Thomas Dempster

Thomas Dempster ( born August 23, 1579 Cliftbog, Aberdeenshire, † September 6, 1625 in Bologna) was a Scottish classical scholar, historian and poet, who promoted particular Etruscology through his work.

Thomas Dempster came from a Catholic Scottish noble family. His life was determined by family disputes and confessional conflicts in Europe. From 1589 to 1598, he studied classical philology well and philosophy at the universities of Cambridge, Paris, Louvain, Rome and Douai. As his main teacher, he looked at Justus Lipsius. After graduating, he held professorships at various universities for classical philology, philosophy and Roman Law: Tournai, Paris, Toulouse, Montpellier, Nîmes and 1609 for the second time in Paris. 1615 he returned to the British Isles and was historicus regius, court historian James I. It should be the only time that he held a position outside of the Catholic sphere of influence. Because of court hostility he could keep this place around for only one year and went first to Rome, but was still in 1616 a professor of Roman Law at the University of Pisa, from 1619 until his death of Ancient Literature at the University of Bologna. Only in his last decade of life could bring in his wandering life Dempster rest. In the Pisan time he wrote on behalf of Cosimo II a history of the Etruscans, his main work.

Dempster conducted research on cultural heritage and history of the ancient world primarily based on the written legacies, archaeological, numismatic and epigraphic evidence, he referred almost never a. He published the work of Corippus and commented on the work of Claudian and the Institutiones Iustiniani. In his major work De Etruria Regali he stated on behalf of his client Medici continuity between Etruscans to the Medici in Tuscany. Nevertheless, he tried to correct historical account and named the wrong research approaches, such as the construct of a relationship between the Aramaic and the Etruscan language. Dempster himself, however, had no access to the Etruscan, as he himself admitted. In particular, Annius of Viterbo was criticized by Dempster harshly because of his theses in circulation. As usual, he ignored the material culture and was based on ancient Greek, Latin and Byzantine sources, but also on modern genealogies of the 16th century, which he regarded as antique. For the Italic cultural studies, he used the work of Flavio Biondo and Leandro Alberti. Source criticism was Dempster alien in his work. The work was extremely influential, although it was not until a very long time, in 1701, printed after his death in Utrecht. The illustrations to the work originated, as well as additional explanations of Filippo Buonarroti. By Buonarroti adjustments was Dempster's work as one of the decisive impetus for a new enthusiasm Etruscans in Italy, the so-called " Etruscheria ".

In addition, Dempster was also a poet in neo-Latin language, wrote panegyrics and speeches. From these works, not everything is handed down, yet there is a significant amount. He also issued early modern authors, the natural history work of Ulisse Aldrovandi and the antiquarian, greatly enhanced, Corpus work of John Rosinus. In the field of historical studies, he worked on the history of Scotland and the Church 's history. In his work he was little and very carefully set locally patriotic. So he made from Boniface and Brigida Scots, which earned him considerable criticism.