Gerard Brandt (25 July 1626,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

– 12 October 1685, Amsterdam) was a Dutch

preacher A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as a ...

, playwright, poet, church historian, biographer and naval historian. A well-known writer in his own time, his works include a ''Life of

Michiel de Ruyter Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter (; 24 March 1607 – 29 April 1676) was a Dutch admiral. Widely celebrated and regarded as one of the most skilled admirals in history, De Ruyter is arguably most famous for his achievements with the Dutch N ...

'' (1687, ''Het Leven en bedryf van den Heere Michiel de Ruiter'' - an important source on the admiral's life) and a ''Historie der vermaerde zee- en koopstadt Enkhuisen'' (1666, ''Geschiedenis van Enkhuizen'' - still an important source for that city's early history).

Life

Brandt was the son of the clockmaker Gerard Brandt and his wife Neeltje Jeroens. Aged 17 Gerard junior wrote the play ''De Veinzende Torquatus'', later put on in the

Amsterdamse Schouwburg The Stadsschouwburg (; Dutch: ''Municipal Theatre'') of Amsterdam is the name of a theatre building at the Leidseplein in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The building is in the neo-Renaissance style dating back to 1894, and is the former home of the Na ...

, of which his father was

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

. When he later became a well-known preacher and serious scholar, he did not want his youthful works and errors to be remembered. He was best known for his "grafrede" on Pieter Cornelisz. Hooft in 1647, a translation of Jacques Du Perron's eulogy of

Ronsard Pierre de Ronsard (; 11 September 1524 – 27 December 1585) was a French poet or, as his own generation in France called him, a "prince of poets". Early life Pierre de Ronsard was born at the Manoir de la Possonnière, in the village of ...

which he had performed by the actor Van Germez. He also continued his own work, in which he was accused of plagiarism in ''Aen den onbeschaemden letter-dief'', a speech in which he called Hooft "the only poet Amstel has produced", a clear attack on

Vondel Joost van den Vondel (; 17 November 1587 – 5 February 1679) was a Dutch poet, writer and playwright. He is considered the most prominent Dutch poet and playwright of the 17th century. His plays are the ones from that period that are still most ...

Dutch historian and biographer

Under the influence of professor Casparus Barlaeus, and Barlaeus's daughter in particular, Brandt gave up studying watchmaking and in 1652 passed his exam, becoming a

Remonstrant The Remonstrants (or the Remonstrant Brotherhood) is a Protestant movement that had split from the Dutch Reformed Church in the early 17th century. The early Remonstrants supported Jacobus Arminius, and after his death, continued to maintain his ...

preacher in

Nieuwkoop Nieuwkoop () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality was enlarged on 1 January 2007, through the amalgamation of Liemeer and Ter Aar. The municipality now covers an area of of whi ...

. He married Suzanne van Baerle and all three of their sons later became preachers. Brandt worked from 1660 to 1667 in

Hoorn Hoorn () is a city and municipality in the northwest of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the largest town and the traditional capital of the region of West Friesland. Hoorn is located on the Markermeer, 20 kilometers ( ...

, before moving to

. In 1676 Michiel de Ruyter had died and in 1681 his son

Engel de Ruyter Engel Michielszoon de Ruyter (2 May 1649 – 27 February 1683) was a Dutch vice-admiral. Biography

De Ruyter was born in Vlissingen, the son of lieutenant admiral Michiel de Ruyter and his second wife Cornelia Engels. He began his naval servi ...

commissioned a biography of him from Brandt for 400 guilder. Brandt received information for it from de Ruyter's widow and children, but it was left incomplete on Brandt's death in 1685 - Brandt's sons Caspar and Johannes completed it, publishing it as a 1,063 page volume in 1687.

Life of Vondel

His exhaustive compilation of the works and biography of the Dutch Poet

Joost van den Vondel Joost van den Vondel (; 17 November 1587 – 5 February 1679) was a Dutch poet, writer and playwright. He is considered the most prominent Dutch poet and playwright of the 17th century. His plays are the ones from that period that are still most ...

earned him a place in the list of 1000 key texts of

Dutch Literature Dutch language literature () comprises all writings of literary merit written through the ages in the Dutch language, a language which currently has around 23 million native speakers. Dutch-language literature is the product of the Netherlands, Be ...

in the DBNL.

Life of Admiral Michiel de Ruyter

In his work on the biographies of artists,

Arnold Houbraken Arnold Houbraken (28 March 1660 – 14 October 1719) was a Dutch painter and writer from Dordrecht, now remembered mainly as a biographer of Dutch Golden Age painters. Life Houbraken was sent first to learn ''threadtwisting'' (Twyndraat) fr ...

quotes Gerard Brand's biography,