1st Edition
Twenty-Five Women Who Shaped the Early Modern Holy Roman Empire
1. Introduction
The Sixteenth Century: Preachers, Nuns, and Dynastic Women
2. Caritas Pirckheimer (1467–1532): The Learned Nun
3. Katharina Zell (1497/98–1562): A Woman who Preached
4. Maria of Hungary (1505–1558): On Behalf of the Dynasty
5. Elisabeth of Brunswick-Calenberg (1510–1558): A Princess as Reformer
6. Anna of Saxony (1532–1585): Of Princely Domains and Good Medicines
7. Archduchess Maria of Inner Austria (1551–1608): How a Mother Shapes her Children
The Seventeenth Century: Princesses, Businesswomen, and Artists
8. Polyxena of Lobkowicz (1566–1642): Between Bohemia and Spain
9. Anna of Brandenburg (1576–1625): How Prussia came to Brandenburg
10. Maria Magdalena Haidenbucher (1576–1650): Abbess in Troubled Times
11. Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg (1633–1694): The Poet in Exile
12. Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717): Science and Painting
13. Glikl bas Judah Leib (1647?–1724): The Experiences of a Jewish Businesswoman
14. Empress Eleonora Magdalena (1655–1720): How to Care for Your Siblings
15. Maria Aurora von Königsmarck (1662–1728): The Mistress in the Imperial Abbey
The Eighteenth Century: Scientists, Writers, and Social Movers
16. Erdmuthe Benigna of Reuß-Ebersdorf (1670–1732): Women and the Pietist Movement
17. Maria Margaretha Kirch (1670–1720): The Arduous Journey to the Sciences
18. Luise Adelgunde Gottsched (1713–1762): More than the Woman at his Side
19. Dorothea Erxleben (1715–1762): A Medical Doctor Prevails
20. Empress Maria Theresa (1717–1780): The Heiress
21. Anna Dorothea Therbusch (1721–1782): From Innkeeper to Court Painter
22. Anna Barbara Gignoux (1725–1796): How to Defend a Calico Manufactory
23. Sophie von La Roche (1730–1807): A Life as a Female Author
24. Amalie Gallitzin (1748–1806): Philosophy, Religion, and Conviviality
25. Maria Theresia Paradis (1759–1824): The Blind Pianist
26.Henriette Herz (1764–1847): A Salon in Berlin
Biography
Katrin Keller is Director of the Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria.
"Through her well-chosen examples, Katrin Keller unlocks a multitude of previously hidden or partially obscured connections across the last three centuries of the vast Holy Roman Empire’s existence, revealing not only how this complex entity functioned, but the important contributions made by women to its artistic, cultural, dynastic, economic, medical, political, religious, and scientific history. Fascinating and absorbing."
Peter H. Wilson, University of Oxford, UK
"Twenty-Five Women Who Shaped the Early Modern Holy Roman Empire goes beyond women’s history. It provides a rethinking of European history as a whole by arguing that the past takes on a different form when viewed in its entirety, through the lives of women rather than through the sole actions of kings and generals. Keller’s book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the early modern world, as it was recorded, but also as it was truly experienced."
Edina Paleviq, GlobalEurope, ISSUE 1 | October 2025
