49 17th century writers

Sóror Mariana Alcoforado was a Portuguese nun living in the convent of the Poor Clares in Beja, Portugal.

Ana de Jesús, translated into English as Anne of Jesus, was a Spanish Discalced Carmelite nun and writer. She was a close companion of Teresa of Avila, foundress of the Carmelite reform and served to establish new monasteries of the Order throughout Europe. Known as a mystic and for her writings on prayer, she has been declared Venerable by the Catholic Church.

Landgravine Anna Sophia of Hesse-Darmstadt was a German noblewoman who reigned as Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg under the name Anna Sophia II.

Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, known as La Grande Mademoiselle, was the only daughter of Gaston d'Orléans with his first wife Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier. One of the greatest heiresses in history, she died unmarried and childless, leaving her vast fortune to her cousin, Philippe of France. After a string of proposals from various members of European ruling families, including Charles II of England, Afonso VI of Portugal, and Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy, she eventually fell in love with the courtier Antoine Nompar de Caumont and scandalised the court of France when she asked Louis XIV for permission to marry him, as such a union was viewed as a mésalliance. She is best remembered for her role in the Fronde, her role in bringing the famous composer Lully to the king's court, and her Mémoires.

Anne of Austria, a Spanish princess and an Austrian archduchess of the House of Habsburg, was queen of France as the wife of Louis XIII, and powerful regent of France during the minority of her son, Louis XIV, from 1643 to 1651. During her regency, Cardinal Mazarin served as France's chief minister. Accounts of French court life of her era emphasize her difficult marital relations with her husband, her closeness to her son Louis XIV, and her disapproval of her son's marital infidelity to her niece and daughter-in-law Maria Theresa.

Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy, also known as Countess d'Aulnoy, was a French writer known for her literary fairy tales. When she termed her works contes de fées, she originated the term that is now generally used for the genre.

Anne, Lady Bacon was an English lady and scholar. She made a lasting contribution to English religious literature with her translation from Latin of John Jewel's Apologie of the Anglican Church (1564). She was the mother of Francis Bacon.

Catherine Bernard was a French poet, playwright, and novelist. She composed three historical novels, two verse tragedies, several poems, and was awarded several poetry prizes by the Académie française. Bernard established the fundamental aesthetic principle of the French literary conte de fées popular in the salons of the late seventeenth century with the dictum: "the [adventures] should always be implausible and the emotions always natural". Her works are appreciated today for their psychological nuance.

Louise (Bourgeois) Boursier (1563–1636) was a French midwife. Marie de Médicis the wife of Henry the Great of France was one of her patients and delivered her six children. Boursier was a Royal Court midwife for many young women in her twenty-six year professional career. She made about ten times what the average midwife made.

Lady Jane Cavendish (1621–1669) was a noted poet and playwright. She was daughter of William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, and later the wife of Charles Cheyne, Viscount Newhaven, Along with her literary achievements, Jane helped manage her father's properties while he spent the English Civil War in exile; she was responsible for a variety of military correspondences and for salvaging many of her family's valuable possessions. Later in life, Jane became an important community member in Chelsea. She used her money and resources to make improvements on Chelsea Church and to otherwise benefit her friends and neighbours. Marked by vitality, integrity, perseverance, and creativity, Jane's life and works tell the story of a Royalist woman's indomitable spirit during the English Civil War and Restoration in England.

Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1623 – 15 December 1673) was an English aristocrat, philosopher, poet, scientist, fiction-writer, and playwright during the 17th century. Born Margaret Lucas, she was the youngest sister of prominent royalists Sir John Lucas and Sir Charles Lucas, who owned the manor of St. John's Abbey in Colchester. She became an attendant of Queen Henrietta Maria and travelled with her into exile in France, living for a time at the court of the young King Louis XIV. She became the second wife of William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1645, when he was a marquess.

Susanna Centlivre, born Susanna Freeman and also known professionally as Susanna Carroll, was an English poet, actress, and "the most successful female playwright of the eighteenth century". Centlivre's "pieces continued to be acted after the theatre managers had forgotten most of her contemporaries." During a long career at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, she became known as the second woman of the English stage, after Aphra Behn.

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal is a Catholic saint, who was beatified in 1751 and canonized in 1767. She founded the religious Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary. The order accepted women who were rejected by other orders because of poor health or age. When people criticized her, Chantal famously said, "What do you want me to do? I like sick people myself; I'm on their side." During its first eight years, the new order also was unusual in its public outreach, in contrast to most female religious who remained cloistered and adopted strict ascetic practices.

