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Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventu' italiana
Mathematician and polyglot Maria Gaetana Agnesi was the first woman to write a mathematical text. She oversaw its printing and publication herself. Child of a wealthy Milanese merchant, she spoke seven languages, and at age nine wrote an appeal for women’s right to education. Instituzioni analitiche is a comprehensive text of algebra and calculus, written in the vernacular. It was translated widely. Though appointed a professor at the University of Bologna by Pope Benedict XI, she instead dedicated her life to serving the poor. She died in one of the hospices she established. Crater Agnesi on Venus is named for her. -
A discourse occasioned by the death of the Reverend Mr. Nathaniel Clap: pastor of a church at Newport on Rhode-Island, on October 30 1745, in the 78th year of his age
Boston-native Ann Smith Franklin married James Franklin (brother of founding father Benjamin Franklin) in 1723. They established the first independent newspaper in New England, the New England Courant. The Franklins later moved to Newport, Rhode Island, and founded that colony’s first newspaper. Ann set type, ran the press, and sold the newspapers and books they published. When James died in 1735, leaving her with five small children, she took over the business and successfully petitioned to become the official printer for the colony. -
Hebdomadario trino, exercicios devotos, y obsequiosos desagravios a la Santissima, Amabilissima, y Missericordiosissima Trinidad: por la execrable ingratitud y grossero olvido de los mortales en el mas pronto obsequio, devocion, y agradecimiento debido à tan soberano mysterio
The widow of Joseph Bernardo de Hogal inherited a well-equipped and successful print shop upon her husband’s death in 1741. She continued managing the shop, located on the calle de las Capuchinas in Mexico City, until 1755. She printed a number of important works, including both volumes of a description of the provinces of New Spain ordered by Philip V, Teatro americano by Jose Antonio Villaseñor y Sanchez. Her successors took over the business under the name Herederos de la Viuda de Hogal.. -
Woman not inferior to man, or, A short and modest vindication of the natural right of the fair-sex to a perfect equality of power, dignity, and esteem with the men
An unidentified philosopher writing under the pseudonym “Sophia” wrote this radical work asserting that women are superior to men in all ways. She argues that women’s superiority could be proven if women were given equal education. This is a first edition. The 1745 edition (also in the collection) includes a counterargument and rebuttal. Both might have been written by “Sophia.” -
The woman's labour: an epistle to Mr. Stephen Duck, in answer to his late poem The thresher's labour: to which are added, the three wise sentences taken from the first book of Esdras, ch. III and IV
Mary Collier was likely the first of the English poets to identify herself as of the “laboring classes.” Over her lifetime, Collier worked as a field worker, domestic, and brewer. Taught to read as a child by her mother, she hoped to supplement her income by self-publishing and selling her book of poems. Collier included a signed attestation corroborating that the poems were indeed written by her, a strategy later employed in Phillis Wheatley’s Poems (1773). In The Thresher’s Lament, Stephen Duck denigrated women’s labor. Collier responded in witty though scathing verse in The Woman’s Labour. This is the only known copy of the second edition of this work.
