Pirckheimer, Caritas (1467–1532)
Pirckheimer, Caritas (1467–1532)
German nun and writer . Born in 1467; died in 1532.
Descended from a long line of German scholars, Caritas Pirckheimer joined the order of Poor Clares (Convent of St. Klara) at Nuremberg, at age 16, and eventually became abbess. Of superior intelligence, and having received an excellent education, Pirckheimer was able to correspond in Latin with the notables of her day and in doing so became an important voice in the German intelligentsia. In addition to writing a history of her convent, she authored Denkwürdigkeiten (1524–28), a documentation of the intellectual, political, and religious arguments of the Reformation in Nuremberg, where her convent became hostage to the unfolding historical events. Like many convent chronicles of the early modern age, it was the result of meticulous and sophisticated research.