The Complete Writings of an Italian Heretic A brilliant scholar
and one of the finest writers of her day, Olympia Morata
(1526-1555) was attacked by some as a "Calvinist Amazon" but
praised by others as an inspiration to all learned women. This
book publishes, for the first time, all her known
writings—orations, dialogues, letters, and poems—in an
accessible English translation. Raised in the court of Ferrara
in Italy, Morata was educated alongside the daughters of the
nobility. As a youth she gave public lectures on Cicero, wrote
commentaries on Homer, and composed poems, dialogues, and
orations in both Latin and Greek. She also became a prominent
Protestant evangelical, studying the Bible extensively and
corresponding with many of the leading theologians of the
Reformation. After fleeing to Germany in search of religious
freedom, Morata tutored students in Greek and composed what many
at the time felt were her finest works—a series of translations
of the Psalms into Greek hexameters and sapphics. Feminists