Joana Vaz (–after 1570) was a
Renaissance humanist
Renaissance humanism was a revival in the study of classical antiquity, at first in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the term ''humanist'' ( it, umanista) referred to teache ...
and poet in the court of
Catherine of Austria, Queen of Portugal
Catherine of Austria ( pt, Catarina; 14 January 1507 – 12 February 1578) was Queen of Portugal as wife of King John III, and regent during the minority of her grandson, King Sebastian, from 1557 until 1562.
Early life
An Infanta of Castile a ...
.
Catherine's court included a number of scholarly women, including Vaz, Catherine's cousin
Maria
Maria may refer to:
People
* Mary, mother of Jesus
* Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages
Place names Extraterrestrial
* 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877
* Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...
, and the sisters Angela and
Luisa Sigea de Velasco
Luisa Sigea de Velasco (1522 in Tarancón – October 13, 1560 in Burgos), also known as Luisa Sigeia, Luisa Sigea Toledana and in the Latinized form Aloysia Sygaea Toletana, was a poet and intellectual, one of the major figures of Spanish hum ...
.
Vaz served as a
maid of honour
A maid of honour is a junior attendant of a queen in royal households. The position was and is junior to the lady-in-waiting. The equivalent title and office has historically been used in most European royal courts.
Role
Traditionally, a queen r ...
to Catherine and was reportedly director of the ''
aula regia
An ''aula regia'' ( lat. for "royal hall"), also referred to as a ''palas hall'', is a name given to the great hall in an imperial or royal palace (German ''Kaiserpfalz''). In the Middle Ages the term was also used as a synonym for the ''Pfalz'' i ...
''.
Vaz was fluent in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and is reported to have written extensively in the first.
She served as a tutor to Catherine's cousin and to the princess, also called
Maria
Maria may refer to:
People
* Mary, mother of Jesus
* Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages
Place names Extraterrestrial
* 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877
* Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...
.
Vaz was clearly considered to be an authority by her contemporary scholars: the poet
Francisco de Sá de Meneses referred to her as such in a letter, and
Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III ( la, Paulus III; it, Paolo III; 29 February 1468 – 10 November 1549), born Alessandro Farnese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 October 1534 to his death in November 1549.
He came to ...
was reported to have admired her writing.
The poet
Clenardus described her as "elegantly trained in literature" and asked her to contribute a poem for the funeral of
Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaz, Joana
People from Coimbra
1500 births
1570 deaths
16th-century Portuguese writers
Portuguese ladies-in-waiting
16th-century Portuguese women writers
Renaissance people
Renaissance women