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Rating: 
Summary: Both erudite and compellingly readable.
Review: Olympia Morata (1526-55) was a remarkable woman who was educated in the ducal court of Ferrara, fell out of favor, and left with her husband for his home town of Schweinfurt in 1550; they were forced by the wars of religion to flee in 1554 to Heidelberg, where she died the following year. In her short life she became known as a great scholar and writer, admired all across Europe (by those who did not revile her as a "Calvinist Amazon") and an inspiration to all women scholars. A new book, The Complete Writings of an Italian Heretic, edited and translated by Holt N. Parker, presents all of her writings that survive (most were lost in the siege of Schweinfurt) along with an introduction that is, amazingly, both erudite and compellingly readable. Here's a brief quote on her marriage:"Thus far, Morata's life follows a pattern common to many of the learned women of early modern Europe: a brief burst of erudition, which enjoyed masculine encouragement only as long as the scholar remained a young girl. Once she became older, no longer merely a curiosity for display but a potential disturbance to the order of things, she was married off, and her talents absorbed in child rearing and domesticity. "Two things made Morata's story different. One is the extraordinary nature of her talents and her determination to pursue her study of 'divine letters' despite circumstances far more horrific than mere disfavor at court. The other was the nature of her marriage and her husband. It was at this bleak period of her life, when she had lost her father, her childhood friend, and her position at court, that she found a partner in a marriage that seemed to both husband and wife to be literally made in heaven: 'He has also given me as a bride to a man who greatly enjoys my studies'... Andreas Grunthler was a relative of Johannes Sinapius's and a brilliant medical student, deeply learned in Greek. In him Morata found what the 'silly women' and men of the first Dialogue had declared impossible, 'a man who would prefer you to be educated than to be rich.' Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in the period or in women's history.
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