Benito Feijoo (1676-1764) was a Spanish Benedictine monk who over a period of twenty-seven years published two series of works, the Teatro Critico Universal and the Cartas Eruditas. Selected essays from the Teatro Critico were published in an English translation by Captain John Brett in 1780; the first volume included the essay Defence of Women, in which Feijoo argued that, contrary to popular prejudice, women were morally and intellectually equal to men. Hester Chapone wrote to Elizabeth Carter asking her to send her a translation of the passages in Feijoo’s works “in which he speaks so honourably of our sex” (The Posthumous Works of Mrs Chapone, 1807, Vol 2, Letter VII)