When Ev'ning does approach, we homeward hie,
And our domestic Toils incessant ply:
Against your coming Home prepare to get
Our Work all done, our House in order set
Bacon and Dumpling in the Pot we boil,
Our beds we make, our Swine we feed the while
Then wait at Door to see you coming Home,
And set the Table out against you come:
Early next Morning we on you attend
Our Children dress and feed, their Cloaths we mend
And in the Field our daily Task renew,
Soon as the rising Sun has dry'd the Dew. -
Die königl. Preussische und Chur-Brandenb. Hof-Wehe-Mütter, das ist, Ein höchst nöthiger Unterricht von schweren und unrecht-stehenden Geburten in einem Gespräch vorgestellet: wie nemlich, durch göttlichen Beystand, eine wohlunterrichtete Wehe-Mutter mit Verstand und geschickter Hand dergleichen verhüten, oder wanns Noth ist, das Kind wenden könne; durch vieler Jahre Ubung selbst erfahren und wahr befunden: nun aber Gott zu Ehren und dem nechsten zu Nutz, auf gnädigst- und inständiges Verlangen durchläuchtigst- und vieler hohen Standes-Personen verbessert, mit einem Anhange heilsamer Arzney-Mittel, und mit denen dissfals erregten Controvers-Schriften vermehret
Her own false pregnancy led Silesian midwife Justina Siegemund to study female anatomy, teaching herself using Regnier de Graaf’s De virorum organis generationi inservientibus. For twelve years she served the poor women of her region, eventually taking on cases of upper-class women. Specializing in catastrophic deliveries, she was appointed Stadt Wehmutter (city midwife) of Liegnitz and named midwife to the Prussian royal family. She gained printing privileges from the Elector of Brandenburg to publish Hof-Wehe-Mütter (The Court Midwife). Her book was first published in Berlin in 1690, republished six times, and translated into Dutch. By the time of her death she had delivered over six thousand infants. -
Erucarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis: in qua origo, pabulum, transformatio, nec non tempus, locus & proprietates erucarum, vermium, papilionum, phalaenarum, muscarum, aliorumque hujusmodi exsanguium animalculorum exhibentur: in favorem, atque insectorum, herbarum, florum, & plantarum amatorum, tùm etiam pictorum, limbolariorum, aliorumque commodum exactè inquisita, ad vivum delineata, typis excusa, compendiosèque descripta
Keenly observant entomologist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian was the first to study and depict the metamorphosis of insects in the field. She taught girls botanical drawing and sold her specimens, prints, and books to earn a living. Her first work, Der raupen wunderbare verwandlung, was published in Nuremberg between 1679 and 1683. Erucarum ortus is a reworking of Der raupen, translated into Latin by her daughter Dorothea. This copy includes many counterproofs, printed from a wet impression, to create a print in reverse. The collection also includes Merian’s De europische insecten (Amsterdam, 1730). -
Copy of Lady Holford’s will and codicils
Oxford native Lady Elizabeth Holford was born around 1650. She inherited wealth from her first husband and died without an heir. This 70-page copy of her will demonstrates the extent of her philanthropy. She bequeathed large sums of money to several Oxford colleges—including Christ Church, Pembroke and Worcester Colleges, and Hart Hall—along with Charterhouse School. There are also lesser legacies made to various London charity schools.Tags 1700s -
An English-Saxon homily on the birth-day of St. Gregory: anciently used in the English-Saxon church: giving an account of the conversion of the English from paganism to Christianity translated into modern English, with notes, etc., by Eliz. Elstob
Elizabeth Elstob, scholar of Anglo-Saxon antiquities, was an advocate for women’s education. In the introduction to this work she asks, “Where is the fault of women’s seeking after learning?” She dedicates her book to illustrious women: Queens Anne and Bertha, and Helena, the mother of Constantine. Involved in the production of her books, Elstob commissioned engravings from Simon Gribelin, including her own portrait within an initial on the first page of text. Elstob’s translations into modern English rather than Latin were part of a broader effort to open the study of antiquity to a wider audience. Her Rudiments of Grammar for the English-Saxon Tongue was the first grammar of English and Saxon. It is also in the collection. -
Het begin en den ingang van alle menschen in de wereld, of, Aanmerkingen
Louise Bourgeois Boursier, midwife to the French court, attended over 2,000 deliveries, recording her methods and her observations. She helped to alleviate the pain, fear, and mortality of childbirth. Bourgeois wrote in French rather than Latin, enabling wider dissemination of her ideas. Her Observations diuerses was translated into Dutch, German, and English. This Dutch translation, with its delightful title page, was published almost one hundred years after the book’s first appearance in France. -
Some Reflections upon Marriage
English philosopher Mary Astell was one of the earliest feminist philosophers in the modern age. In this work she provides a witty but harsh critique of women’s disadvantages within contemporary marriage, famously asking, “if all Men are born free, how is it that all Women are born slaves?”
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