir l’oreille des plus sçavans, ce m’a esté un plaisir merveilleux d’y considerer les amusemens de vostre genereux esprit. Pour moy, je desire extrement de me pouvoir rendre capable de tout ce qui agrée à Vostre Altesse; & bien que je ne sçaurois esperer modestement de satisfaire pleinement à ses commandemens, au moins je tacheray de monstrer la devotion & l’amour que je porte à son service.” (Van Schurman 1650, 281, cf. Van Schurman 1648, 281, and 1652, 249).
- 2.
“Vostre tres-humble & tres-devote servante” (Van Schurman 1650, 287).
- 3.
Frederick V, Elector Palatine and King of Bohemia, had to relinquish his throne after the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, and fled with his family to the Dutch Republic. The exiled family, which practised the Reformed religion and was allied to the House of Orange, was allocated spacious accommodation on the Kneuterdijk in The Hague by Prince Maurits and the States General. Little Elisabeth lived at first with her grandmother in Heidelberg. At the age of nine she too moved to The Hague.
- 4.
Not a brother of Elisabeth, as Larsen states (Larsen 2016, 94).
- 5.
Venesoen 2004, 63, note 9 claims that these “French verses” are those that Van Schurman wrote soon after the death of her father (who died in 1623), in which she refers to her sorrow, feeling directionless, and the comfort offered by Lady Philosophy who appeared to her in a dream vision. Full text in Douma, 1924, 80–81. If Elisabeth’s father had died shortly before Van Schurman sent her French verses to her, I could have agreed with Venesoen. Frederick V, however, did not die until September 1632. According to Van Beek the French poem written after the death of Van Schurman’s father was intended for Jacob Cats and the French verses she gave to Elisabeth have been lost (Van Beek 2010, 26 and 149).
- 6.
Letter from Rivet to Van Schurman in Latin: “Reddidi tuos versus Gallicos Principi Elisabethae, quos, me praesente, legit & laudavit, promisitque se, manu sua, gratias acturam.”
- 7.
The original letter, written in Latin, survived in manuscript only, see Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), The Hague, Ms 133 B 8, no. 4 (October 23, 1633).
- 8.
Idem, KB, Ms 133 B 8, no. 12 (March 4, 1634).
- 9.
Latin original: “Quadraginta enim, puto, anni effluxerant, ex quo relictis caeterarum puellarum Principum inaniis seu oblectamentis, suam mentem nobilioribus studiis Scientiarum applicuerat. Et quandoquidem ego eo tempore, mihi blandiente fama, non solum pia, sed & docta audirem, me illustri suo favore, ob studiorum quandam similitudinem, complexa est, quem mihi tum sua praesentia, tum suis benignis literis saepius erat testata” (my italics).
- 10.
Volume 2 of Akkerman’s edition of the correspondence of Elizabeth Stuart (2011), covering the years between 1632 and 1642, does not contain any reference to meetings between Elisabeth and Anna Maria van Schurman, neither in The Hague nor in Utrecht or Rhenen.
- 11.
Cf. Van Beek, 2010, 23. She refers to a Latin poem addressed to Mister Gerard Thibaut, signed “I, Anna Maria van Schurman, wrote [this] in Rhenen on 25 August 1623.”
- 12.
Letter from Rivet to Van Schurman, The Hague, 18 March 1638: “Vellem praeterea, muliebrium studiorum finem constitui, quo posito ea seligerentur quae ad eum finem essent idonea vel necessaria. Nam cum extra controversiam positum sit, sexum foemineum ad munia Politica & Ecclesiastica, maximè ad publicè docendum non esse idoneum, cur de ea eruditione acquirenda laborarent virgines, quae ad eos fines spectat à quibus arcentur? Nisi fortè paucas excipias, quae in nonnullis populis ad successionem regnorum, ubi mascula proles deficit, admittuntur. Docere (ait Apostolus) mulierem non permitto, neque authoritatem habere in virum: sed esse in silentio.”
- 13.
Cf. De Baar 2004a, where I discussed the content of this letter without questioning the date.
- 14.
According to Larsen 2016, 94, this passage reveals Van Schurman’s “initial discomfort with Descartes’s mention to her that he had found another new way to knowledge.” This is an interpretation based on the printed date of the letter (7 September 1639).
- 15.
