In Byzantium
girls did not generally have access to secondary or university education. There were exceptional cases, however, in which women of noble birth, raised in a cultured social milieu, continued their studies on their own initiative and attained a high level of learning. This they achieved not by attending secondary or higher schools, since this was not permitted, but by studying alongside some reputed scholar, who might be a layman or a cleric, or even by personal effort and study and thanks to the access they had to some private library. They finally managed, thus, to "impose" the femine presence on the intellectual circles of their time and to earn the recognition of their contemporary intellectuals. Such personalities were
Theodora Raoulaina Kantakouzene,Irene Eulogia Choumnaina Palaiologina
(daughter of
Nikephoros Choumnos
and widow of despotes John Palaiologos),
Irene Metochites
(daughter of Theodore Metochites), the empress
Helen Kantakouzene Palaiologina
(daughter of the emperor John VI Kantakouzenos and wife of John V Palaiologos).
In Byzantium
girls did not generally have access to secondary or university education. There were exceptional cases, however, in which women of noble birth, raised in a cultured social milieu, continued their studies on their own initiative and attained a high level of learning. This they achieved not by attending secondary or higher schools, since this was not permitted, but by studying alongside some reputed scholar, who might be a layman or a cleric, or even by personal effort and study and thanks to the access they had to some private library. They finally managed, thus, to "impose" the femine presence on the intellectual circles of their time and to earn the recognition of their contemporary intellectuals. Such personalities were