Perizonius (or Accinctus) was the name of Jakob Voorbroek (26 October 1651 – 6 April 1715), 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 ...

classical scholar 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 ...

, who was born at

Appingedam Appingedam (; gos, n Daam) is a city and former municipality in the northeastern Netherlands. Although there is no certainty as to the exact age of Appingedam, historical research demonstrates that the place in which the city would eventually b ...

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

. He was the son of Anton Perizonius (1626–1672), the author of a once well-known treatise, ''De ratione studii theologici''. Having studied at the

University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

, he was appointed in 1682 to the chair of eloquence and history at

Franeker Franeker (; fry, Frjentsjer) is one of the eleven historical cities of Friesland and capital of the municipality of Waadhoeke. It is located north of the Van Harinxmakanaal and about 20 km west of Leeuwarden. As of 1 January 2014, it had 12, ...

through the influence of J. G. Graevius and Nikolaes Heinsius. In 1693 he was promoted to the corresponding chair at

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 ...

, where he died on 6 April 1715. The numerous works of Perizonius entitle him to a high place among the scholars of his age. Special interest attaches to his edition of the ''Minerva sive de causis linguae latinae'' (Salamanca: Renaut, 1587) of

Francisco Sánchez de las Brozas Francisco Sánchez de las Brozas (1523–1600), also known as El Brocense, and in Latin as Franciscus Sanctius Brocensis, was a Spanish philologist and humanist. Biography Sanctius was born in Brozas, province of Cáceres. His parents, Fr ...

, ''aka'' El Brocense, (ed. C. L. Bauer, 1793–1801), one of the last developments of the study of

Latin grammar Latin is a heavily inflected languages, inflected language with largely free word order. Nouns are inflected for grammatical number, number and grammatical case, case; pronouns and adjectives (including participles) are inflected for number, cas ...

in its pre-scientific stage, when the phenomena of language were still regarded as for the most part disconnected, conventional or fortuitous. Mention should also be made of his ''Animadversiones historicae'' (1685), which may be said to have laid the foundations of historical criticism, and of his treatises on the

Roman republic The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Kin ...

, alluded to by Niebuhr as marking the beginning of the new era of historical study with which his own name is associated.

Collection and heritage

Perizonius was a collector of rare books and manuscripts. To the

Leiden University Library Leiden University Libraries is a library founded in 1575 in Leiden, Netherlands. It is regarded as a significant place in the development of European culture: it is a part of a small number of cultural centres that gave direction to the developme ...

he bequeathed 134 manuscripts, one painting, many printed books and a legacy to buy new books. The manuscripts are kept separate as the Collection Perizonius in the library. One of the famous manuscripts in the Perizonius collection is a manuscript, probably from the

Abbey of Saint Gall The Abbey of Saint Gall (german: Abtei St. Gallen) is a dissolved abbey (747–1805) in a Catholic religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The Carolingian-era monastery existed from 719, founded by Saint Othmar on the spot w ...

dating from the 10th century. It includes ''

1 Maccabees The First Book of Maccabees, also known as First Maccabees (written in shorthand as 1 Maccabees or 1 Macc.), is a book written in Hebrew by an anonymousRappaport, U., ''47. 1 Maccabees'' in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001)The Oxford Bible Comme ...

'' and the fourth book of ''Epitoma Rei Militaris'' by

Vegetius Publius (or Flavius) Vegetius Renatus, known as Vegetius (), was a writer of the Later Roman Empire (late 4th century). Nothing is known of his life or station beyond what is contained in his two surviving works: ''Epitoma rei militaris'' (also re ...

. The manuscript includes many richly decorated pages depicting the historic invasion of Germany by the Hungarians.

References

* *The article on Perizonius in Van der Aa's ''Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden'' contains full biographical and bibliographical particulars; see also F. A. Eckstein in

Ersch Johann Samuel Ersch (23 June 1766 – 16 January 1828) was a German bibliographer, generally regarded as the founder of German bibliography. Biography He was born in Großglogau (now Głogów), in Silesia. In 1785 he entered the University of H ...

and Gruber's ''Allgemeine Encyklopädie''. {{Authority control 1651 births 1715 deaths Linguists from the Netherlands Dutch classical scholars Utrecht University alumni People from Appingedam Academic staff of Leiden University Classical scholars of Leiden University