top of page
Lady Mary Wroth
(1587-1651)
Mary Wroth, the first woman to publish an extended work of prose fiction in English, was also an amateur cryptographer with a secret.
Lady Mary Wroth (1587–1653) Xenophon, Cyrupaedia, translated by Philemon Holland. London: John Legat, 1632.
Wroth created a monogram, which appears here on her personal copy of Xenophon’s biography of the Persian ruler Cyrus. Its many letters spell the names “Pamphilia” and “Amphilanthus,” the protagonists of her prose romance, The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania (1621). These two characters were avatars for Wroth and her cousin—and lover —William Herbert. Look closely: you might even find all the letters to spell “Mary” and “William.
STC 26068 (C). Purchased in 2019 with the Endowment Fund for the Donald and Mary Hyde Collection.
.jpg)
bottom of page