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Públia Hortênsia de Castro

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Bust of Publia Hortênsia de Castro in Vila Viçosa

Públia Hortênsia de Castro (1548–1595) was a scholar and humanist in the court of Catherine of Austria, Queen of Portugal.[1][2]

Born in 1548 in Vila Viçosa, Portugal, she was named for Hortensia, the famous Roman orator and daughter of Quintus Hortensius, suggesting that her parents intended for her to become a well-educated woman.[1][3][4] She evidently studied Greek and Latin, and by the time she was seventeen she was engaged in public debates on Aristotle.[1][3] There are stories that, dressed as a boy and chaperoned by her brother, she attended the University of Coimbra, in Lisbon, but historians consider this unlikely.[2] Nonetheless, she is known to have composed psalms in Latin, although they are now lost, and she was well enough admired by King Philip II that he granted her a pension for life.[3]

She eventually left the court and joined an Augustine convent.[5] She died in Évora in 1595.[6]

Namesakes

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In 1978, Lisbon honored de Castro by giving her name to a street in the area of Carnide.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Frade, Sofia (2016). "Hic sita Sigea est: satis hoc: Luisa Sigea and the Role of D. Maria, Infanta of Portugal, in Female Scholarship". In Wyles, Rosie; Hall, Edith (eds.). Women Classical Scholars: Unsealing the Fountain from the Renaissance to Jacqueline de Romilly. Oxford University Press. pp. 58–59. ISBN 9780191038297.
  2. ^ a b Boxer, Charles Ralph (1981). João de Barros: Portuguese Humanist and Historian of Asia. Concept Publishing Company. p. 18.
  3. ^ a b c Stevenson, Jane (2005). Women Latin Poets: Language, Gender, and Authority, from Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century. Oxford University Press. p. 217. ISBN 9780198185024.
  4. ^ Estela González de Sande; Ángeles Cruzado Rodríguez, eds. (2009). Las Revolucionarias: Literatura e Insumisión Femenina (in Spanish). ArCiBel Editores. pp. 52–55. ISBN 9788496980723.
  5. ^ "Públia Hortênsia de Castro". Escritora: Women Writers Before 1900. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
  6. ^ Fonseca, Francisco da (1728), Evora Gloriosa (in Portuguese), p. 415
  7. ^ "Camara Municipal de Lisboa Edital N.17/78". 1978. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
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