Van Schurman was born in Cologne, a bright daughter of wealthy parents, Frederik of Schurman and Eva von Harff de Dreiborn. At 4 years old she could already read.

In 1613 after her father's death she moved to Utrecht with her mother and two aunts. In 1636 she studied as the first female student at the university. Women at that time were not permitted to study at a university, and for the lectures she attended she sat behind a curtain so that the male students could not see her. She had interests in literature and all kinds of sciences, but especially theology. She graduated in law.

Anna Maria also developed a wide variety of artistic interests. She produced delicate engravings by using a diamond on glass. She became expert in sculpture, wax modelling, and the carving of ivory and wood. She also painted, especially portraits.

In 1664 she met Jean de Labadie, a Jesuit who had converted to Protestantism. He had founded a contemplative religious sect known as Labadism. Anna Maria was fascinated by Labadie and his ideas and became his principal helper.The sect moved to Amsterdam but was not welcomed there and they moved again to Altona (then in Denmark now Germany), where Jean de Labadie died in 1674. Thereafter the group moved again to Wieuwerd in Friesland, where Anna Maria herself died in 1678. Labadism became extinct 70 years later around 1750.

"Whatever fills the human mind with uncommon and honest delight is fitting for a human woman."

Incomplete list

• She published Whether the Study of Letters Is Fitting for a Christian Woman? In Dutch and was translated into French in 1646 and English in 1659; there is also a Latin version (Num feminae Christianae convenit studium litterarum), which is included in the collected edition of 1648 (see below).

This argued, using the mediaeval technique of syllogism, that women should be educated in all matters but should not use their education in professional activity or employment and it should not be allowed to interfere in their domestic duties. For its time this was a radical position.

• Anna Maria published her last work "Eucleria" (1673) with Jean's support.

Her collected works, including correspondence in French, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, were published by the house of Elsevier in 1648, edited by Friedrich Spanheim, another disciple of Labadie.