Cille Gad (1675-1711) was a Norwegian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...

and

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these grou ...

personality. She was also well known as a female academic, something regarded as notable during by her contemporaries.

Biography

Cille Gad was born and grew up in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula o ...

, Norway. She was the daughter of Knud Gad (d. 1711) and Anna Abrahamsdatter. Her father was a printer and auditor. Her mother was the cousin of Dorothe Engelbretsdatter. She received instruction in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew from her father. She early wrote poems in Latin, but they were presumably destroyed by the great fire of Bergen in 1702. In 1705, she secretly gave birth to a fetus which was found dead. She was arrested, but her correspondent Otto Sperling appealed to the monarch that a learned female should not be executed. She was released in 1707 and banished from Bergen. In 1708 she was at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

. From 1708, she lived in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

and socialized in the learned circles around the university and known as a poet. She died unmarried in 1711, probably of the plague.

Legacy

She is believed to have been the inspiration for ''till Zille Hans Dotters Gynaicologia eller Forsvars Skrift for Qvinde-Kiønnet'' by

Ludvig Holberg Ludvig Holberg, Baron of Holberg (3 December 1684 – 28 January 1754) was a writer, essayist, philosopher, historian and playwright born in Bergen, Norway, during the time of the Dano-Norwegian dual monarchy. He was influenced by Humanism, ...

(1722). She was included in a dictionary of learned women by Otto Sperling, to whom she also dedicated poems.

References

18th-century Norwegian poets 1675 births 1711 deaths 17th-century Norwegian poets 18th-century Norwegian women writers 17th-century Norwegian women writers Norwegian women poets {{Norway-poet-stub