Female Writing in Manuscript and Print: Two German Examples from the Cultural and Political Context of Late Seventeenth-Century Sweden – Maria Aurora von Königsmarck (1662–1728) and Eva Margaretha Frölich (?–1692)

Abstract

Aurora von Königsmarck and Eva Margaretha Frölich, two noblewomen of German descent in late seventeenth-century Sweden, were both influenced by currents in contemporary theology and piety. Aurora von Königsmarck, her sister, and two of their female cousins formed a circle around the Swedish queen Ulrica Eleonora (the elder). Together they wrote strongly emotional religious poetry in German, which is preserved in an exquisite volume in the Uppsala University Library.Eva Margaretha Frölich expected the Swedish king Charles XI to play a central role in the imminent apocalyptic drama and become the ruler of the world. After she had been exiled from Sweden, she propagated for these views in a number of tracts published in Amsterdam.The present article explores some important paratextual features in ‘Nordischer weÿrauch’, the manuscript collection of religious poetry written in Aurora von Königsmarck’s hand, and in the works by Eva Margaretha Frölich. The discussion shows the importance of paratextual analysis for the interpretation of texts from the literary and intellectual culture of early modern Europe.