Johannes Loccenius (Johan Locken) (13 March 1598 – 27 July 1677) was a German jurist and historian, known as an academic in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

Life

He was born at

Itzehoe Itzehoe (; nds, Itzhoe) is a town in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. As the capital of the district Steinburg, Itzehoe is located on the Stör, a navigable tributary of the Elbe, 51 km (31.7 mi) northwest of Hamburg and 24 ...

Holstein Holstein (; nds, label=Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of German ...

, the son of a tradesman, and educated at the

Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums The ''Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums'' ( ''Academic School of the Johanneum'', short: Johanneum) is a Gymnasium (or Grammar School ) in Hamburg, Germany. It is Hamburg's oldest school and was founded in 1529 by Johannes Bugenhagen. The school's f ...

. He went to study at

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...

and

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 ...

in 1616, and in 1617 was in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

. After a period at

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, where he encountered in particular

Holstenius Lucas Holstenius, born Lukas Holste, sometimes called Holstein (1596 – 2 February 1661), was a German Catholic humanist, geographer, historian, and librarian. Life Born at Hamburg in 1596, he studied at the gymnasium of Hamburg, and late ...

, he returned to Leiden in 1624, where he received a doctorate in law. Loccenius was recruited by

Johan Skytte Johan Skytte (1577, in Nyköping – 15 March 1645, in Söderåkra, Sweden) was a Swedish statesman, and the founder of the ''Academia Gustaviana'' (today's University of Tartu in Estonia), in 1632. He was a son of the mayor of Nyköping, Bengt ...

for

Gustavus Adolphus Gustavus Adolphus (9 December Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">N.S_19_December.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Old Style and New Style dates">N.S 19 December">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/now ...

, and went to Sweden. From 1628 to 1642 he taught a humanist and political syllabus as '' professor skytteanus''; from 1634 he also taught

Roman law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the ''Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor J ...

. As librarian also at the

University of Uppsala Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

, he received the embassy of

Bulstrode Whitelocke Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke (6 August 1605 – 28 July 1675) was an English lawyer, writer, parliamentarian and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England. Early life He was the eldest son of Sir James Whitelocke and Elizabeth Bulstrode, and was ...

, and they discussed English jurists including

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

and

John Selden John Selden (16 December 1584 – 30 November 1654) was an English jurist, a scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law. He was known as a polymath; John Milton hailed Selden in 1644 as "the chief of learned ...

Works

The ''De jure maritimo'' was a commentary on Swedish maritime law as published in the ''Legisterium Sueciæ''. As ''De jure maritimo et navali'' it went through a number of editions. The maritime law work of Loccenius was later republished, with works by Franz Stypmann and

Reinhold Kuricke Reinhold Curicke (12 January 1610 – 2 April 1667) was a jurist and historian from Danzig (Gdańsk) who specialized in the history of the city, including its past as principal city of province of Royal Prussia in the Polish–Lithuanian Commo ...

, by

Johann Gottlieb Heineccius Johann Gottlieb Heineccius (September 11, 1681 – August 31, 1741) was a German jurist from Eisenberg, Thuringia. Life He studied theology at Leipzig, and law at Halle; and at the latter university he was appointed in 1713 professor of ph ...

. Loccenius wrote in particular on

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

. He was an early author on legal concepts of

territorial waters The term territorial waters is sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potenti ...

, whose views were quoted long afterwards. As legal antiquarian Loccenius published an edition of the corpus of Swedish provincial law, the ''Lex Sueo-Gothorum''. His ''Synopsis juris ad leges Sueticas accommodata'' (1648) was an early example of the 17th-century use of the

Decalogue The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ� ...

to classify

capital crime Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

s. The ''Lexicon juris Svevo-Gothicae'' (1651) was a largely linguistic work. Loccenius was given the title ''

Rikshistoriograf The position of ''rikshistoriograf'' (Swedish language, Swedish, known in Latin as ''historiographus regni'', i.e. ''Historiographer of the Realm'' or ''Royal Historiographer''), existed in Sweden from the early 17th century until 1834. The first a ...

'' in 1651. In the 1650s he moved from the study of Swedish medieval law to writing on the general history of Sweden. He initially minimised the pre-Christian period, and he followed

Ericus Olai Ericus Olai (ca. 1420-1486) was a Swedish theologian and historian. He served as a professor of theology at Uppsala University and dean at Uppsala Cathedral. Ericus Olai was the author of the chronicle ''Chronica regni Gothorum'' and was an earl ...

in arguing that foreign kings were responsible for negative aspects of the history. He published: *Three volumes on Swedish history (1647) *''Rerum Suecicarum Historia'' (1654) *''Erici Olai Historia Sueicorum Gothorumque'' (1654) *''Antiquitates Sveo-Gothicae'' (1670) *''Antiquitatum Sueo-Gothicarum''

Notes

External links

WorldCat pageEMLO page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Loccenius, Johannes 1598 births 1677 deaths Jurists from Schleswig-Holstein Swedish jurists 17th-century Swedish historians Uppsala University people