Writings of a Well-Learned Gentlewoman New

Writings of a Well-Learned Gentlewoman presents for the first time all of Margaret Roper’s known writings, together with supplementary texts by Erasmus, Hyrde, and Alington that set the writings in context. With glosses, annotations, and new translations of Latin texts, the editors bring fresh light to bear on Roper’s work. In doing so, they confirm the shift from a hagiographical emphasis on her as dutiful and devoted daughter to an appraisal of her achievements as scholar and translator. From a wider perspective, they offer an objective picture of what it meant to have been a “well-learned gentlewoman” in early Tudor England, and what it has meant since to have become an iconic figure within and beyond its shores.
-Brenda M. Hosington, Professor (Retired), Université de Montréal, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Warwick | Senior Research Fellow, University College London

Margaret More Roper (1505–1544) was, at the age of nineteen, the first early modern woman writer in Tudor England and the first nonroyal woman to have a book printed in the English language. This Other Voice edition recognizes her, the eldest daughter and confidante of Sir Thomas More, as a notable historical figure in her own right and as one of the most learned women of her time. It publishes all her extant writings in modernized spelling, with annotations, a glossary, and a current bibliography of studies about her. The edition is well-suited for classroom use.

ELIZABETH MCCUTCHEON (University of Hawai’i) is the foremost authority on Margaret Roper. Recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award (2006) from the Center for Thomas More Studies, she has published numerous articles on Roper. This Other Voice edition is the culmination of her outstanding scholarly contributions to Roper studies.

JAIME GOODRICH (Wayne State University) has published widely on early modern women writers, particularly in relation to Catholicism and humanism. Her article “Thomas More and Margaret More Roper: A Case for Rethinking Women’s Participation in the Early Modern Public Sphere” received the 2009 Sixteenth Century Society and Conference Literature Prize.

WILLIAM GENTRUP (Arizona State University) has edited three scholarly collections on Renaissance subjects: most recently, with Elizabeth McCutcheon, A Companion to Margaret More Roper Studies: Life Records, Essential Texts, and Critical Essays (Catholic University of America Press, 2022).