Anne Conway was an English philosopher whose work, in the tradition of the Cambridge Platonists, was an influence on Gottfried Leibniz. Conway's thought is a deeply original form of rationalist philosophy, with hallmarks of gynocentric concerns and patterns that lead some to think of it as unique among seventeenth-century systems.

Ralph Cudworth FRS was an English Anglican clergyman, Christian Hebraist, classicist, theologian and philosopher, and a leading figure among the Cambridge Platonists. From a family background embedded in the early nonconformist environment of Emmanuel College where he studied (1630–45), he became 11th Regius Professor of Hebrew (1645–88), 26th Master of Clare Hall (1645–54), and 14th Master of Christ's College (1654–88). He was a leading opponent of Thomas Hobbes's political and philosophical views, and his magnum opus was his The True Intellectual System of the Universe (1678).

Sarah Fyge Egerton (1668–1723) was an English poet who wrote in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. In her works The Female Advocate and Poems on Several Occasions, Egerton wrote about gender, friendship, marriage, religion, education, politics, and other topics. She is chiefly known as the spirited teen who responded in defense of women to Robert Gould's misogynist satire.

Elisabeth Sophie of Mecklenburg, Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg was a German poet and composer.

Dorothe Engelbretsdatter was a Norwegian author. She principally wrote hymns and poems which were strongly religious. She has been characterized as Norway's first recognized female author as well as Norway's first feminist before feminism became a recognized concept.

Elizabeth Cary, Viscountess Falkland, was an English poet, dramatist, translator, and historian. She is the first woman known to have written and published an original play in English. From an early age, she was recognized as an accomplished scholar by contemporary writers.

Bengt Gottfried Forselius was a founder of public education in Estonia, author of the first ABC-book in the Estonian language, and creator of a spelling system which made the teaching and learning of Estonian easier. Forselius and Johan Hornung were mainly responsible for making a start at reforming the Estonian literary language in the late 17th century. Some German constructions were abandoned, and a strict spelling system was adopted which still relied on German orthography.

Marie de Gournay was a French writer, who wrote a novel and a number of other literary compositions, including The Equality of Men and Women and The Ladies' Grievance. She insisted that women should be educated. Gournay was also an editor and commentator of Michel de Montaigne. After Montaigne's death, Gournay edited and published his Essays.

Kryštof Harant of Polžice and Bezdružice was a Czech nobleman, traveler, humanist, soldier, writer and composer. He joined the Protestant Bohemian Revolt in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown against the House of Habsburg that led to Thirty Years' War. Following the victory of Catholic forces in the Battle of White Mountain, Harant was executed in the mass Old Town Square execution by the Habsburgs.

Levinus Hulsius or Levin Hulsius He was a maker and dealer of fine scientific instruments; publisher and printer; linguist and lexicographer; wrote extensively on the construction of geometrical instruments. Although he was born in Flanders he lived and worked in the Netherlands and Germany.

Jang Gye-hyang was a Korean noblewoman who studied the Hangul calligraphy and wrote poetry in her youth. She was also a painter and philanthropist of the Joseon (Chosŏn) era. She wrote one of the first cookbooks in Korea penned by a woman, which was also written in the Korean alphabet. The text in which it was written is significant, as the official script at that time was Chinese. It is also significant as the book uniquely presents a means of preparing food, expanding the study of food from its medicinal properties to actual preparation.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a Mexican writer, philosopher, composer, poet of the Baroque period, and Hieronymite nun. Her outspoken opinions granted her lifelong names such as "The Tenth Muse" and "The Phoenix of Mexico", for she was a flame that rose from the ashes of "religious authoritarianism".

Louise de La Vallière was a mistress of Louis XIV of France from 1661 to 1667. She later became the Duchess of La Vallière and Duchess of Vaujours in her own right. She has no known surviving descendants. Louise was also very religious and she led a religious penance for herself near the end of her life.

Anne "Ninon" de l'Enclos also spelled Ninon de Lenclos and Ninon de Lanclos was a French author, courtesan, and patron of the arts.

Mary of Jesus of Ágreda , OIC, also known as the Abbess of Ágreda, was a Franciscan abbess and spiritual writer, known especially for her extensive correspondence with King Philip IV of Spain and reports of her bilocation between Spain and its colonies in New Spain. She was a noted mystic of her era.

Françoise Bertaut de Motteville, French memoir writer, was the daughter of Pierre Bertaut, a gentleman of the king's chamber, and niece of the bishop-poet Jean Bertaut.

