Georgius Hornius (Georg Horn, 1620–1670) was a German historian and geographer, professor of history at
Leiden University
Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...
from 1653 until his death.
Life
He was born in
Kemnath,
Upper Palatinate (at the time part of the
Electoral Palatinate under
Frederick V) as the son of the superintendent of the
Reformed church
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Cal ...
there.
His family was forced to move away in the wake of the Catholic victory at
White Mountain, when Horn was still an infant.
In 1635, he visited the gymnasium in
Nuremberg, and in 1637 he was enrolled in
University of Altdorf as a student of theology and medicine.
He later worked as a private tutor, in
Gröningen
Gröningen () is a town in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It lies approx. 40 km south-west of Magdeburg, and 10 km east of Halberstadt. It has 3.621 inhabitants (December 2015). Gröningen is part of the ''Verbandsgemein ...
and later in
Leiden, in the
Dutch Republic. In Leiden, he was also enrolled as a student of
Friedrich Spanheim
Friedrich Spanheim the elder (January 1, 1600, Amberg – May 14, 1649, Leiden) was a Calvinistic theology professor at the University of Leiden.
Life
He entered in 1614 the University of Heidelberg where he studied philology and philosophy, a ...
. After a two year's sojourn in England, he returned to Leiden, compiling a history of the events of the ongoing
English Civil War (''Rerum Britannicarum libri VII'', ''De statu ecclesiae Britannicae hodierno'').
In 1648, he completed a doctorate in Leiden and refused calls to both
Frankfurt University and
Heidelberg University as professor of theology, instead accepting the position of professor of history, politics and geography at the new
University of Harderwijk, where he became rector in 1652. In 1653, he became professor of history at
Leiden University
Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...
, a position he held until his death in 1670.
In his later life, Horn was also greatly interested in
alchemy. In 1665, he was swindled out of the considerable sum of 5,000
guilders by a fraudulent alchemist.
His interest in alchemy als resulted in an edition of
Pseudo-Geber in 1668.
From about this time, he also began to suffer from intermittent spells of mental distraction, although he remained a prolific writer until his death.
Among his publications, his Latin works on
universal history, intended as a textbook for students, wer especially influential (''Historia ecclesiastica et politica'', ''Arca Noae'', ''Orbis Politicus'', ''Orbis Imperans''). These works were re-published long after his death in both the Netherlands and Germany.
His treated universal history in a modern manner, no longer divided into the history of the
four classical empires (
Assyria,
Persia,
Macedon,
Rome) but based on the concept of
national history, including the history of the peoples of the New World (''De originibus Americanis'').
He was also one of the earliest historiographers to divide world history into three major epochs, antiquity from earliest times until the
Migration period
The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman ...
, the
middle period from the Migration period to the year 1500, and
modern history
The term modern period or modern era (sometimes also called modern history or modern times) is the period of history that succeeds the Middle Ages (which ended approximately 1500 AD). This terminology is a historical periodization that is applie ...
from 1500 to his own day.
His coverage of the Migration period is presented as the history of the "
Scythian" nation, which is divided into
Germans,
Huns and
Slavs
Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
.
In all his works, Horn presents himself as a pious Protestant and as a patriot of his homeland, considering himself a native of and exile from the
Upper Palatinate (which had been annexed by the Catholic
Duke of Bavaria in 1628).
[An example of his continued patriotic attachment to his homeland is his description of
]Rauher Kulm
The Rauher Kulm is a small basalt mountain located in the Upper Palatinate (Oberpfalz) region of the state of Bavaria, Germany. It is located 23 kilometers southeast of Bayreuth and 5 kilometers south of Kemnath. The town of Neustadt am Kulm ...
, a hill of 682 m close to his native Kemnath, in his ''Orbis Politicus'' (1667)
as "standing in the center of Germany, standing taller than all mountains far and wide, as it were a Wonder of the World".
Works
* ''De statu ecclesiae Britannicae hodierno commentarius.'' 1647
* ''Rerum Britannicarum libri septem, quibus res in Anglia, Scotia, Hibernia, ab anno MDCXLV bello gestae, eponuntur'' 1648
* ''De originibus Americanis libri IV.'' 1652
* ''Historia philosophica libri septem: quibus de origine, successione, sectis & vita philosophorum ab orbe condito ad nostram aetatem agitur.'' Elzevir, 1655
* '' Dissertationes historicae et politicae.'' Franciscus Hackius, 1655.
* ''Arca Noae, sive historia imperiorum et regnorum ̀condito orbe ad nostra tempora.'' Officina Hackiana, Leiden 1666
archive.org
* ''Arca Mosis, sive historia mundi.'' 1668
* ''Georgi Horni orbis politicus, imperiorum, regnorum, principatuum rerumpublicarum.'' 1668
* ''Gebri Arabis Chimia sive traditio summae perfectionis et investigatio magisterii innumeris locis emendata a Caspare Hornio
..Medulla Alchimiae Gebricae omnia edita a Georgio Hornio.'' 1668
google books.
posthumous editions:
*''Historia naturalis et civilis.'' 1670, 1671, 1679
*''Ulysses peregrinans, omnia lustrans littora.'' 1671, 1672
*''Historia ecclesiastica.'' ed. Melchior Leydekker, 1687
translations:
* ''Aardbeschryving.'' 1681
* ''Kerkelycke historie, van de scheppinge des werelts, tot 't jaer des Heeren 1666.'' 1685
archive.org.
* ''Description exacte de l'Univers : ou l'ancienne Geographie sacrée et profane''. Pierre de Hondt, Haag 1741 ().
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hornius, Georgius
17th-century German historians
German geographers
Leiden University faculty
1620 births
1670 deaths