1466-1532, 1470-1530
Lawyer And Humanist

Elite Roots. Caritas and Willibald Pirckheimer were a sister and brother, members of a prominent family from Nuremberg in southern Germany, renowned for their education and concern for religion. Their lives point out the ways in which gender shaped the opportunities for learning open to men and women, but also demonstrate the ways in which family background and personal characteristics could work to lessen gender differences. Caritas and Willibald were born into a family that prized education and cultural achievements. Their great-grandfather and grandfather both studied law in Italy, where they became acquainted with the new style of learning, termed humanism, that prized reading and study of texts in their original languages rather than depending on the opinions of more recent commentators. Their grandfather was a member of the city council of Nuremberg, and also wrote philosophical treatises and...