Jacob Revius

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jacobus Revius

Jacobus Revius , born as Jakob Reefsen , (* November 1586 in Deventer ; † November 15, 1658 in Leiden ) was a Dutch Calvinist preacher , poet and church historian .

Live and act

Revius' father Ryck Reefsen was the mayor of Deventer, who fled to Amsterdam with his family when the city came under the rule of the Spanish (see: Spanish Netherlands ). He studied theology in Leiden from 1604 to 1607 and in Franeker from 1607 to 1610 . From 1610 to 1612 he was on a study tour of France , where he came into contact with the poetry of the Renaissance , which was to have a great influence on his own work. From 1614 to 1641 he worked as an assistant preacher in his native town of Deventer, which had financed his studies with a scholarship. During this time he was involved in recording the history of the state and in 1630 published his most important work, de Over-ysselsche Sangen en Dichten , which are considered to be a high point of the Dutch Baroque . In 1615 he married Christina Augustinus, the daughter of the mayor of Deventer.

At the end of 1641 he became head of the State College in Leiden, a boarding school for theology students . During this time Revius was less concerned with poetry, but only published a book about the history of Deventer ( Deventer Illustrata ) in 1651 and otherwise violently polemicized in several pamphlets with the philosopher Adriaan Heereboord (1614-1661) about the perishable philosophy in his eyes René Descartes .

Revius' work is read and sung to this day. This may also be due to the fact that the poet published mainly in his mother tongue. With the Renaissance , scholarly efforts to re-establish poetry were articulated, and poetry in Latin gained new importance throughout Europe. In the 17th century, poetry in the national languages ​​became the subject of European scholarship, but French became the language of literature - the second language of scholarship after Latin. Revius, on the other hand, wrote mainly Dutch and thus also reached the common population and people who only spoke their mother tongue.

In the Liedboek voor de Kerken , the Dutch songbook for church services, seven of his poems are included in a modernized version. His best known poem is Hy droegh onse smerten (he endured our pain) with the beginning “T'en sijn de Joden niet, Heer Jesu, die u cruysten” ( It is not the Jews, Lord Jesus, who crucified you ).

Various places have named streets after the poet, such as Reviusdreef in Leiderdorp or Reviusstraat in Hazerswoude-Rijndijk .

Works

  • Suarez repurgatus sive syllabus Disputationum metaphysicarum , Lugduni, 1648.
  • Methodi Cartesianæ consideratio theologica , Lugduni, 1648.
  • Statera philosophiae Cartesianae , Lugduni, 1650.
  • Selected Poems of Jacobus Revius, Dutch Metaphysical Poet , Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1968.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Revius, Jacob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Revius, Jacobus (full name); Reefsen, Jakob (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch Calvinist preacher, poet and church historian
DATE OF BIRTH November 1586
PLACE OF BIRTH Deventer
DATE OF DEATH November 15, 1658
Place of death Suffer