Meta Description: Join Dr. Jeff Winkle and Dr. David Noe in Ad Navseam Episode 142 as they interview Drs. Anne Larsen and Steve Maiullo. Discover the brilliant Anna Maria van Schurman, 17th-century polymaths, and resources to master the Latin language.
Introduction: Smarch Weather and the Vomitorium
Welcome back, classical gourmands, to Episode 142 of the Ad Navseam Podcast, where you can take in the Classics and keep them down! Broadcasting directly from the subterranean depths of Vomitorium South—located deep in the basement of the Reformation Heritage Books store—your hosts, Dr. David Noe (the “C” stands for curmudgeon) and Dr. Jeff Winkle (the “T” stands for timely), return to the microphones for another delectable discussion of Greco-Roman civilization.
The episode opens with the hosts commiserating over the horrific realities of Michigan weather. After enjoying a brief, deceptive period of warmer-than-average temperatures, a massive pile of snow suddenly dumped on the city, making Jeff’s morning drive to drop his kids off at school an absolute nightmare. Dave notes that despite everyone attempting to turn over a new leaf and stop complaining about the lousy “Smarch” weather, the frozen tundra always manages to break their spirits.
Listener Mail: Logos, Madonna, and the Bar Fight
Before welcoming their special guests, Dave opens the mailbag to read a fantastic piece of correspondence from their recurring Australian listener, Ron Denholm.
Ron writes in to discuss the podcast’s recent exploration of John 1:1. He notes that when he looked up the Greek word Logos and the Latin word Verbum in an online dictionary, the database completely stripped the nuance, providing identical meanings for both. Ron laments how much potency the original Greek loses when filtered entirely through Latin, citing the J.B. Phillips New Testament translation which renders the verse as, “At the beginning, God expressed himself”. Jeff laughs, noting that the phrasing instantly reminds him of the famous 1989 pop song “Express Yourself” by Madonna.
Ron also provides an “extended PS” detailing his work as a junior high school Latin teacher. Struggling to convince young students of the practical relevance of the subject, Ron undertook an incredibly industrious project: he created an alphabetical list of exactly 1,464 unchanged Latin words that people actively use in modern speaking, reading, and writing.
To build confidence, Ron requires his absolute novice students to write short paragraphs utilizing at least eight of these unchanged words per week. Dave reads a hilarious, highly dramatic submission from one of Ron’s students. The student’s paragraph tells the story of an angered, worn-out priest who enters a bar, accidentally receives a “bonus beer” that tastes like bile, and subsequently jumps over a table to viciously beat the bartender with a bat, sending the man to the hospital with a broken bone. Dave and Jeff laugh at the violent narrative, joking that it perfectly aligns with American stereotypes regarding drunken Australian brawls.
Introducing Anna Maria van Schurman
The core academic focus of Episode 142 features an interview with Drs. Anne Larsen and Steve Maiullo, both representing Hope College.
Anne Larsen, an emerita professor of French who spent decades studying the learned women of Renaissance France, and Steve Maiullo, a classicist and Dean of the college, recently collaborated on a groundbreaking project. Together, they translated and published Letters and Poems to and from Her Mentor and Other Members of Her Circle, a critical edition exploring the life of Anna Maria van Schurman.
Living from 1607 to 1678, Anna Maria van Schurman was widely regarded throughout the 17th century as the most erudite woman in all of Europe. Nicknamed the “Star of Utrecht” and the “Minerva of Utrecht,” she possessed an impossibly vast array of talents. Beyond her intellectual prowess, she was a masterful artist who began creating intricate paper cuttings at age four. She also excelled at embroidery, watercolor painting, and the highly difficult, ear-piercing medium of etching glass with a diamond.
The Making of a Polymath
Anne shares the fascinating origin story of van Schurman’s linguistic genius. When Anna Maria was just eleven years old, she quietly overheard her highly educated, nobleman father attempting to teach a Latin lesson to her older brothers, aged thirteen and fifteen. When her brothers failed to answer a difficult question, the eleven-year-old girl blurted out the correct Latin answer, instantly proving to her father that she possessed a generational aptitude for languages.
Her father’s influence completely shaped the trajectory of her life. Coming from a heavily persecuted Reformed family that had previously fled from Antwerp to escape being burned at the stake, her father harbored deep religious convictions. On his deathbed, when Anna Maria was only sixteen, he made her promise to never take a husband. He wanted to ensure she would never be forced to marry into the dominant Catholic nobility of Utrecht, and he recognized that the domestic duties of marriage would enervate her unprecedented ability to study.
Honoring that promise, van Schurman eventually became the very first woman to officially study at a university. She famously attended the theological and Oriental language disputations of Gisbert Voetius at the University of Utrecht. However, because the university feared her mere presence would be an overwhelming distraction to the male students, she was forced to sit inside a specially constructed, curtained cubicle fitted with a wooden lattice grid. Her hidden attendance became so famous that the philosopher René Descartes jokingly wrote to a friend that he planned to hide inside van Schurman’s lattice box while delivering his own lectures.
