mariness

Some years back I happened to be in St. Augustine and decided to go on the St. Augustine historical reenactment tour. It was awful, but this post is not about that. Rather, it's about the woman who was doing the candlemaking demonstration, who told me that before the 19th century, no women could read.

"At least three of Henry VIII's wives were very literate," I noted. "His first wife, Catherine of Aragon, could speak several languages, was trained in classical humanism, and worked as her father's ambassador for a time writing diplomatic letters. Anne Boleyn read widely and could write. Catherine Parr was a popular, published writer of religious works. And this was all before St. Augustine was founded."

"I never knew that."

So I told her a little more about women writers in the 16th, 17th and 18th century, the French salon fairy tale writers (primarily if not entirely women), the educated Spanish mystics and so on.

"I didn't even think women wrote until this century," she said. "Well, except for Louisa May Alcott. And Jane Austen."

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( In which I blather on at some length about the Louvre, medieval history, Assyrian art, Roswitha, cultural assumptions and even mention Batman. For those staring in stark horror, no, I don't know what's brought on this onslaught of uncharacteristically lengthy and academic posts but I suspect that fluff and snark shall be returning soon. )