her husband Wilhelm Heymair lived there from 1566 to 1570. She corresponded with Nicolaus Gallus, a leader of the Lutheran Reformation in Regensburg, and was a close friend of the town's preacher, Willibald Ramsbeck. While at Cham, Magdalena Heymair began to write poetry which she set to music and used in her lessons. Magdalena Heymair used the settings of children's poet Nikolaus Herman as a model for her compositions. In the preface to her first book, she writes that she was inspired by Die sonntags-evangelia of Nikolaus Herman, Kantor in Joachimsthal. Finding that he had written at the request of a school teacher, she asked God for the grace to arrange the daily lessons for singing. Her manuscript was completed by 1561, and published in 1568 as Die sontegliche Episteln über das gantze Jar in gesangsweis gestellt ('Sunday Epistles on the whole Year, put to the test’.) Further editions followed in 1569, 1578, 1579 and 1733. With this work, Magdalena Heymair became the first and only woman to publish pedagogical writings for elementary teaching prior to the 18th century. That she was able to publish is remarkable. Her contemporary Josua Opitz wrote, in a preface to Heymair's second book, "This must be the end of time, when also women are publishing books". Although the German school at Cham had been exclusively assured to Heymair with the support of the Lutheran Council, the succession of Elector Friedrich III resulted in the promotion of more Calvinist beliefs. A Calvinist teacher, Veit Wurtzer from Landshut, was allowed to establish a competing school. Although Magdalena Heymair appealed to superintendent Nicolaus Gallus in February 1570, arguing that the town was too small to support two schools, she was unsuccessful. The Heymairs had to leave Cham. Wilhelm Heymair applied unsuccessfully for employment in Amberg, and it has been assumed that he died not long afterward. By the end of 1570, Magdalena Heymair held a position as a schoolmistress in Regensburg. She continued to write and publish as well as teach. Many of her manuscripts were circulated in handwritten copies before they appeared in printed editions. In 1571, her second book, Das Buechlein Jesu Syrachs (‘The Book of Jesus Syrach’) was printed, with further editions in 1572, 1573, 1578 (2x) and 1586. In 1573, Magdalena Heymair's third book Das Buch der Apostolischen Geschichten (‘The Book of Apostolic Stories’) was circulated in handwritten form. It appeared in handwritten