14 Languages and the Republic of Letters
Van Schurman’s linguistic capabilities remain virtually unmatched in European history. While most brilliant male scholars of the era maxed out at four or five languages, van Schurman mastered over a dozen. She commanded classical Ciceronian Latin, Koine Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Rabbinical Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Aramaic, French, German, Italian, and Dutch. She also independently studied Samaritan, Persian, and Ethiopian—even writing a now-lost Ethiopian-Latin grammar book—and actively attempted to decipher samples of Chinese, Japanese, and Siamese scripts.
Armed with these immense talents, van Schurman actively sought entry into the “Republic of Letters,” the exclusive, internationally renowned, male-dominated network of 17th-century European intellectuals. Because directly demanding fame was considered highly inappropriate for her gender, she utilized a brilliant strategy: she created intricate, miniature engraved self-portraits (which the hosts dub 17th-century “selfies”) and sent them directly to famous male scholars like Constantijn Huygens.
Steve Maiullo notes the challenge of translating her Latin correspondence. Working directly from her handwritten, autographed letters—a supreme rarity for any classicist—Steve found her Latin to be intensely beautiful but exceptionally tortuous. To protect her feminine modesty while navigating the public limelight, van Schurman frequently utilized dense subordinate clauses and triple or quadruple negatives. She routinely deflected male praise by deploying brilliant classical allusions, comparing her sudden fame to the tragic myth of Phaethon stealing Apollo’s chariot from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
The Education Debate with Rivet
Van Schurman did not merely study for her own benefit; she fiercely advocated for the universal education of women. In a series of intense, head-on debates with the theologian André Rivet, she argued that women must be granted access to the entire university encyclopedia—including cosmology, medicine, natural philosophy, and military science.
Drawing directly from the opening lines of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, she argued that all humans naturally desire to know, and that restricting women to sewing and spinning the distaff relied purely on outdated, man-made customs rather than divine law. Rivet pushed back, arguing that van Schurman was merely a singular freak of nature, a unique prodigy operating entirely above her sex, and that her radical ideas would never actually take root among ordinary women. While history proved Rivet wrong, the hosts note the intense, underlying sexism required to dismiss her brilliant arguments so casually.
Before departing, Steve urges all Latin teachers and students to actively expand the classical canon. While Caesar, Cicero, and Vergil remain foundational, there is an entire universe of rich, untranslated Latin literature waiting to be explored by a new generation of scholars willing to step outside the traditional boundaries.
Sponsors: Fueling the Classical Renaissance
Before wrapping up the episode, Dave and Jeff thank the phenomenal sponsors keeping the underground bunker operational.
- Ratio Coffee: If you want to brew a flawless cup of coffee without the brackish tang of cheap, plastic, mass-produced drippers, you must upgrade your morning routine. Mark Hellweg engineered the gorgeous Ratio 8 and Ratio 6 machines to prioritize beauty, quality, and absolute simplicity. Jeff and Dave eagerly anticipate the upcoming release of the highly accessible Ratio 4. Visit ratiocoffee.com and enter the promo code ANCO3Q (the ‘Q’ stands for Quiescent) to receive a generous 15% discount on your entire order.
- Hackett Publishing: Celebrating over 52 years of publishing excellence out of Indianapolis and Cambridge, Hackett consistently produces highly accessible translations. Jeff notes that his students universally love Hackett’s affordable pricing, which saves their pocketbooks. The hosts joke that they recently rejected a massive sponsorship offer from a consortium of river-based book emporia (Danube networks) out of sheer loyalty. Build a phenomenal library at hackettpublishing.com and use the code AN2024 to receive a 20% discount and free shipping on your entire order.
- LatinPerDiem & MossMethod: For listeners inspired by van Schurman’s linguistic prowess, Dave offers the perfect solution for mastering the Latin language and ancient Greek. By visiting latinperdiem.com/llpsi, dedicated students can learn entirely from the ground up using Hans Ørberg’s renowned Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata curriculum, or tackle over 2,050 free lessons on YouTube. The Moss Method takes Greek students from neophyte to erudite, complete with weekly Zoom “Moffice hours” and a comprehensive “Mossery” index.
The Gustatory Parting Shot
As the episode winds down, the hosts hear a terrifying knocking coming from upstairs. Dave explains that the noise belongs to the “Bread Poet Society”—a dangerous group of carbohydrate enthusiasts who recently revoked Dave’s membership and threw him to the curb in a plastic bag sealed with a torture-device twisty tie after his doctor forced him to cut carbs.
Ignoring the aggressive bakers, the hosts take a moment to thank Mishka, their hardworking sound engineer, as well as Scott Van Zen and Ken Tamplin for providing the blistering, screaming guitar riffs that perfectly bookend the academic lectures.
To officially close out Episode 142, Dave delivers a brief Gustatory Parting Shot courtesy of the famous New York comedy writer, Fran Lebowitz.
Lebowitz offers this blunt culinary observation:
“My favorite animal is steak.”
Check out the “Lurch with Merch” section on the website, beware of the Bread Poet Society, and keep taking in the classics. Valete!
