Pieter Gillis (28 July 1486 – 6 or 11 November 1533), known by his anglicised name Peter Giles and sometimes the Latinised Petrus Ægidius, was a

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...

printer Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person or a company * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * James ...

, and secretary to the city of

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

in the early sixteenth century.Centrum Pieter Gillis

University of Antwerp The University of Antwerp ( nl, Universiteit Antwerpen) is a major Belgian university located in the city of Antwerp. The official abbreviation is ''UA'', but ''UAntwerpen'' is more recently used. The University of Antwerp has about 20,000 stud ...

He is most famous as a friend and supporter of

Desiderius Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...

and

Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord ...

. He seemed to have recommended the painter

Hans Holbein the Younger Hans Holbein the Younger ( , ; german: Hans Holbein der Jüngere; – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered o ...

to the court of England, where Thomas More received him delighted. Thomas More's ''

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...

'', although fictional, includes Pieter Gillis as a character in Book I. More dedicated ''Utopia'' to Gillis, who may have designed the

Utopian alphabet The Utopian language is the language of the fictional land of Utopia, as described in Thomas More's ''Utopia''. A brief sample of the constructed language is found in an addendum to More's book, written by his friend Peter Giles. Pretending to ...

. They first met when diplomatic business brought More to Antwerp. William Holden Hutton, ''Sir Thomas More'', London: Methuen & Co., 1895 (available throug
Google Books

References

1486 births 1533 deaths Flemish Renaissance humanists Businesspeople from Antwerp Constructed language creators Creators of writing systems {{Belgium-bio-stub