Shirley, Skye Alta; (2025) Interpreting Three Books of Latin Poetry by Women from the Seventeenth Century. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

Text Interpreting Three Books of Latin Poetry by Women from the Seventeenth Century.pdf - Submitted Version Access restricted to UCL open access staff until 1 May 2028. Download (21MB)

Abstract

This dissertation explores a significant shift in the legitimation strategies of women writers in 17th-century Latin poetry, building on foundational research by Sarah Gwyneth Ross in The Birth of Feminism. Ross argues that sixteenth-century women writers secured literary authority by positioning themselves within literal or constructed familial relationships, either as daughters or wives of learned men. This study examines how, in the seventeenth century, women poets began to establish their literary careers with the support of a broader intellectual community, moving beyond the constraints of familial ties. The thesis contributes new findings to the shifting dynamics for women Latinists of the seventeenth century, as they moved out of a familial model of self-fashioning and into a more public persona. Such a change enabled writers of broader identities to write and to be considered intellectuals within communities rather than limited to their families. Focusing on three case studies—Johanna Othonia (1549- after 1621) Marta Marchina (1600-1646), and Anna Maria Ardoyna (1672-1700)—this research extends prior research into women's authorial self-fashioning. Othonia, a widow who published Carminum diversorum libri duo in her late sixties after decades of manuscript writing, does not write to or about men using familial metaphors, but as fellow scholars. Marchina’s Musa posthuma (1662), edited posthumously by Francesco Macedo, shows her immersed in the literary community of Rome without leaning on familial frameworks to justify her writing. Meanwhile, Ardoyna wrote Rosa Parnassi (1687) at the age of fourteen, and was able to quickly print the collection because her community already had endorsed her as a rising intellectual. All three women exchanged poems with men in their circles without positioning themselves as daughters or wives who were less learned than their male family members. By analyzing these works, this dissertation argues that the transition from familial to community support marked a pivotal moment for women in the Latin literary tradition, allowing for greater inclusivity and recognition of women writers as intellectuals. This evolution ultimately set the stage for a more diverse and independent female literary presence, shaping the broader trajectory of women's authorship and participation in the intellectual life of early modern Europe. Shirley's analysis expands the study of women's Latin to examine three largely unexplored seventeenth-century Latin poetry books by women, revealing a pivotal change from an authorial self-fashioning dependent on male relatives to one grounded in community engagement.

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