While I was translating the texts by Anna Maria van Schurman in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and French I discovered a network of learned women around her, the female Res Publica Litteraria or the Women’s Republic of Letters, part of the immens European network of scholars, the Res Public Litteraria, the Republic of Letters.
First I published the article in Dutch: ‘Een Vrouwenrepubliek der Letteren: Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1678) en haar netwerk van geleerde vrouwen’ in: Tydskrif vir Nederlands and Afrikaans (3) 1996: 36-49. Then it was published in English with the original texts as ‘Alpha Virginum: Anna Maria van Schurman’ in: Women Writing Latin from Roman Antiquity to Early Modern Europe. L.J. Churchill et al. (eds). Volume 3. New York-London; Routledge, 2002: 271-293.
It describes the fascinating learned female contacts Van Schurman had all over Europe, e.g. with queen Christina of Sweden, Birgitta Thott of Denmark, Dorothy Moore of Ireland and England, Bathsua Makin of England, Marie jars du Gournay of France and Marie du Moulin of France and Holland.