Sibylle Ursula of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

Sibylle Ursula von Braunschweig-Lüneburg, also known as Sibylle von Braunschweig-Lüneburg and Sibylle of Brunswick-Lüneburg, (4 February 1629 – 12 December 1671), a member of the House of Welf, was a daughter of Duke Augustus II of Brunswick-Lüneburg and, by marriage, Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg. She stood out as a translator and writer.

Life and work Sibylle Ursula was born in Hitzacker, the third child of Duke Augustus (1579–1666) from his second marriage with the Ascanian princess Dorothea of Anhalt-Zerbst (1607–1634). Her father assumed the rule in the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in 1634. Sibylle Ursula became the stepdaughter of Elisabeth Sophie of Mecklenburg (1613–1676), the third wife of Duke Augustus who had distinguished herself as a poet and composer. Like her siblings, the Brunswick dukes Rudolph Augustus and Anthony Ulrich, she received a comprehensive education at the Wolfenbüttel court by scholars like Justus Georg Schottel and Sigmund von Birken.

For several years, she kept up a correspondence with Madeleine de Scudéry and Johannes Valentinus Andreae. Sibylle Ursula wrote part of a novel, Die Durchlauchtige Syrerin Aramena (Aramena, the noble Syrian lady), which when complete would be the most famous courtly novel in German Baroque literature; it was finished by her brother Anthony Ulrich and edited by Sigmund von Birken. Other writings of hers include a five-act play and a series of spiritual meditations. None of her children reached adulthood.