Description

A bilingual edition of the devotional poems of Dutch scholar and poet Anna Maria van Schurman, illuminating the period of her withdrawal from public life.

The life and reputation of Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-78) swung dramatically from her early fame as a prodigy and femme savante to the infamy she bore in the wake of her late affiliation with Jean de Labadie. From her late adolescence on, van Schurman was widely known for her intellectual gifts, her mastery of languages, and her skillful portraiture and embroidery. Described by some as a femme savante and "the Star of Utrecht," she gained an international reputation with the publication of her defense of women's education. Her later years, however, were marked by a growing disillusionment with her own fame and intellectual achievements, and her reputation was dramatically marred in the eyes of her contemporaries when, in her final decade, she repudiated the Dutch Reformed Church to affiliate with Jean de Labadie. With him and his spiritual community, she lived out her last years in peace while also composing a two-volume defense of her actions and convictions, entitled Eukleria or The Better Choice.

The years between her withdrawal from public life and her supposedly scandalous return are not easily mapped. Drawing on two long devotional poems that she wrote during this period (and that remained unpublished during her lifetime), this bilingual edition introduces readers to van Schurman's private piety, as well as to her theological acumen, her artistry as a vernacular poet, and her participation in the leadership of a conventicle of like-minded friends and acquaintances. The English translation closely approximates the rhyme, meter, and cadence of the Dutch original and thus facilitates an appreciation not only of the poet's meaning but also of the auditory aesthetics of each text.