Nicolaas Heinsius the Younger (1656,

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

– buried 12 January 1718,

Culemborg Culemborg () is a municipality and a city in the centre of the Netherlands. The city had a population of 29,386 on 1 January 2022 and is situated just south of the Lek river. Direct train lines run from the railway station towards the cities of U ...

) was a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

physician and writer.

Life

Heinsius was an

illegitimate son Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as '' ...

Nicolaas Heinsius the Elder Nicolaas Heinsius the Elder ( la, Nicolaus Heinsius; 20 July 1620 – 7 October 1681) was a Dutch classical scholar, poet and diplomat. He travelled all over Europe to visit the major libraries and over time collected Europe's largest priva ...

and his long term Swedish-born partner, Margaretha Wullen. With little help of his father, he became a medical doctor at the age of 20, but had to flee the country in 1677 after he and several drunk friends had committed

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

in the streets of

. Traveling as a physician through France, Italy and Germany, he arrived in Rome in 1679, where he became personal physician of

Christina of Sweden Christina ( sv, Kristina, 18 December ( New Style) 1626 – 19 April 1689), a member of the House of Vasa, was Queen of Sweden in her own right from 1632 until her abdication in 1654. She succeeded her father Gustavus Adolphus upon his death ...

until about 1687. Later he became personal physician of the

elector of Brandenburg This article lists the Margraves and Electors of Brandenburg during the period of time that Brandenburg was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire. The Mark, or ''March'', of Brandenburg was one of the primary constituent states of the Hol ...

Kleve Kleve (; traditional en, Cleves ; nl, Kleef; french: Clèves; es, Cléveris; la, Clivia; Low Rhenish: ''Kleff'') is a town in the Lower Rhine region of northwestern Germany near the Dutch border and the River Rhine. From the 11th century ...

. In 1695 he returned to the Netherlands, settling in Culemborg, at the time a free city and exempt from the Dutch ban imposed on him. That same year he published ''Den vermakelyken avanturier, ofte De Wispelturige, en niet min Wonderlyke Levens-Loop van Mirandor'' (''The Jolly Adventurer or the Unpredictable and not less Wonderful Life of Mirandor'') (1695). This was the only Dutch-language romance novel of the 17th century. It contained much autobiographical material and was the first picaresque "schelmenroman" in Dutch. It had been reprinted 10 times by 1756, and was translated into German, English, French and Italian. He further wrote five works on medicine, which were published in

Cleves Kleve (; traditional en, Cleves ; nl, Kleef; french: Clèves; es, Cléveris; la, Clivia; Low Rhenish: ''Kleff'') is a town in the Lower Rhine region of northwestern Germany near the Dutch border and the River Rhine. From the 11th century ...

, and one other novel, ''Don Clarazel de Contarnos'' (1697). An official request in 1707 to the

States-General of the Netherlands The States General of the Netherlands ( nl, Staten-Generaal ) is the supreme bicameral legislature of the Netherlands consisting of the Senate () and the House of Representatives (). Both chambers meet at the Binnenhof in The Hague. The States ...

to lift his ban apparently was refused.

Sources

Nicolaas Heinsius Jr. at www.schrijversinfo.nl
(Dutch) *

External links

* 1656 births 1718 deaths 17th-century Dutch physicians 17th-century Dutch novelists Dutch male novelists Physicians from The Hague 17th-century male writers Writers from The Hague {{Netherlands-writer-stub