ABSTRACT
Argula von Grumbach (1492-1556/7) was among the first women in European history to have her work published in her lifetime. Her seven published letters, together with a poem, all written in 1523-1524, have been neglected by literary and religious historians until very recently.1 Yet with one exception they were addressed to the dominant cultural and political authorities of the day. They became eminently public documents, designed to reach a wide audience, including women. With an estimated circulation of some 29,000 copies, they
1 Unfortunately there is no critical edition in German. However, Silke Halbach’s fine monograph, Argula von Grumbach als Verfasserin reformatorischer Flugschriften (Frankfurt a. Main: Peter Lang, 1992) has a comprehensive analysis and listing of the writings. See also Peter Matheson, Argula von Grumbach: A Woman’s Voice in the Reformation (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1995) = AvG, an English translation and edition of all the writings. Manuscript copies of the first two writings Wie eyn christliche fraw and Ein Christennliche schrifft are in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München (Codex CLM 1386). Published versions of the German originals, with the exception of the letter to the Regensburg City Council, are best accessed in H.J. Köhler et al., eds, Flugschriften des frühen 16. Jahrhunderts, Mikrofiche-Serie (Zug: Inter-Documentation Co., 1978-1987). In 1524, Wolfgang Köpfel produced in Strassburg a collected edition of Argula’s writings, and Ludwig Rabus reprinted them in his Historien der heyligen außerwelten (Strassburg, 1557). Other writings about Argula von Grumbach include Silke Halbach, ‘Legitimiert durch das Notmandat. Frauen als Verfasserinnen frühreformatorischer Flugschriften’, Zeitschrift für historische Forschung 27 (2000): 365-387, and August Kolde’s still valuable article, ‘Arsacius Seehofer und Argula von Grumbach’, Beiträge zur bayerischen Kirchengeschichte 11 (1905): 49-77, 97-124, 149-88, which transcribes a few of her personal letters. Roland Bainton included some extracts from her writings in Women of the Reformation in Germany and Italy (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publ. House, 1977), 97-109. See also Paul Russell, Lay Theology in the Reformation. Popular Pamphleteers in Southwest Germany 1523-1525 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 185-211; Albrecht Classen, ‘Footnotes to the Canon: Maria von Wolkenstein and Argula von Grumbach’, in The Politics of Gender in Early Modern Europe, ed. Jean R. Brink et al. (Kirksville, MO: Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, 1989), 131-48; and Classen, ‘Woman Poet and Reformer: The 16th Century Feminist Argula von Grumbach’, Daphnis 20 (1991): 167-97.
