Justus Lipsius

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Justus Lipsius
Justus Lipsius (2nd from right) together with his student Jan van der Wouwere (far right) and the two brothers Peter Paul and Philipp Rubens (2nd from left)

Justus Lipsius (actually Joest Lips ; born October 18, 1547 in Overijse ( Flemish Brabant ), † March 23, 1606 in Leuven ) was a Flemish philosopher and philologist .

Life

Lipsius was the son of the royal magistrate in Brussels Aegidius (Gilles) Lipsius († 1565) and his wife Isabella Durieu († 1565). The monk and humanist Martin Lipsius was his paternal great-uncle.

After attending school in Brussels and Ath , he studied at the Jesuit college in Cologne from 1559 . After Lipsius was busy entering the monastery here, his father sent him to the University of Leuven . From 1563 Lipsius studied law there, but became more and more interested in the humaniora . At that time, Leuven was the center of late humanist Dutch philology.

Since his family was very wealthy, Lipsius was able to devote himself entirely to research from 1565 after the death of his father, free from economic hardship.

Since he dedicated his first work Variarum lectionum libri II to Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle , Lipsius was able to win him as a patron. The cardinal took Lipsius to Rome as secretary in 1567, where he introduced him to the humanists Paulus Manutius and Marcus Antonius Muretus , among others . During his two-year stay, Lipsius also studied at the Vatican Library .

In 1569 Lipsius returned to Leuven. In 1570 he went on a study trip, which first took him to Vienna, where he became acquainted with the humanists around Emperor Maximilian II . He continued to travel through Bohemia, Saxony and Thuringia and in 1572 accepted a position as professor of eloquence and history at the Lutheran University of Jena . For unknown reasons, he left Jena again in 1573 and went to Cologne. There he married Anna van den Calstere, the widow of the cloth merchant Hendrik Lottyns, that same year.

From 1576 Lipsius held lectures in Leuven. After the victory of Don Juan de Austria over the States General on January 31, 1578, because his Catholic orthodoxy was questioned, he went to Antwerp , later to Calvinist Leiden . There he was appointed to the chair of history in 1578. In the following year he switched to the chair for history and law. Alongside Isaac Casaubon and Joseph Justus Scaliger , Lipsius became the leading philologist at this Protestant university. He was also the rector of the Alma Mater from 1579–1581 and 1587–1589 .

In 1581 he ridiculed his critics with a pasquill based on the example of ancient Menippe satire ; the diatribe was entitled Satyra Menippea: Somnium, sive lusus in nostri aevi criticos . It brought him amused applause from a few, but increased opposition from many. In 1589 he published Politicorum sive civilis doctrinae libri sex . In the third chapter of the fourth book, entitled De una religione , he presented the denominational unity of a state as an ideal and called on the princes and authorities to counter the public practice of deviating beliefs with state violence. That made him, who was formally still Catholic, untenable in Leiden. In the spring of 1590, he traveled to the spa town of Spa on condition that he had health reasons , but from there to Mainz and Liège .

After his public reconciliation with the Catholic Church, he was offered chairs from all Catholic countries; even Pope Clement VIII wanted to bring him to the Vatican. Lipsius chose his home in Leuven and taught there as a professor of history from 1592. As such, he was appointed court historian by King Philip II of Spain . At the end of the 1590s he discovered the Wachtendonck Psalms , one of the oldest Old Dutch texts.

Archduke Albrecht gave him the title of Council of State.

Justus Lipsius died on March 23, 1606 in Leuven at the age of 58.

plant

Illustration from an edition of Lipsius' De Amphitheatro Liber , ca.1590
Title page of De Militia Romana (On Roman Military Affairs), published in Antwerp in 1598

Alongside Erasmus von Rotterdam , Lipsius is considered to be the most important epistolograph of humanism . He was not only in correspondence with many important contemporaries, but also worked - contrary to the prevailing Ciceronianism - on a style that was based on the brevitas of Tacitus . Through both, he had a style-forming effect for his time. His letters were collected by himself (Leiden 1586–90, 2 volumes) and by Pieter Burman (Amsterdam 1725, 5 volumes).

Lipsius also worked on the edition of important ancient texts. He became known when he published the first critical edition of Tacitus (Antwerp 1574, new editions 1581, 1585, 1588); further editions make the historical writings of Livius (1579), Caesar (1585) and Velleius Paterculus (1591) accessible. He made further merits in particular through the criticism of Latin texts, preferably from the silver Latinity . In this regard, his achievements with Plautus , Nonius , Velleius Paterculus, Valerius Maximus , Seneca and Pliny should be emphasized.

His writing style in Latin is a fusion of the archaic Latinity with that of Apuleius , Tertullian , Cyprian and Arnobius . According to various scholars, this had a negative impact on the style of subsequent philologists. Others, on the other hand, regard Lipsius as an exemplary stylist and prototype of modern “Tacitism”.

In addition to editing, Lipsius has made a number of philosophical writings. His work “ De constantia in malis publicis libri duo ” (Antwerp 1584), a dialogical treatise on steadfastness, transfers important elements of Stoic doctrine to the contemporary present in order to give consolation and stability in times of crisis. The entertainingly composed work was a great success and, among other things, influenced the baroque tragedy, whose martyr figures seem to be based on the treatise in their ideal of steadfastness. Later publications (“ Manuductio ad Stoicam Philosophiam ” and “ Physiologiae stoicorum ”) attempt to present the stoic teaching even more systematically. The “ Politicorum libri ” (1589) introduce the political-ethical doctrine, are an important cornerstone for modern state theory and are considered to be the pioneers of absolutism .

