1. Hadrianus Junius, known as Adriaen de Jonghe, was a Dutch physician, classical scholar, translator, lexicographer, antiquarian, historiographer, emblematist, school rector, and Latin poet.
38 Facts About Hadrianus Junius
1. 2.
Hadrianus Junius is not to be confused with several namesakes.
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Hadrianus Junius then embarked on his peregrinatio academica, which led him through Siena, Bologna, Venice and Rome.
4.
Hadrianus Junius obtained his doctoral degree in philosophy and medicine in Bologna in 1540.
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Not long after his graduation, Junius left for Paris, a centre of printing.
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In Paris Hadrianus Junius seems to have met Edmund Bonner, bishop of London, with whom he visited Ghent.
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Hadrianus Junius spent much of his time in Norfolk, at the family's castle in Kenninghall.
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Hadrianus Junius divided his time between private instruction to the children and on various scholarly projects: an edition of Curtius Rufus' biography of Alexander the Great, an edition with translation of part of Plutarch's Moral essays and a Greek-Latin Lexicon.
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Hadrianus Junius lost a large part of his library when his patron's belongings were confiscated.
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Hadrianus Junius dedicated his Lexicon to the new king: the very young Protestant Edward VI.
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Apparently, Hadrianus Junius tried to secure a position at the English court; in 1550 he dedicated the manuscript of his work on calendars to Edward.
12.
In 1550 Hadrianus Junius left for Holland to marry and take up a post as rector of the Latin School in Haarlem.
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Hadrianus Junius dedicated his commentary on Horace's Odes to Gonsalvo Perez, and that on the third book of Vergil's Aeneid to Juan de Verzosa.
14.
Hadrianus Junius dedicated it to Granvelle and its pages repeatedly pay tribute to Granvelle's secretary, the antiquarian Antoine Morillon.
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Hadrianus Junius became well integrated into the cultural elite of the Haarlem, which included the philosopher Dirck Volkertsz Coornhert, the engraver Philips Galle, the painter Maarten van Heemskerck, and, later, the school rector and Latin playwright Cornelius Schonaeus.
16.
Hadrianus Junius set up a private school in his own house, to teach the sons of the elite he knew so well and to secure himself a stable income in addition to the salary he gained from his post as a physician.
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Hadrianus Junius cashed in on his by now firmly established fame by striking a deal with Europe's leading printer Christopher Plantin, who published his religious poem Anastaurosis, his influential Emblemata and his edition of the lexicographer Nonius Marcellus.
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Some Emblems are dedicated to representatives of the Spanish crown, but Hadrianus Junius managed to secure the support of William the Silent in his bid to be appointed as historiographer of the States of Holland and Westfrisia.
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Hadrianus Junius was charged with collecting historical evidence for the States' right to convene independently from central government in Brussels.
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Hadrianus Junius made plans to travel around Holland to do research for his history, but he worked on projects as well: in 1568 he re-published his edition of Martial.
21.
In 1570, Hadrianus Junius finished the first draft of his Batavia, printed only posthumously in 1588.
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Not long after its appearance, Haarlem was besieged and Hadrianus Junius fled the city, settling temporarily in Delft in 1573.
23.
Hadrianus Junius had never had a very good constitution: his letters are rife with descriptions of his bad physical state and the measures he took to cure himself.
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In 1575, Hadrianus Junius was hastily appointed professor of medicine of the University of Leiden, which was inaugurated at the beginning of the year but which still needed to be properly set up.
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Hadrianus Junius's remains were relocated to the Grote Kerk at Middelburg four years later.
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Hadrianus Junius successfully lobbied for rehabilitation, partly with the help of his friend Benito Arias Montano.
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Yet, there is no sign that Hadrianus Junius ever converted to Protestantism.
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Hadrianus Junius is likely to have remained, like so many other intellectuals of the period, a tolerant Catholic.
29.
In 1570, Hadrianus Junius finished the first draft of his Batavia.
30.
Hadrianus Junius was dubbed a 'second Erasmus' by some of his contemporaries, but his scope was much more limited.
31.
Hadrianus Junius devoted himself primarily to linguistic, lexicographical and philological work, and he often dipped into etymologies, antiquarian explanations and geographical detail.
32.
Hadrianus Junius's Batavia was scheduled to be followed by two volumes of historical narrative, starting from the first Counts of Holland and leading up to the Burgundian kings, but Junius never even embarked on this political history.
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Hadrianus Junius was not the theologian Erasmus was, but he did share Erasmus' taste for pedagogy.
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Hadrianus Junius was above all a man of encyclopaedic learning.
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Hadrianus Junius pillaged this Byzantine encyclopaedia, as he ransacked other encyclopaedic works and dictionaries for his own works.
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Yet, Hadrianus Junius carried out research away from his books, as is demonstrated by his mushroom-treatise, the glow-worm story and his enquiries from chariot drivers concerning the technical terms of their trade, for the benefit of his hugely successful Nomenclator.
37.
Hadrianus Junius's learning was acknowledged by his contemporaries: his correspondence, of which 426 letters survive, show that he enjoyed unlocking the vast resources of his erudition.
38.
Hadrianus Junius's descendants managed to secure some of his literary and scholarly heritage: his son Petrus Junius collected his letters, his grandson Albert Verlaen publish his religious poetry, and several books from his estate are still to be found in Leiden University library and other libraries.