ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses a very basic question: given the formidable array of barriers they faced, how did so many early modern women manage to flourish intellectually within a system designed to prevent this from happening? It is clear that former assumptions of widespread oppression peppered with individual miracles of resistance will not serve to help us contextualize the extent of this phenomenon. The relationship between female scholars and early modern institutions was complex, and the stakes were high on both sides. However, there was also some flexibility. This chapter argues that this relationship is best understood as an ongoing negotiation for space. In their written work, their correspondence, and in the lives they lived, we can trace female scholars pursuing that negotiation. And, in their repeated encounters with the eventual “that’s too much,” we can also see early modern institutions at work to maintain the status quo.
