‘O Utreght, Lieve Stad…’

Abstract

In this article I discuss Anna Maria van Schurman’ s poem ‘Aenmerckinghe Over ‘t onderschijt tussen UITRECHT en CEULEN’ (‘Observation on the difference between Utrecht and Cologne’) in the light of her other Dutch poetry. ‘Aenmerckinghe’ deals with the time Van Schurman spent in Cologne, which she regarded as a period of exile.¹ Issues of faith are the principal theme in this comparison between Utrecht and Cologne. Indeed, religious matters are an essential aspect of Van Schurman’ s surviving poetic oeuvre in Dutch — limited though it is — and this raises the question of whether she considered Dutch as the appropriate language in which to express her religious conviction.