Everything about Gerhard Johann Vossius totally explained
Gerhard Johann Vossius (
Voss) (
1577 -
March 19,
1649),
Dutch classical scholar and
theologian, was the son of Johannes Voss, a
Protestant of
the Netherlands, who fled from persecution into the
Palatinate and briefly became pastor in the village near
Heidelberg where Gerhard was born, before friction with the strict
Lutherans of the Palatinate caused him to settle the following year at the
University of Leiden as student of
theology, and finally became pastor at Dordrecht, where he died in 1585. Here in Dordrecht the son received his education, until in 1595 he entered the university of Leiden, where he became the lifelong friend of
Hugo Grotius, and studied classics,
Hebrew, church history and theology.
In
1600 he was made rector of the
latin school in
Dordrecht, and devoted himself to
philology and historical theology. From 1614 to 1619 he was director of the theological college at
Leiden University.
Meantime he was gaining a great reputation as a scholar, not only in the Netherlands, but also in
France and
England. But in spite of the moderation of his views and his abstention from controversy, he came under suspicion of heresy, and escaped expulsion from his office only by resignation (1619). The year before he'd published his valuable history of
Pelagian controversies, which his enemies considered favoured the views of the
Arminians or Remonstrants.
In
1622, however, he was appointed professor of
rhetoric and chronology, and subsequently of
Greek, in the university. He declined invitations from Cambridge, but accepted from
Archbishop Laud a prebend in
Canterbury cathedral without residence, and went to England to be installed in 1629, when he was made LL.D. at Oxford. In 1632 he left Leiden to take the post of professor of history in the newly founded
Athenaeum Illustre at
Amsterdam, which he held till his death.
His son
Isaak (
1618-
1689), after a brilliant career of scholarship in Sweden, became residentiary canon at Windsor in 1673. He was the author of
De septuaginta interpretibus (1661),
De poematum cantu et viribus rhythmi (1673), and
Variarum observationum liber (1685).
Vossius was amongst the first to treat theological
dogmas and the non-Christian religions from the historical point of view. His principal works are
Historia Pelagiana sive Historiae de controversies qvas Pelagius ejusque reliquiae moverunt (1618);
Aristarchus, sive de arte grammatica (1635 and 1695; new ed. in 2 vols., 1833-35);
Etymologicum linguae Latinae (1662; new ed. in two vols., 1762-63);
Commentariorum Rhetoricorum oratoriarum institutionum Libri VI. (1606 and often);
De Historicis Graecis Libri III (1624);
De Historicis Latinis Libri III (1627);
De Theologia Gentili (1642);
Dissertationes Tres de Tribus Symbolis, Apostolico, Athanasiano et Constantinopolitano (1642). Collected works published at Amsterdam (6 vols., 1695-1701).
Vossius's works are well-represented in the
Library of Sir Thomas Browne.
See
Jean-Pierre Nicéron,
Mémoires pour servir de I'histoire des hommes illustres, vol. xiii. (Paris, 1730);
Herzog's
Realencyklopädie, art. "Vossius"; and the article in the
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie.
C.S.M. Rademaker ss.cc.,
Life and Works of Gerardus Joannes Vossius (1577-1649), (
Assen,
1981); G.J. Vossius,
Poeticarum institutionum libri III (with English translation and commentary), (
Stuttgart,
2006).
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