Latin literacy from antiquity until the early modern era is commonly viewed as a male domain, which excluded women from an education in Latin. Recent research suggests, however, that more early modern women than presumed were able to read and write Latin, regardless of institutional challenges. This subproject will provide a comprehensive investigation of the contexts of women’s (a) Latin education and (b) Latin text production to determine women’s voices in Neo-Latin literature. It will show how women’s Latin literacy changed their roles in early modern culture and how, conversely, their text production influenced the early modern world.

First, bio-bibliographical information about educated women from 1450 until 1800 and a digital corpus of their Latin writings will be gathered. During the first four years, the focus will be on achieving knowledge of Latin: (a) An educational study will investigate how women were able to achieve high levels of Latin in (non-)institutionalised contexts, uncovering their curricula and tutors. The second phase will focus on writing and publishing Latin works: (b) A study of the corpus, from poems to scientific texts, under linguistic, literary, historical and gender aspects will provide a history of women’s Neo-Latin, i.a., showing when and why women wrote in Latin; which genres and
topics they favoured in comparison to male authors; and the innovative potential of their works. It will also investigate the reception of these texts, revealing intended and actual readers, the role of benefactors, and publishing avenues and issues.