Lucas Holstenius
Lukas Holste, Latinized Lucas Holstenius (* 1596 in Hamburg, † February 2nd 1661 in Rome ) was a humanist scholar, librarian and geographer.
Life
Holste received his education in Hamburg and studied at Leiden University, taught at the time, the humanist Johannes Gerhard Vossius, Daniel Heinsius, Johannes van Meurs and Peter Scriverius ( 1576-1660 ).
His journey back to 1618, to Italy and Sicily encouraged him to take a closer deal with geography. After his return, with short stays in Leyden and Hamburg he went in 1622 to England, where he continued his geographical studies. In 1624, he lived in Paris, where he became librarian of the French statesman Jean -Jacques de Mesmes. About de Mesmes he came in contact with the scholars Fabri de Peiresc. To this period, he converted to Catholicism.
In 1627 he traveled to Rome, where he obtained a position at the court of Francesco Barberini Kardinalnepoten through the mediation of Peiresc. 1636 he was appointed librarian of Cardinal and soon afterwards by Pope Urban VIII to the papal Konsistorialsekretär and apostolic prothonotary. Under Pope Innocent X 1653, he was head of the Vatican Library.
The popes entrusted him with important diplomatic and tasks within the church. He oversaw the conversion of the Swedish Queen Christina of Sweden, the Landgrave Frederick of Hesse -Darmstadt and the Danish Count Christoph von Rantzau to Catholicism. His diplomatic trips he used to expand his extensive scientific correspondence and to continue his research. His main topics were left next to the geography, philosophy, especially Neoplatonism, the Greek and Latin patristics and the history of the Popes. In his research in the monastery of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in 1640 he discovered the Liber diurnus, contains the records of the papal chancery from the seventh to the end of the ninth century. Holste prepared the papers for the pressure, but was not allowed to publish on the orders of Alexander VII, as they apparently touched thorny theological problems.
In the debate over Galileo Holste belonged to the party of his supporters. As Urban VIII issued the ban to put a monument Galilei, Galileo Holste called a godly man whose luster had gouged the total of other natural philosophers ( Bredenkamp ).
Holste bequeathed his private library of over 3000 volumes, not the Bibliotheca Vaticana, whose leader he had been so long, but the Biblioteca Angelica, one operated by the Order of Augustinian library, which had been made available to the public since 1605 and and as a center for science research was.
Holste died on February 2, 1661 and was buried in the church of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome.