death_date death_place birth_place birth_date image article_title name
26 october 1555 heidelberg , germany ferrara , italy 1526 olympia fulvia morata.jpg olympia fulvia morata
 olimpia fulvia morata
olympia fulvia morata

olimpia fulvia morata -lrb- 1526 -- 26 october 1555 -rrb- was an italian classical scholar .
she was born in ferrara to fulvio pellegrino morato and a certain lucrezia -lrb- possibly gozi -rrb- .
her father , who had been tutor to the young princes of the ducal house of este , was on intimate terms with the most learned men of italy , and the daughter grew up in an atmosphere of classical learning .
at the age of twelve she was able to converse fluently in greek and latin .
about this time she was summoned to the palace as companion and instructor of the younger but equally gifted anna d'este , daughter of renata , duchess of ferrara .
many people with literary fame or protestant leanings , like john calvin , vittoria colonna and clément marot visited the court of the duchess .
in her teens olympia lectured on cicero and calvin 's works .
in 1546 she left court to take care of her ailing father and , after his death , she took care of the education of her brothers and sisters .
olympia 's father , having died a convert to protestantism , and olympia embraced the doctrines of luther and calvin .
when she returned to court , anna d'este 's marriage to francis , duke of guise left her isolated .
she spent her time studying philosophy and corresponded with gasparo sardi , who dedicated his `` de triplici philosophia '' to her .
about the end of 1550 , she married a young student of medicine and philosophy , andreas grundler of schweinfurt in bavaria .
in 1554 she accompanied grundler to his place of birth , where he had been appointed physician to the garrison of spanish troops .
in 1553 the margrave albert of brandenburg on one of his plundering expeditions took possession of schweinfurt , and was in turn besieged by the protestants .
at length albert evacuated the place , and olympia and her husband made their escape .
they finally succeeded in reaching heidelberg in 1554 where a medical lectureship had been obtained for grundler through the influence of the erbach family , by whom they had been hospitably entertained during their flight .
in 1558 , after her death , a major collection of some of her greek letters and latin dialogues was published in basel .
