Portret van Daniel Clasen, RP-P-1914-3412

Daniel Clasen, in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

Danielis Clasenius or Clasenus (1 May 1622,

Lüneburg Lüneburg (officially the ''Hanseatic City of Lüneburg'', German: ''Hansestadt Lüneburg'', , Low German ''Lümborg'', Latin ''Luneburgum'' or ''Lunaburgum'', Old High German ''Luneburc'', Old Saxon ''Hliuni'', Polabian ''Glain''), also calle ...

– 20 November 1678,

Helmstedt Helmstedt (; Eastphalian: ''Helmstidde'') is a town on the eastern edge of the German state of Lower Saxony. It is the capital of the District of Helmstedt. The historic university and Hanseatic city conserves an important monumental heritage of ...

), was a German

political theorist A political theorist is someone who engages in constructing or evaluating political theory, including political philosophy. Theorists may be academics or independent scholars. Here the most notable political theorists are categorized by their ...

, religious scholar, and

classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

. His treatises, written in Latin, dealt with law, jurisprudence, religion, and politics. Clasen was one of the earliest theorists of

political religion A secular religion is a communal belief system that often rejects or neglects the metaphysical aspects of the supernatural, commonly associated with traditional religion, instead placing typical religious qualities in earthly entities. Among system ...

, though preceded by

Tommaso Campanella Tommaso Campanella (; 5 September 1568 – 21 May 1639), baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet. He was prosecuted by the Roman Inquisition for heresy in 1594 and w ...

(1568–1639), and argued against accommodation theory. Clasen was a major

mythographer Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

of the 17th century, and wrote commentaries on classical texts such as the so-called '' Tablet of Cebes'' ''(Cebetis Tabula vitae humanae)'', for which he provided a Latin translation.Daniel Clasen, ''Cebetis Tabula vitae humanae recte instituendae de scriptionem continens cum commentariis'' (1652 edition), full tex
online
with parallel Greek text and Latin translation.

Works

Clasen's works include: * ''Commentarius in constitutiones criminales Caroli V. Imperatoris'' * ''De religione politica'' * ''De iure legitimationis exercitatio iuridica'' * ''Exercitatio iuridica de patria potestate'' * ''Politicae compendium succinctum cum notis'' * ''De iure aggratiandi'' * ''Theologia gentilis'' (vol. 7 of the series ''Thesaurus Graecarum antiquitatum'' edited by

Jakob Gronovius Jacobus Gronovius a.k.a. Jacob Gronow (10 October 1645 – 21 October 1716) was a Dutch classical scholar. He was born in Deventer, the son of the German classical scholar Johann Friedrich Gronovius and Aleyda ten Nuyl, and father of the bo ...

) * ''De oraculis gentilium et in specie de vaticiniis Sibyllinis''

References

17th-century German people German classical scholars Religious studies scholars Religion and politics Mythographers 1678 deaths 1622 births {{reli-studies-bio-stub