Roswitha of Gandersheim, Christine Pisan, Margaret More Roper and Teresa of Avila

Abstract

It is appropriate to close this volume with brief descriptions of some learned women of the period who were accomplished scholars. These are women who studied philosophy, and who wrote works of philosophic merit. All deserve greater attention than can be given in this volume and are worthy subjects of further philosophical research. Such a research agenda might include not only those who are discussed below, but also Elisabeth of Schonau, Gertrude the Great, Mechtild of Hackeborn, Gertrude of Hackeborn, Mathilda of Italy, for the study of whose works there presently exists Istituto di Studi Matildichi; Marguerite Porete, a beguine mystic, Margery Kempe, contemporary of Julian of Norwich, and who wrote the well-known Book of Margery Kempe, Dorotea Bucca, who held a chair in philosophy at Bologna in the 15th century, Marguerite de Navarre, author of Heptameron and other works, Novella d'Andrea, known as a legal scholar, Baptista Malatesta, a theologian and philosopher, and Vittoria Colonna, reported to have been a ``humanist.'' Like other women scholars of the period, these women were often ``renaissance women'' in the colloquial sense of that term. Therefore, their characterizations as ``humanist,'' ``legal scholar,'' ``theologian,'' or even ``scholar'' might mistakenly create the impression that they were untrained in and either made no contribution to the philosophic dialogue or can make no contribution to our knowledge of the history of philosophy of their time.