Abstract

The Renaissance witnessed several changes regarding the status of the female scholar. Although the female sex was excluded from all formal education, women claimed their right to intellectual training and proved excellent autodidacts. Through international communication networks they maintained intense epistolary relationships with one another. Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1678) was one of those humanists who corresponded actively with male and female scholars of her time. She disagreed with the idea that she should be considered exceptional because erudite. Van Schurman proclaimed that women with the time and the means should educate themselves. These female scholars of the Renaissance can be considered worthy intellectuals even though they lack academic degrees.