But a young woman wanting to be introduced to the most recent knowledge at leading universities was surely remarkable. In the Kramer/Sprenger book Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of the Witches) of 1486, we are told that the Devil prefers women as easier to seduce. She simply ignores the offer of riches and jewelry and wants to learn the Seven Liberal Arts : (music, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy-plus grammar, logic, and poetry). Here we have a young, innocent girl making a pact with the Devil. I had no difficulty reading the Middle Dutch, because, as part of my dissertation, I had translated the abele speelen & sotterniën of the Hulthem Manuscript (approx. I had descended to the 5 th or 6 th subbasement of Harvard’s Widener Library, where they keep the Dutch collection, in order to find a book on Joost van den Vondel, when I noticed a small volume sticking out. My discovery of the play itself was serendipitous, as is so often the case.
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