Anna Comnena - Infinite Women

Born: 1 December 1083, Turkey
Died: 1153
Country most active: Turkey
Also known as: Anna Komnene, Ἄννα Κομνηνή, Ánna Komnēnḗ

From Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.:

Greek historian and scholar
Anna Comnena, daughter of the Greek emperor Alexius Comnenus, flourished about the year 1118. She renounced in her youth the amusements and occupations of her sex, to deliver up herself to a passionate fondness for study and letters.
After acquiring a large acquaintance with history and belles-lettres, she made marked progress in philosophy, notwithstanding the obscurity in which it was, in those times, involved. She later employed her acquirements in composing a history, in fifteen volumes, of the life and reign of her father, a work which she entitled The Alexiad; eight of these books were published by Haeschelius in 1610 ; and the whole fifteen with a Latin version in 1651. In 1670 the learned Charles du Fresne published another edition with historical and philological notes.
Anna Comnena has been accused of partiality in this work, in which the actions of her father appear to greater advantage than in the writings of the Latin historians, who, it is not impossible, might have cherished prejudices against a Greek emperor. The truth is probably to be found by taking medium ground. The Journal des Sarans thus speaks of Anna in 1675 : —
“The elegance with which Anna Comnena has, in fifteen books, described the life and actions of her father, and the strong and eloquent
manner in which she has set them off…It is impossible to read the descriptions she has given of countries, rivers, mountains, towns, sieges, battles, the reflections she makes upon particular events, the judgment she passes upon human actions, with her digressions on various occasions, without perceiving that she must have been skilled in grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, and mathematics; nay, even that she must have possessed some knowledge of law, physics, and divinity — studies very rare and uncommon in her sex.”

The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.

Of the royal line of the Comneni, daughter of Alexis Comnenos, Emperor of Byzantium in the 12 th century. This distinguished example of a Byzantine princess lived in the brilliant epoch of the Renaissance and won for herself a worthy place therein.
From her earliest youth she had been a student of philosophy, history, rhetoric, philology, geography, mythology, medicine, and the physical sciences: she had a wide acquaintance with classical Greek literature, and from this source imbibed the consommate subtlety of Hellenic culture and language. She was not merely a well educated woman, but was for that age, a savant.
Her famous work, the Alexiad, in which she relates the achievements of her father’s reign and the events of the First Crusade, bear witness to the many-sided culture of this Byzantine princess. Brought up under the direct influence of her grandmother, the Empress Anna Dalassena, whose rare qualities she greatly admired, she grew equally distinguished, both from the moral and the intellectual point of view. Dignified and proud to a degree,
as were few Byzantine princesses, energetic, persevering, daring, ambitious, pious, she presents a mind, both literary and political, unique in that confused age of Byzantium. Those who knew her thought, her profound philosophical learning, her truly royal spirit, did not hesitate to say: “If the ancient Greeks could have but known her, they would have added another Grace to the Graces, and a tenth Muse to the nine.” The moral life of this remarkable woman was on a par with her intellectual life, and was tested, not a little, by circumstances, but she found consolation in the Greek learning which she so loved, in her devotion to God and in her words of filial love. She died at the age of sixty-five.

The following is excerpted from A Cyclopædia of Female Biography, published 1857 by Groomsbridge and Sons and edited by Henry Gardiner Adams.

Daughter to the Greek Emperor Alexius Comnenus, flourished about 1118, and wrote fifteen books on the life and actions of her father, which she called “The Alexiad.” Eight of these books were published by Hicscbelius, in 1610, and the whole of them, with a Latin version, in 1651; to another edition of which, in 1670, the learned Charles du Fresne added historical and philological notes.
The authors of the “Journal des Savans,” for 1075, have spoken as follows of this learned and accomplished lady. “The elegance with which Anna Comnenus has described the life and actions of her father, and the strong and eloquent manner with which she has set them off, are so much above the ordinary understanding of women, that one is almost ready to doubt whether she was indeed the author of those books. It is certain that we cannot read her descriptions of countries, towns, rivers, mountains, battles, sieges; her reflections upon particular events; the judgments she passes on human actions; and the digressions she makes on many occasions, without perceiving that she must have been very well skilled in grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, mathematics, physic, and divinity; all of which is very uncommon with her sex.”