Constantia Zierenberg

Constantia Zierenberg (1605–1653) was a singer and musician from Danzig (Gdańsk) in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Constantia, the daughter of Anna Kerlin and Johann Zierenberg, who would be mayor from 1630 to 1642, was raised as a Calvinist. She received an excellent musical education and was also a painter. Constantia was fluent in six languages: German, Polish, French, Italian, Swedish, and Latin. She sang for both Sigismund III Vasa (reigned 1587–1632) and for Władysław IV Vasa (1632–1648) on the occasion of their visits to Danzig. Constantia went to the imperial city of Milan and on a year-long trip to a number of other European cultural cities. Back home, in 1628, Constantia married the Calvinist Sigmund Kerschenstein (born 1603). They had three children, only one of whom survived her when she died in 1653.