Tua longinquis epistola ab oris: An Unknown Latin Poem by Anna Maria van Schurman in honour of Professor Samuel Collins in Cambridge

Abstract

In this article I will analyse an unknown Latin poem by Anna Maria van Schurman in honour of Samuel Collins (1676-1651), Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge. After a brief description of the life of Anna Maria van Schurman I will say something about the career of Collins, one of the greatest Latinists of his time. Unfortunately the poem by Van Schurman did not survive in her own handwriting, but we know it by a copy of Arnoldus Buchelius. Presumably Gisbertus Voetius had a hand in the way Van Schurman became acquainted with Collins, and it is likely that the poem was written around 1636. I will show how the first poem by Van Schurman for a scholar abroad shows a mixture of classical and Christian elements.