Latin literacy from antiquity until the early modern era has for a long time been viewed as a male domain, which generally excluded women from an education in Latin. Research of the last decades has, however, shown that many more early modern women than presumed were able to speak, listen to, read and write Latin, regardless of institutional and cultural challenges.

This subproject investigates new issues within the history of female Neo-Latin. It will provide an investigation of women’s Latin education and their Latin text production to determine women’s voicesin Neo-Latin. It will show how women’s Latin literacy changed their roles in early modern culture and how their text production influenced early modern culture as a whole.

This will be achieved via a comprehensive digital collection and representative case studies: Bio-bibliographical information about educated women from 1450 until 1800 and a digital corpus of their Latin writings are presented within the SFB’s digital platform. Our research focuses on learning and on writing and publishing Latin: An educational study investigates which women were able to get a Latin education and how, uncovering their background, motivations, curricula, tutors and the effects the Latin education had on their lives. We focus especially on hitherto neglected areas, including women writers in and from Eastern Europe; the later early modern era and women’s involvement in scientific discourses.