French original: “Et de fait, il me semble que ceux-cy ne cedent en rien à ceux-la, si nous ne regardons pas tant à la force & l’eloquence des Historiens, qu’à la matiere. I’oserois opposer une seule Elisabeth en sa vie Reyne d’Angleterre, & une Jeanne Gray, à toutes les illustres femmes de la Grece & de la Rome ancienne.”
- 16.
In 1675 they would offer the Labadists a safe refuge on their Frisian family estate in Wieuwerd, where Anna Maria van Schurman would die in 1678.
- 17.
Frederick William (1620–1688), 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).
- 18.
Originally written in German, quoted by Guhrauer 1851, 460–461: “E.L. werden zweifelsohne schon wissen, wie die gelehrte Schurmann mit etlichten holländischen und seeländischen Jungfern zu Amsterdam gleichsam ein Kloster anfangen wollen. Weil sie aber zwei Prediger bei sich haben, die von den holländischen Classen gehasset sind, derhalben vielerlei Lästerungen unterworfen, […] wollten sich gern unter mir begeben, auf meiner Freiheit ein Haus bauen und, gleich dem adligen Stifte auf dem Berg, von mir als ihrer Aebtissin dependiren, darnach alle ihre Güter in diese Lande transferiren […] Sie begehren dagegen nichts als die Versicherung, dass sie ungehindert mit gemeldeten Predigern ihren Gottesdienst verrichten und in derselbigen Freiheit, wie meine andern Untersassen hier leben mögen.”
- 19.
See for a detailed overview of the conflicts during the stay of the Labadists at Herford and the mediating role played by Princess Elisabeth, Saxby 1987, 193–219.
- 20.
Letter to Frederick William, November 6, 1670, originally written in German and quoted by Guhrauer (1851, 465): “[…] sondern sie befleissigen sich vielmehr eines stillen eingezogenen gottesfürchtigen und exemplarischen Lebens und Wandels, also dass alle und jede Impassionirte, so mit diesen Leuten gesprochen, sie viel anders, als ihre Widerwärtige vorgeben, befunden.”
- 21.
Letter to ‘Niece Merode’, November 14, 1670, originally written in German and quoted by Goslings–Lijsen (1936, 173–174): “J. Schurman halte ich nich(t) vor eine von den weibren davon der ap. Paulus 2 Tim. Am 3 spricht, dan sie ist werder einfaltich, noch mitt sunden beladen. Die andre so bij Ihr sich auffhalten sennt auch recht feine und erbare leute, die guht verstand haben, und von guthen conversation seint, obsie schon von mehr als von winig der gottselichkeit reden und sich von der welt absondern wollen Gott zu dienen.”
- 22.
In 1658 Sophia had married Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, who in 1692 became the first Elector of Hanover.
- 23.
Quoted and translated by Saxby from “Portrait de [Jean de] l’Abadie fait par Mad me [Sophia] la Princesse d’Osnaburg, Duchesse de Brunswick et de Luneburg,” London, British Library, Kings Mss 140, fol. 220r.
Bibliography
Akkerman, N. (Ed.). (2011). The correspondence of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia. Vol. II (1632–1652). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Baar, M. de (1996). “Now as for the faint rumours of fame attached to my name.” The Eukleria as autobiography. In M. de Baar, et al. (Eds.), Choosing the Better Part. Anna Maria van Schurman (1607–1678) (87–102). Dordrecht, Boston, London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Baar, M. de (2004a). “God has chosen you to be a crown of glory for all women!” The international network of learned women surrounding Anna Maria van Schurman. In S. van Dijk, et al. (Eds.), “I have heard about you.” Foreign women’s writing crossing the Dutch border (108–135). Hilversum: Uitgeverij Verloren.
Baar, M. de (2004b). Godsdienstvrijheid voor de labadisten in Wieuwerd (1675–1732). De Zeventiende Eeuw, 20(1), 66–82.
Beek, P. van (1996). Een Vrouwenrepubliek der Letteren? Anna Maria van Schurman (1607–1678) en haar netwerk van geleerde vrouwen. Tijdskrif Vir Nederlands en Afrikaans, 3, 36–49.
Beek, P. van (2010). The first female university student: Anna Maria van Schurman (1636). Utrecht: Igitur. https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/235540. Accessed 16 April 2019.
Bernet, C. (2009). “Dass Innerste meines Hertzens mittheilen.” Die Korrespondenz Georg Gichtels an die Fürstäbtissin Elisabeth zu Herford. Historisches Jahrbuch für den Kreis Herford 16, 203–220. https://quaekernachrichten.blogspot.com/2017/04/johann-georg-gichtel-elisabeth-zu.html?m=1. Accessed 16 April 2019.
