Pieter Burman the Elder

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Pieter Burman the Elder (at a younger age)
Pieter Burman the Elder (in later years)

Pieter Burman , also: Petrus Burmannus , rarely also Pieter Burmann (* July 6, 1668 in Utrecht , † March 31, 1741 in Leiden ) was a Dutch classical philologist, historian, librarian, lawyer and political scientist. He is called Pieter Burman the Elder to distinguish him from his nephew, Pieter Burman the Younger .

Life

The son of the theologian Frans Burman attended the Utrecht grammar school from 1679 to 1681. At the age of 13 he began studying at the University of Utrecht , where he found teachers in Johann Georg Graevius and Jakob Gronovius who encouraged his talent. He mainly devoted himself to the classical languages. Since he was intended for a legal profession, he worked in this field for some time. For about a year he studied philosophy and the Greek language at the University of Leiden . On his return to Utrecht, he was on 26 March 1688 by Johannes van Muyden with the treatise Disputatio inauguralis de juridica transactionibus a doctorate in law doctorate .

Then he went on an educational trip to Germany and Switzerland. He then settled in Utrecht as a lawyer. In December 1691 he became the tithe taker for Petrus Codde (1648–1710), the bishop of Utrecht. On November 30, 1696, he was appointed associate professor of history at the University of Utrecht. On April 18, 1698 he became a full professor of history and rhetoric and on March 19, 1703 as successor to Gravius ​​Professor of Politics (Roman state institutes). Here he also took part in the organizational tasks of the Utrecht University and was rector of the Alma Mater in 1703/04 and 1711/12 .

On May 29, 1715 he was appointed to succeed Jacobus Perizonius as professor of the Greek language, history and rhetoric at the University of Leiden. After he had been given the chair of Dutch history on November 24, 1716, Burman took over the management of the University Library in Leiden on February 23, 1724 as librarian. In addition, he received the professorship of poetry on November 8, 1725 and the title of professor of politics in the same year. In Leiden he also took part in the organizational tasks of the university and was rector of the alma mater in 1719/20 and 1731/32 .

From his marriage to Eva Clotterbooke, daughter of the mayor of Briel Caspar Clotterbrooke, there were ten children, but most of them did not survive him. His sons Frans Burman, who made a career in the military, and Kaspar Burman (1696–1755), who became mayor of Utrecht, became famous.

Works

Title page from Burman's Quintilian edition (1720)
  • Oratio de Eloquentia et Poetice. Utrecht 1696
  • Oratio de feliciori vivendi conditione in rebuspublicis, quam en regnis. Utrecht 1704
  • Oratio de Artibus Liberalitus, solis olim Academiarum et scholarum ornamentis, hodie vero ex dignitate in infimum looum dejectis. Utrecht 1712
  • Oratio de publici humanioris disciplinae Professoris proprio Officio et Munere. Leiden 1715
  • Oratio de Bibliotheois publicis, earumque Praefectis. Leiden 1725
  • Oratio in humanitatis Studia. Suffering 1720
  • Oratio Pro Litteratis et Grammaticis. Leiden 1735.

He edited the following classic authors:

He also published the works of George Buchanan , continued Graevius' Thesaurus Antiquitatum et Historiarum Italiae , and wrote the treatise De Vectigalibus Populi Romani (1694) and a short handbook of Roman antiquities, Antiquitatum Romanarum Brevis Descriptio (1711). His Sylloge epistolarum a viris illustribus scriptarum (1725) is important for the study of history. The list of his works is five pages in Saxes Onomasticon . His poems and speeches were published after his death. There is an account of his life in Gentleman's Magazine from April 1742 by Samuel Johnson .

literature

  • Abraham Jacob van der Aa : Biographical Woordenboek der Nederlanden. Verlag JJ van Brederode, Haarlem, 1855, vol. 2, part 2, p. 1594 ( online , Dutch)
  • Th.Dokkum : BURMAN (Pieter) (1) . In: Petrus Johannes Blok , Philipp Christiaan Molhuysen (Ed.): Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek . Part 4. N. Israel, Amsterdam 1974, Sp. 354–358 (Dutch, knaw.nl / dbnl.org - first edition: AW Sijthoff, Leiden 1918, reprinted unchanged).
  • Ulrich Groetsch: The Scholar as Whoremonger: Pieter Burmann (1668–1741) and the Dark Abyss of Classical Scholarship. In: Martin Mulsow (Ed.): Criminal Freethinkers Alchemists: Rooms of the Underground in the Early Modern Age . Böhlau, Cologne and Weimar 2014, pp. 557–573.

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personal data
SURNAME Burman, Pieter the Elder
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Burmann, Pieter; Burmann, Petrus; Burmannus, Petrus; Burmann, Pierre
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch classical scholar
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1668
PLACE OF BIRTH Utrecht
DATE OF DEATH March 31, 1741
Place of death Suffer