Daniël Heinsius
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Daniël Heinsius | |
---|---|
Born | 9 June 1580 Ghent |
Died | 25 February 1655 (aged 74) The Hague |
Occupation | University teacher |
Employer | Leiden University |
Daniel Heinsius (or Heins) (9 June 1580 – 25 February 1655) was one of the most famous scholars of the
His youth and student years
Heinsius was born in
Professor at Leiden University
His proficiency in the classical languages won the praise of all the best scholars of Europe, and offers were made to him, but in vain, to accept honourable positions outside
As a classical scholar Heinsius edited many Latin and Greek classical as well as patristic authors, amongst others:
Especially influential was his treatise De tragica constitutione ("How to make a tragedy", 1611). It was a personal and easily accessible version of what Aristotle had written on tragedy in his Poetics. A revised edition appeared in 1643 with a slightly different title: De constitutione tragoediae.
In 1609, he printed a first edition of his Latin orations. Ever more voluminous new editions appeared until the final edition of 1642 which comprised 35 orations. The collection ended with the ironical Laus pediculi ("In praise of the louse"), which was translated in English by James Guitard in 1634.
Latin poetry
Heinsius first drew attention to himself as a Latin poet with his Senecan tragedy Auriacus, sive libertas saucia ("William of Orange, or Freedom Wounded"). In 1607/08, he wrote another tragedy, Herodes infanticida ("The Massacre of the Innocents"), which was published only in 1632. He was, however, especially prolific in writing elegies, of which a large part was dedicated to his love for a girl called Rossa. A first collection appeared in 1603. Ever larger and revised collections of his Poemata, also containing other genres, saw the light regularly. By 1628 he had contributed a Latin poem praising the renowned fencer Gerard Thibault to the front of his book Academie de L'espee.
Dutch poetry
In 1601, he published, under the pseudonym of Theocritus à Ganda ("Theocritus from Ghent"), Quaeris quid sit Amor...? ("Do you ask what love is?"), the first emblem book in Dutch. It was re-edited in 1606/07 with the title Emblemata amatoria ("Love emblems"). A second emblem book, Spiegel vande doorluchtige vrouwen ("Mirror of illustrious women"), was published in 1606. Heinsius also experimented in Dutch poetry after classical models. His efforts were collected by his friend Petrus Scriverius and published as Nederduytsche poemata ("Dutch poems") in 1616. They were greatly admired by Martin Opitz, who, in translating the poetry of Heinsius, introduced the German public to the use of the rhyming alexandrine.[1]
His later years
In 1617, he married Ermgard Rutgers, sister of
He collected some Greek manuscripts, e.g. codex 155.
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Heinsius Daniel". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 216. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Sellin 1968, p. 62.
- ^ Pieter Burman (ed.). Sylloges epistolarum a viris illustribus scriptarum. Vol. 2. p. 453.
Valde Itali nos amant: et jam clanculum εἰς τὴν επτάλοφον, ingenti præmio, videndæ urbis causa, invitamur.
- ^ John Holmes (1830). A Descriptive Catalogue of Books, in the Library of John Holmes, F.S.A. Matchett, Stevenson, and Matchett. p. 31.
References
- On Plot in Tragedy, by Daniel Heinsius. Translated by Paul R. Sellin and John J. McManmon, With Introduction and Notes by Paul R. Sellin, Northridge, California 1971 [A translation of De tragoediae constitutione]
- Becker-Cantarino, Baerbel, Daniel Heinsius, Boston 1978
- Bornemann, Ulrich, Anlehnung und Abgrenzung. Untersuchungen zur Rezeption der niederländischen Literatur in der deutschen Dichtungsreform des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts, Assen 1976
- Meter, J.H., The literary theories of Daniel Heinsius. A study of the development and background of his views on literary theory and criticism during the period from 1602 to 1612, Assen 1984
- Sellin, Paul R. (1968). Daniel Heinsius and Stuart England, with a Short-Title Checklist of the Works of Daniel Heinsius. Leiden-London: Oxford University Press.
- Jonge, Daniel Heinsius and the Textus Receptus of the New Testament (Leiden, 1971).
- Jonge, The manuscripts Evangeliorum Antiquissimus of Daniel Heinsius, New Test. Stud. 21, pp. 286–294.
- Wels, Volkhard, Contempt for Commentators. Transformation of the Commentary Tradition in Daniel Heinsius’ "Constitutio tragoediae". In: Neo-Latin Commentaries and the Management of Knowledge in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period (1400-1700). Leuven 2013, p. 325-346.