LIPSIUS, JUSTUS (1547-16o6)

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LIPSIUS, JUSTUS (1547-16o6) , the Latinized name of Joest (Juste or Josse) Lips, Belgian scholar, born on the 18th of October (15th of November, according to Amiel) 1J47 at Overyssche, a small

village

VILLAGE

in Brabant, near Brussels. Sent early to the Jesuit college in Cologne, he was removed at the age of sixteen to the university of Louvain by his parents, who feared that he might be induced to become a member of the Society of Jesus. The publication of his Variarum Lectionum Libri Tres (1567), dedicated to Cardinal Granvella, procured him an appointment as Latin secretary and a visit to Rome in the retinue of the cardinal. Here Lipsius remained two years, devoting his spare time to the study of the Latin classics, collecting

inscriptions

INSCRIPTIONS (from Lat. inscribere, to write upon)

and examining MSS. in the Vatican. A second volume of miscellaneous criticism (Antiquarum Lectionum Libri Quinque, 1575), published after his return from Rome, compared with the Variae Lectiones of eight years earlier, shows that he had advanced from the notion of purely conjectural emendation to that of emending by collation. In 1570 he wandered over Burgundy, Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and was engaged for more than a year as teacher in the university of Jena, a position which implied an outward conformity to the Lutheran Church. On his way back to Louvain, he stopped some time at Cologne, where he must have comported himself as a Catholic. He then returned to Louvian, but was soon driven by the Civil War to take

refuge

REFUGE

in Antwerp, where he received, in 1579, a call to the newly founded university of Leiden. as professor of history. At Leiden, where he must have passed as a Calvinist, Lipsius remained eleven years, the period of his greatest productivity. It was now that he prepared his Seneca, perfected, in successive editions, his Tacitus and brought out a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of works, some of pure scholarship, others collections from classical authors, others again of general

interest

INTEREST

. Of this latter class was a treatise on politics (Politicoruna Libri Sex, 1589), in which he showed that, though a public teacher in a country which professed toleration, he had not departed from the state maxims of Alva and Philip II. He lays it down that a government should recognize only one religion, and that dissent should be extirpated by fire and sword. From the attacks to which this avowal exposed him, he was saved by the prudence of the authorities of Leiden, who prevailed upon him to publish a declaration that his expression, lire, seta, was a metaphor for a vigorous treatment. In the

spring

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger. springer, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

of 1J90, leaving Leiden under pretext of taking the waters at Spa, he went to Mainz, where he was reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church. The event deeply interested the Catholic world, and invitations poured in on Lipsius from the courts and universities of Italy, Austria and Spain. But he preferred to remain in his own country, and finally settled at Louvain, as professor of Latin in the Collegium Buslidianum. He was not expected to teach, and his trifling stipend was eked out by the appointments of privy councillor and historiographer to the kingof Spain. He continued to publish dissertations as before, the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

being his De militia romana (Antwerp, 1595) and Lovanium (Antwerp, 16o5; 4th ed., Wesel, 1671), intended as an introduction to a general history of Brabant. He died at Louvian on the 23rd of March (some give 24th of April) 16o6.
Lipsius's knowledge of classical antiquity was extremely limited. He had but slight acquaintance with Greek, and in Latin literature the poets and Cicero lay outside his range. His greatest work was his edition of Tacitus. This author he had so completely made his own that he could repeat the whole, and offered to be tested in any part of the text, with a poniard held to his breast, to be used against him if he should fail. His Tacitus first appeared in 1575, and was five times revised and correctedthe last time in ,6o6, shortly before his death. His Opera Omnia appeared in 8 vols. at Antwerp (1585, and ed., 1637).
A full

list

of his publications will be found in van der Aa, Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden (1865), and in Bibliographic Lipsienne (

Ghent

GHENT (Flem. Gent, Fr. Gand)

, 1886-1888). In addition to the biography by A. le Mire (Aubertus Miraeus) (1609), the only

original

ORIGINAL

account of his life, see M. E. C. Nisard, Le Triumviral litteraire au X VI siecle (1852); A. Rass, Die Convertiten seit der Reformation (1867); P. Bergman's Autobiographic de J. Lipse (1889); L. Galesloot, Particularites sur la vie de J. Lipse (1877); E. Amiel, Un Publicisle du )(VI' siecle. Juste Lipse (1884); and L. Muller, Geschichte der klassischen Philologie in den Niederlanden. The articles by J. J. Thonissen of Louvain in the Nouvelle Biographic generale, and L. Roersch in Biographic nationale de Belgique, may also be consulted.

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