Humanism

Book section : Chapter

Humanism as a phenomenon developed in Italy, and its reception in Britain was limited. The first women to receive a humanist education in classical Latin and Greek were royal, or closely connected with the court, in the early sixteenth century. A command of Latin and Greek had come to indicate throne-worthiness and was principally used for formal displays of learning. There was no context in English society for women to become professional humanists as there was in Italy. The first women demonstrably engaged in humanist projects were in the household of Sir Thomas More. One important aspect of Greek studies is medical, and there were English women Galenists from the mid-sixteenth century. Women began engaging in scientific experimentation at about the same time. The first Englishwoman interested in classical architecture was probably Alathea Talbot in the seventeenth century, and the first women Platonists were associated with the Cambridge Platonists, also in the seventeenth century. A variety of women writers in the vernacular as well as in Latin are clearly influenced by reading Petrarch and Ovid from the later sixteenth century onwards, notably Mary Sidney Herbert, Mary Wroth, and Isabella Whitney.

Authors: Stevenson, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Host title: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Early Modern Women's Writing
• Place of publication: Cham, Switzerland
• Publication date: 2024-12-13
• Acceptance date: 2022-06-06
• Edition: 0
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-01537-4_111-1
• EISBN: 9783030015374
• Language: English
• Keywords: Greek; philology; architecture; philosophy; humanism; latin
• Subtype: Chapter