Olympia Fulvia Morata (1526–1555)

Olympia Fulvia Morata was one of the most brilliant and learned women of the Renaissance. Educated by her father, also a classical scholar, she spoke and wrote fluently in Latin and Greek. Olympia became the tutor to the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Ferrara. However, as a Protestant in Catholic Italy, her life and freedom were in jeopardy from the Inquisition. In 1550 she married a German physician and went with him to his native Bavaria, where she was an eyewitness to the wars of religion.