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Elizabeth A.Sackler Center for Feminist Art

Elizabeth Lucar

b. 1510, London; d. 1537, London

A brass plaque on the tomb of Elizabeth Lucar in Saint Michael’s parish, London, extols her many virtues and skills: she was fluent in Latin, Spanish, and Italian, and an accomplished musician and needleworker. Elizabeth died at the age of twenty-seven; the epitaph was written by her husband, Emanuel Lucar (1494–1574), a member of the Merchant Tailors Company. Among Elizabeth’s other talents was calligraphy; sources credit her with the writing of the first English essay on the subject.