Natalie Zemon-Davis traces three social backgrounds: the German merchant Glikl, a french catholic mystic named Marie Guyart, and lastly Maria Sibylla Merian a skilled watercolorist and entomologist. A protestant, a catholic, and a Jew, all these women who were distanced from centers of power and authority, defined by their husband (although some worked to rebel against this) and social class. Similar to almost all women of seventeenth century Europe defined by their margins. All these women also share a trait: they left memoirs. Without those memoirs, they would be silent.