Writings of a Well-Learned Gentlewoman: Volume 109

The collected writings of Margaret More Roper, presented and annotated for classroom use.

Margaret More Roper (1505-44) 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. As the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas More, Roper received a cutting-edge education in Latin and Greek that was virtually unprecedented for a woman. Besides gaining an international reputation for her outstanding erudition, Roper served as More’s confidante during his imprisonment. Her correspondence from this period offers valuable insight into a key moment in English history.

This Other Voice series edition recognizes Margaret More Roper 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.

Margaret More Roper (1505-1544) was the first nonroyal woman to have a book printed in England: Devout Treatise upon the Pater Noster, an English translation of a Latin commentary on the Lord’s Prayer by Desiderius Erasmus. Elizabeth McCutcheon is professor emeritus at the University of Hawai’I and is the foremost authority on Margaret Roper. Recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award 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 is professor of English and director of the Humanities Center at Wayne State University and has published widely on early modern women writers, particularly in relation to Catholicism and humanism. William Gentrup is professor emeritus at Arizona State University and is the editor or coeditor of three scholarly collections on Renaissance subjects, including, with Elizabeth McCutcheon, A Companion to Margaret More Roper Studies: Life Records, Essential Texts, and Critical Essays.