Wissher, Anna

Anna Rumers Vissher ( Dutch: Anna Roemers Visscher ; 1583, Amsterdam - December 6, 1651, Alkmaar ) is a Dutch poetess, daughter of Rumer Wissher and sister of Maria Tesselshade Wissher .

Like her sister, she received a good education, including in the field of foreign languages, calligraphy and engraving on glass, wrote poetry and gained some fame as an engraver. She mastered the technique of the so-called diamond puncturing: drawing small dots and strokes on the glass surface using a special rod with a diamond at the end.

Together with her sister, they were the only women who were members of Moyden's intellectual circle . She married only at 41, for a long time refusing various boyfriends, in 1640 she was widowed. She was friends with many Dutch writers of her time, some of whom considered her the first poet of the Netherlands (and even titled “Dutch Sappho ”), while others noted that her sister Maria was superior to her talent.

Anna's poems (mainly sonnets and odes ) were not published during her lifetime; their first edition was carried out in 1881 by the poet Nicholas Bets . In addition to writing her own poems, she was also engaged in translations.