Books in the The Early Modern Englishwoman: A Facsimile Library of Essential Works & Printed Writings, 1641-1700: Series II, Part One series

The four works presented here are the only known exclusively medical texts written by women during the Restoration, but they dramatically challenge generalizations once made about medical practice and female healers in the period. Until the 1970s, they were characterized as ignorant and unskilled.

Writers today describe the process by which they have come to be what they believe they are: unique individuals. In contrast, early modern writers sought connections between events in their lives and the larger pattern of Christian salvation. This volume collects women's writings of this type.

Writers today describe the process by which they have come to be what they believe they are: unique individuals. In contrast, early modern writers sought connections between events in their lives and the larger pattern of Christian salvation. This volume collects women's writings of this type.

The three works included in this volume are variants of a category identified by Elaine Beilin as "Mothers' Advice Books". One of the sub-genres of courtesy literature, they are written by mothers instructing their children in religious, educational and, occasionally, worldly matters.

This volume includes women's writing about education, particularly with regard to language and arithmetic - works which are surprisingly few and late. Some early modern authors cautioned teachers that girls might succumb to pride if they knew much, but the learned girl was often celebrated.

The almanacs reproduced in this volume add to an understanding of women's participation in popular culture, astrology, medicine and prophecy. As the most inexpensive form of printed matter in the early modern period, almanacs exerted a tremendous influence on popular opinion.

This volume comprises the first and last original plays by women to be printed between 1660 and 1700, "Marcelia" and "The Perjur'd Husband", plus two printed in the 1690s, "She Ventures and He Wins" and "The Unnatural Mother", at a point when women playwrights became a significant force in theatre.