Johannes Smetius

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Johannes Smetius
pastel copy by Rutger van Langevelt (1669) after an older painting (approx. 1630–1640)
AO: Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen

Johannes Smetius , Latinized form of Johannes Smith , (born October 10, 1590 in Aachen ; † May 30, 1651 in Nijmegen ), also called Johannes Fabricius , was a Dutch archaeologist, collector and preacher in Nijmegen, who was particularly famous for his collection of Roman antiquities and his studies are well known, which made him one of the pioneers of Dutch and European antiquity.

Youth and Education (1590–1617)

Johannes Smith was born as the eldest son of the textile merchant Johann Smith from Kettenis and his wife Maria Raets from Karken . He received his first formal education in Odenkirchen , today a district of Mönchengladbach. In 1605 he continued this in Harderwijk with Johann Isaak Pontanus . From 1608 to 1611 he studied philosophy and theology in Heidelberg and Geneva . After completing his studies, he traveled to France and England. In 1612 he returned to Aachen and from 1613 held the office of Protestant preacher in Sittard . When Aachen was occupied by the troops of Ambrosio Spinola in 1614 , he moved to Sédan, where he also appeared as a preacher and attended lectures at the Huguenot Academy in Sedan . From 1615 he took over the deputy of the absent university professor for philosophy, but declined an appointment to the Academy of Saumur and instead traveled to Nijmegen in 1617, where his parents had settled in the meantime.

Worked in Nijmegen (1617–1651)

From 1618 he earned his living as a preacher at the Stevenskerk in Nijmegen.

In Nijmegen he was quickly fascinated by the city's Roman past and the countless relics of the ancient city of Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum . Immediately after his arrival he started collecting Roman antiquities. In the 1720s, foundations and finds from Roman times came to the surface in Nijmegen en masse. Word of Smetius' interest in the ancient objects soon spread among the town's residents, so they offered him finds that had come to light during excavations, road or hydraulic works. This abundance of Roman artifacts formed an important cornerstone of his archaeological collection. In the decades to come, he spent a great deal of his free time and financial resources collecting and studying the Roman remains. In 1626 he married Johanna Bouwens, and the marriage resulted in seven daughters and four sons.

Collecting antiquities was not uncommon at the time. Wealthy self-respecting citizens of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces owned a private collection of Roman antiquities as a status object. However, Smetius built up his collection out of purely scientific interest. His selection was based less on the artefacts' preciousness or beauty than on their historical value. This makes Smetius in Nijmegen, the Netherlands and Europe one of the pioneers of scientific archeology. He gained a certain degree of popularity among researchers at home and abroad, opened his collection, which is said to have comprised over 10,000 coins and over 4,500 other artefacts, to visitors, kept a guest book and corresponded with scholars such as Johannes Gronovius , Nicolaas Heinsius , Constantijn Huygens , Franciscus Junius , Johannes Pontanus and Claudius Salmasius . In 1645 he published an extensive work on Nijmegen's Roman past.

Smetius' burial place in the Stevenskerk

Smetius died in 1651 and was buried in the Stevenskerk. One of his sons, Johannes Smetius the Younger (1636–1704), had already followed in his father's footsteps during his father's lifetime and, posthumously, in 1678 published his second major work on Nijmegen in Rome. In addition to the two great archaeological publications, some poems by Smetius have survived. The extensive collection of antiquities was acquired by Elector Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz and brought to Düsseldorf .

In what is now the center of the city of Nijmegen, the Smetiusstraat is named after him.

Fonts

  • Oppidum Batavorum seu Noviomagum . Blaeu, Amsterdam 1645 ( digitized ).
  • with Johannes Smetius the Younger: Antiquitates Neomagenses Sive Notitia Rarissimarum Rerum Antiquarum . Nijmegen 1678 ( digitized ).

literature

  • Jacob Cornelis van Slee :  Smetius, Johann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, p. 481 f.
  • Hendrik Brunsting : Johannes Smetius as provinciaal-Romeins archeoloog (= Museumstukken 1). Vereniging van Vrienden van het Museum Kam, Nijmegen 1989.
  • Ruurd B. Halbertsma : Scholars, Travelers and Trade. The Pioneer Years of the National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden, 1818-1840 . Routledge, London / New York 2003, ISBN 978-0-415-51855-0 , pp. 10f.
  • Leo Nellissen: Johannes Smetius: Nijmeegse oudheden. Antiquitates neomagenses . Stilus, Tilburg 2004, ISBN 90-808719-1-5 .
  • Raingard Eßer: From Province to Nation. Immigration in the Dutch Republic in the Late 16th and Early 17th Century . In: Steven G. Ellis, Lud'a Klusáková (Eds.): Imagining Frontiers, Contesting Identities . Pisa University Press, Pisa 2007, ISBN 978-88-8492-466-7 , pp. 270f.

Web links

Commons : Johannes Smetius  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Huguenot Academy in Saumur existed from 1593 until shortly after 1683.
  2. ^ According to Jacob Cornelis van Slee:  Smetius, Johann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, p. 481 f.
  3. ↑ Hans Kaspar Arkstée: Nijmegen, de oude Hoofdstad of Batavians, in Dichtmaat beschreven. Van Campen, Nijmegen 1788, preface.
  4. ^ Hendrik Brunsting: Johannes Smetius as provinciaal-Romeins archeoloog . Vereniging van Vrienden van het Museum Kam, Nijmegen 1989.
  5. ^ Johannes Smetius: Oppidum Batavorum seu Noviomagum . Blaeu, Amsterdam 1645.
  6. ↑ Johannes Smetius (posthumously) and Johannes Smetius the Younger: Antiquitates Neomagenses Sive Notitia Rarissimarum Rerum Antiquarum . Nijmegen 1678.
  7. ^ The poems of Smetius on the website of Leo Nellissen (Dutch), accessed on November 12, 2018.
  8. ↑ Dutch translation as PDF .
personal data
SURNAME Smetius, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smith, Johannes; Fabricius, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch archaeologist, collector and preacher in Nijmegen
DATE OF BIRTH October 10, 1590
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen
DATE OF DEATH May 30, 1651
Place of death Nijmegen