Margaret More Roper: A Survey of Her Writings
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.20237353Keywords:
Margaret More Roper, Thomas More, Erasmus of Rotterdam, A Devout Treatise upon the Pater Noster (1524?), letter writing in the RenaissanceAbstract
As a contribution to the forthcoming 500th anniversary of the publication of Margaret Roper (née More)’s A Devout Treatise (1524-2024), the purpose of this article is to make a survey of her written production (public and private), including those works that were preserved as well as those others that were written but have been lost. The trial and death of Thomas More necessarily resulted in the loss of documents and writings, not only by More but by his daughter too. Sixteenth-century biographies of Thomas More are the main source of information about his daughter Margaret (1505-1544) and her written production. These early biographers were clearly concerned with the promotion of the figure of More, but they did not let pass the opportunity to ponder and testify to the scholarly excellence of his eldest daughter. This is particularly the case of Nicholas Harpsfield (1557) and, more especially, Thomas Stapleton (1588). Cresacre More’s biography of More (Douai, 1631), even though in general terms it offers no original information, has also been used in this study. Another important corpus of information is the epistolary writings of Margaret and her father, as well as of Erasmus. Various other documents subject to recent literary criticism are also consulted.
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Copyright (c) 2023 Eugenio M. Olivares-Merino
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Accepted 2023-10-04
Published 2023-12-19
