ABSTRACT
While the presence of several scholarly women in the early modern period suggests notable advances in women’s education, learned women were still an exception. In general, females did not have access to the same levels of education as males; those women who excelled in scholarship were usually supported by forward-thinking parents or guardians and were motivated by their own intellectual ambition and curiosity. Education was, in a sense, a luxury, and many of the women who could devote themselves to scholarly pursuits were royal, aristocratic, or associated with court circles.