He also wrote: "Epistolicarum quaestionum libri V" (Antwerp 1577). His “ Opera omnia ” was published in Antwerp (1585, 8 vol.), More completely in Wesel (1675, 4 vol.).

In 1588 Michel de Montaigne corresponded with Lipsius, who called Montaigne the "French Thales ". Through his writings on military affairs, in which he demonstrated the necessity of standing armies, he established the scientification of warfare.

Honors

Fonts (selection)

  • De Constantia Libri Duo, Qui alloquium praecipue continent in Publicis malis. Apud Christophorum Plantinum, Antverpiae 1584, (online) ; (further online version) ; Tertia editio, melior & notis auctior. Apud Christophorum Plantinum, Antverpiae 1586, (online) ; Apud Nicolaum Lescuyer, sub Scuto Argenteo 1615, (online) .
  • Politicorum sive Civilis Doctrinae Libri Sex. Leiden, 1589.
  • De bibliothecis syntagma. Antwerp, 1602.
  • Manuductionis ad Stoicam Philosophiam Libri Tres, L. Annaeo Senecae, aliisque scriptoribus illustrandis. Antwerp, 1604.
  • Annaei Senecae Philosophi Opera, Quae Existant Omnia, A Iusto Lipsio emendata, et Scholiis illustrata. Antwerp, 1605.
  • Diva Virgo Hallensis. Antwerp, 1605.
  • Fasciculus ... Opusculorum Passionem Crucemque Dominicam Ex Antiquitate & Philologia Illustrantium. vander Smissen, Dusseldorpii 1730. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
  • Pieter Burmann [Ed.]: Sylloge epistolarum a viris illustribus scriptarum . Apud Samuelem Luchtmans, Leidae 1727. Volume 1 Lipsius' letters, digitized edition of the University of Mannheim
  • Pieter Burmann [Ed.]: Sylloge epistolarum a viris illustribus scriptarum . Apud Samuelem Luchtmans, Leidae 1727. Volume 2 Lipsius' letters, digitized edition of the University of Mannheim

Editions and translations

  • Florian Neumann (Ed.): Justus Lipsius: De constantia. Of steadfastness (= Excerpta classica 16). Dieterich'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Mainz 1998, ISBN 3-87162-046-7 (Latin text and German translation)
  • Jan Waszink (Ed.): Justus Lipsius: Politica. Six books of politics or political instruction . Van Gorcum, Assen 2004, ISBN 90-232-4038-3 .
  • Wolfgang Weber (Ed.): Justus Lipsius: De Militia Romana Libri Quinque. De Constantia Libri Duo. Olms-Weidmann, Hildesheim 2002, ISBN 3-487-11469-0 (reprint of the Antwerp 1602 and 1605 editions with introduction)

literature

  • Günter Abel : Stoicism and Early Modern Times. On the history of the origins of modern thought in the field of ethics and politics. Berlin / New York 1978
  • Claudia Banz: Courtly patronage in Brussels. Mann, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-7861-2309-8
  • Karl Beuth: wisdom and strength of mind. A study of the history of philosophy on “Constantia” by Justus Lipsius. Frankfurt / Main; Bern; New York; Paris: Lang, 1990 (European University Theses: Series 20, Philosophy; Vol. 297), ISBN 3-631-42327-6
  • Erik De Bom (Ed.): (Un) masking the realities of power. Justus Lipsius and the dynamics of political writing in early modern Europe . Brill, Leiden 2011, ISBN 978-90-04-19128-0 .
  • Heinz Dollinger:  Lipsius, Justus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , pp. 676-680 ( digitized version ).
  • François Moreau (ed.): Le stoïcisme au XVIe et au XVIIe siècle. Le retour des philosophies antiques à l'Âge classique. Paris 1999
  • Gerhard Oestreich : Ancient spirit and modern state in Justus Lipsius (1547–1606): neoicism as a political movement. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1989, ISBN 3-525-35938-1
  • Jason Lewis Saunders: Justus Lipsius. The Philosophy of Renaissance Stoicism. New York 1955
  • Alois Schmid: Justus Lipsius and European late humanism in Upper Germany . Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-10674-3 .
  • Andreas Urs Sommer: Vivere militare est. The function and philosophical scope of military metaphors in Seneca and Lipsius. In: Archive for Conceptual History 43 (2001), pp. 59–82
  • Michael Stolleis: Lipsius Reception in the Political-Legal Literature of the 17th Century in Germany. In: ders .: State and reasons of state in the early modern period. Studies in the history of public law. Frankfurt am Main 1990, 232-267
  • Gilbert Tournoy, Jeanine de Landtsheer, Jan Papy (eds.): Iustus Lipsius, Europae lumen et columen. Proceedings of the International Colloquium Leuven 17-19 September 1997. Leuven 1999

Web links

Commons : Justus Lipsius  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ digitized version
  2. ↑ Sarah Bakewell: How should I live? or The Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Answers. Translated by Rita Seuß, CH Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-63969-2 , p. 321; or michel-montaigne.virtusens.de/
  3. ↑ ndl. Faculty website , Leiden.edu/buildings/lipsius (3 Oct 2013)
personal data
SURNAME Lipsius, Justus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Joest Lips
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch legal philosopher and philologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1547
PLACE OF BIRTH Overijse
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 1606
Place of death Lions