Birch, U. [Constance Pope-Hennessy]. (1909). Anna Maria van Schurman: Artist, scholar, saint. London, New York, Bombay, Calcutta: Longmans, Green.
Douma, A. M. H. (1924). Anna Maria van Schurman en de studie der vrouw. Amsterdam: H. J. Paris.
Eck, C., van (1996). The first Dutch feminist tract? Anna Maria van Schurmn’s discussion of women’s aptitude for the study of arts and sciences. In M. de Baar, et al. (Eds.), Choosing the Better Part. Anna Maria van Schurman (1607–1678) (43–54). Dordrecht, Boston, London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Elisabeth of Bohemia & Descartes (2007). The correspondence between Elisabeth of Bohemia and René Descartes, trans. by L. Shapiro. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Goslings-Lijsen, J. H. (1936). Uit het leven van Elisabeth van de Palz, Abdis van Herford (1618–1680). Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis, 28(1), 165–175.
Groenveld, S. (2003). König ohne Staat: Friedrich V. und Elizabeth als Exilierte in Den Haag 1621–1632–1661. In P. Wolf, et al. (Eds.), Der Winterkönig. Friedrich V, der letzte Kurfürst aus der Oberen Pfalz. Amberg-Heidelberg-Prag-Den Haag (162–186). Augsburg: Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte.
Guhrauer, G. E. (1850–1851). Elisabeth, Pfalzgräfin bei Rhein, Aebtissin von Herford. Historisches Taschenbuch, 3rd series, vol. 1, 1–150, vol. 2, 417–554.
Holierhoek, J. (2014). Elisabeth van de Palts, Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland. https://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/bwn1780-1830/DVN/lemmata/data/palts. Accessed 16 April 2019.
Irwin, J. L. (Ed.). (1998). Anna Maria van Schurman. Whether a Christian woman should be educated. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Larsen, A. R. (2016). Anna Maria van Schurman, “The Star of Utrecht.” The educational vision and reception of a savante. London, New York: Routledge.
Pal, C. (2012). Republic of women. Rethinking the republic of letters in the seventeenth century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rang, B. (1996). “An exceptional mind.” The learned Anna Maria van Schurman. In M. de Baar, et al. (Eds.), Choosing the better part. Anna Maria van Schurman (1607–1678) (23–41). Dordrecht, Boston, London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Saxby, T. J. (1987). The Quest for the New Jerusalem, Jean de Labadie and the Labadists, 1610–1744. Dordrecht, Boston, Lancaster: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
Schröder-Stapper, T. (2015). Fürstäbtissinnen. Frühneuzeitliche Stiftsherrschaften zwischen Verwandtschaft, Lokalgewalten und Reichsverband. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna: Böhlau Verlag.
Schurman, A. M. van (1641). Dissertatio de Ingenii Muliebris ad Doctrinam, & Meliores Litteras Aptitudine. Accedunt Quaedam Epistolae Eiusdem Argumenti. Leiden: Elsevier.
Schurman, A. M. van (1648 and 1650). Opuscula Hebraea, Graeca, Latina, Gallica: Prosaica et Metrica. Leiden: Elsevier.
Schurman, A. M. van (1652). Opuscula Hebraea, Graeca, Latina, Gallica: Prosaica adque Metrica, 3rd ed. Utrecht: Joh. A Waesberge.
Schurman, A. M. van (1673). Eukleria seu Melioris Partis Electio. Tractatus Brevem Vitae ejus Delineationem Exhibens. Altona: C. van der Meulen.
Sluis, J. van (1988). Herman Alexander Röell. Leeuwarden: Fryske Akademy.
Stighelen, K. van der (1987). Anna Maria van Schurman (1607–1678) of “Hoe hooge dat een maeght kan in de konsten stijgen.” Louvain: Universitaire Pers Leuven.
Venesoen, C. (2004). Anne Marie de Schurman, Femme savante (1607–1678) Correspondance. Paris: Honoré Champion.
Zijderveld, W. van (2013). Anna Maria van Schurman, Lexmond en Rhenen. Lek en Huibert Kroniek, 15(2), 5–40.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
de Baar, M. (2021). Elisabeth of Bohemia’s Lifelong Friendship with Anna Maria van Schurman (1607–1678). 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_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71527-4_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-71526-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-71527-4
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)