Hendrik Laurenszoon Spiegel (11 March 1549 – 4 January 1612) was one of the most important writers and thinkers from

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

in the second half of the sixteenth century. Spiegel was born in Amsterdam and is seen as a forerunner to the

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...

of Vondel, Hooft and Huygens. He is the strongest candidate for the unknown author of the first book on Dutch grammar, the Twe-spraack (''Twe-spraack vande Nederduitsche letterkunst''), which appeared in 1584. (In the past it was thought to be by his friend, Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert.) He was a rederijker and founding member of the rhetorician's chamber called the

Egelantier De Eglantier (Sweet Briar or Eglantine Rose) (spelling variations: ''Egelantier'' and ''Eglentier'') was a chamber of rhetoric in Amsterdam that arose in 1517 or 1518, possibly as a continuation of older chambers of rhetoric. It is one of the mos ...

. On ethics, he wrote "Hertspiegel" (a summary of a more complex work), and a short play, "Numa", on the Roman king Numa Pompilius. His sister Geertrui married the Alkmaar regent Pieter Adriaansz Pauw, his sister Mary was one of the founders of the Amsterdam ''Maagdenhuis'', a Catholic girl's orphanage, and his brother Jan became one of the first regents of Amsterdam after the

Alteratie The Alteratie (Eng: Alteration) is the name given to the change of power in Amsterdam on May 26, 1578, when the Catholic city government was deposed in favor of a Protestant one. The coup should be seen in the context of the greater Dutch Revolt t ...

. Spiegel was married twice, first to Bregtje van der Berg and Dieuwertje van Marken.Spiegel
in

Van der Aa Abraham Jacob van der Aa (7 December 1792, Amsterdam – 21 March 1857, Gorinchem) was a Dutch writer best known for his dictionaries, one of notable people and the other of notable places in the Netherlands. He was born in Amsterdam in 1792. ...

When his children contracted

chicken pox Chickenpox, also known as varicella, is a highly contagious disease caused by the initial infection with varicella zoster virus (VZV). The disease results in a characteristic skin rash that forms small, itchy blisters, which eventually scab ...

, his wife kept him away because he had not had it in his youth, but he could not bear being separated from them and thus became ill and died of the chicken pox in Alkmaar, aged 62. His daughter Geertrui married the Amsterdam lawyer Ysbrand van der Hem, and his sons were later the founders of the Amsterdam regency families Backer and Lestevenon.

References

Bibliography

*A. Verwey, Hendrick Laurensz. Spieghel, Groningen 1919. *J.F. Buisman, De ethische denkbeelden van Hendrik Laurensz. Spiegel, Wageningen 1935. *K. Kooiman, Twe-spraack vande Nederduitsche letterkunst, Groningen 1913. *G.R.W. Dibbets (ed.), Twe-spraack vande Nederduitsche letterkunst (1584), Assen/Maastricht 1985. *Bostoen, Kaars en bril: de oudste Nederlandse grammatica, z.p., z.j.

985 Year 985 ( CMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – Henry II (the Wrangler) is restored as duke of Bavaria by Empress Theoph ...

External links

Spiegel siteBiography and bibliography on Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren
1549 births 1612 deaths Dutch male writers Linguists from the Netherlands Writers from Amsterdam 16th-century Dutch philosophers {{netherlands-bio-stub