‘Non δίγλωττον aut τρίγλωττον neque πεντάγλωττον, sed παντάγλωττον?’ The Female Polyglot Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-1678) and her (Latin-Greek) Code-Switching’

Abstract

Anna Maria van Schurman, the first female university student in 1636, was not only proficient in every language (παντάγλωττον) as the learned poet Jacobus Martin from Paris wrote, but in at least fourteen languages. Her multilingualism is not only visible in her bestseller Opuscula Hebraea Graeca Latina et Gallica, prosaica et metrica, but also in her other books and works of art. I will give an overview of her knowledge of languages and how she acquired and used them. Then I will examine her (Latin-Greek) Code-Switching, considering why she practiced it, how it differed from her male and female contemporaries and how it changed when she became a Labadist.