Philip Numan was a Flemish lawyer and humanist, a writer in prose and verse, sometimes under the pen name Hippophilus Neander.

Willem Ogier (1618–1689) was a Flemish schoolmaster, playwright and comedian.

Mavro Orbini (1563–1614) was a Ragusan chronicler, notable for his work The Realm of the Slavs (1601) which influenced Slavic ideology and historiography in the later centuries.

Pasquale Caracciolo or Pasqual Caracciolo was a Neapolitan nobleman who wrote a substantial treatise on horses and horsemanship. His work La Gloria del Cavallo was first published in 1566.

Mary Pix was an English novelist and playwright. As an admirer of Aphra Behn and colleague of Susanna Centlivre, Pix has been called "a link between women writers of the Restoration and Augustan periods".

Catharina Questiers was a Dutch poet and dramatist. Along with Cornelia van der Veer and Katharyne Lescailje she was the most successful female Dutch poet of the second half of the 17th century. Her brother David also achieved some note as a poet.

Anne Margrethe Qvitzow was a Danish poet and memoir writer. She is most associated with her translations.

Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakenstein was a military man and a colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company and naturalist. Between 1669 and 1676 he served as a governor of Dutch Malabar and employed twenty-five people on his book Hortus Malabaricus, describing 740 plants in the region. As Lord of Mydrecht, he also played a role in the governance of the Cape colonies. Many plants such as the vine Entada rheedii are named for him. The standard author abbreviation Rheede is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.

Juan Rodríguez Freyle, was an early writer in the New Kingdom of Granada, the Spanish colonial territory of what today is Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela. The son of a soldier in the army of Pedro de Ursúa, Rodríguez Freyle knew the cacique of Guatavita and the founder of Bogotá: Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada. His major work El Carnero is a collection of stories, anecdotes and rumours about the early days of colonial Colombia and the demise of the Muisca Confederation. It is one of the most important sources for the sixteenth century colonial period of present-day Colombia.

Marcela de San Félix (1605–1688) was a nun who worked as a prelate, a teacher to novices, and housekeeper among several other jobs. However, Sor Marcela was also a poet, an actress as well as a dramatist.

Maria Antonia Scalera Stellini was a 17th-century Italian poet and playwright.

Anna Maria van Schurman was a Dutch painter, engraver, poet, and scholar, who is best known for her exceptional learning and her defence of female education. She was a highly educated woman, who excelled in art, music, and literature, and became proficient in fourteen languages, including Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Aramaic, and an Ethiopic language, as well as various contemporary European languages. She was also the first woman to study at a Dutch university.

Sibylla Schwarz, also known as Sibylle Schwartz[in] was a German poet of the Baroque era.

Madeleine de Scudéry, often known simply as Mademoiselle de Scudéry, was a French writer.

Christiane Christiansdatter Sehested was the daughter of king Christian IV of Denmark and his morganatic spouse, Kirsten Munk. She shared the title Countess of Schleswig-Holstein with her mother and siblings. She was the twin of her sister Hedevig Ulfeldt.

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné was a French aristocrat, remembered for her letter-writing. Most of her letters, celebrated for their wit and vividness, were addressed to her daughter. She is revered in France as one of the great icons of French 17th-century literature.

Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke was among the first Englishwomen to gain major repute for her poetry and literary patronage. By the age of 39, she was listed along with her brother Philip Sidney and with Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare among the notable authors of the day in John Bodenham's verse miscellany Belvidere. Her play Antonius is widely recognized as reviving interest in soliloquy based on classical models and as one likely source of Samuel Daniel's closet drama Cleopatra (1594) and of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (1607). She was also known for translating Petrarch's "Triumph of Death," for the poetry anthology Triumphs, and above all for a lyrical translation of the Psalms.

François Turrettini was a Genevan-Italian Reformed scholastic theologian.

Mary Rich, Countess of Warwick was the seventh daughter of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, and his second wife, Catherine Fenton, only daughter of Sir Geoffrey Fenton and Alice Weston. She was born in 1625 in Youghal, County Cork, and after her mother's death in 1628 she was raised by her relatives Sir Richard and Lady Clayton in Mallow before becoming a maid of honour to Queen Henrietta Maria. In 1641 she married Charles Rich, 4th Earl of Warwick, and they had two children who died young.

Lady Mary Wroth (1587-1653) was an English poet of the Renaissance. A member of a distinguished literary family, Lady Wroth was among the first female English writers to have achieved an enduring reputation. Mary Wroth was niece to Mary Herbert née Sidney, and to Sir Philip Sidney, a famous Elizabethan poet-courtier.