Nikolaes Heinsius the Elder

Nikolaes Heinsius the Elder ( * July 20, 1620 in Leiden, † October 7, 1681 in The Hague), son of Daniel Heinsius, was a Dutch classical scholar and Neo-Latin poet.

Life

His Latin poem expugnata Breda in 1637, was printed and aroused much attention. In 1642 he began his travels in order to search for ancient manuscripts with a stay in England, where, however, he met with the scholars of little interest.

1644 he went to Spa for health reasons, and from there again to look for codices: Louvain, Brussels, Mechelen, Antwerp. Almost immediately after his return to Leiden he left for Paris, where he was received by scholars with open arms. After all the ancient texts he got into the hands examined, he continued his journey to the south: Lyon, Marseille, Pisa, Florence ( where he took a break to issue Ovid ) and Rome. The following year, 1647, he was in Naples, which he hastily left during the reign of Masaniello, to continue his work in Livorno, Bologna, Venice and Padua. On his last whereabouts, he published in 1648 under the title Italica a band original Latin verses.

He went to Milan, where he worked the Biblioteca Ambrosiana considerable time. A planned trip to Switzerland, he had to cancel, because the news of the illness of his father called him back to Leiden. Soon after, he was summoned by the Swedish Queen Christina to Stockholm, where he plunged into a confrontation with Claudius Salmasius, who accused him of John Milton supplied with information about his life ( Salmasius '). 1650 returned Heinsius back shortly after suffering, but was again a little later in Stockholm. In 1651 he made a second trip to Italy, the rest of his life he spent alternately in Uppsala and the Netherlands.

In 1653 he published his collection of Latin poems. His last work was an edition of the works of Velleius Paterculus Gaius Valerius Flaccus in 1678 and 1680.

Nikolaes Heinsius was one of the purest and most elegant Latinist, and when his scholarship was not as perfect as that of his father, he showed higher qualities as a writer.

The writer Nikolaes Heinsius the Younger (1656-1718) was an illegitimate son Nikolaes Heinsius the Elder.