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Vossius, Gerardus Joannes

Born: Spring 1577, Heidelberg

Died: 17 March 1649, Amsterdam

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Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy

Abstract

Gerardus Joannes Vossius (1577–1649), a professor at Leiden University and the Athenaeum illustre in Amsterdam, was a philosopher in a limited sense only: he was a polymath who wrote about history, poetry, culture, theology, and philosophy in a very systematic, encyclopedic, and eclectic way. As such, he was not so much an original thinker as an author who made topics easily accessible for fellow scholars, students, and well-educated patricians and merchants. Vossius made an important contribution to philosophy, by publishing his De theologia gentili sive Physiologia christiana (1642), a much-acclaimed introduction to the natural knowledge of God.

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References

Primary Literature

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Correspondence to Jan Bloemendal .

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Bloemendal, J., Nellen, H.J.M. (2022). Vossius, Gerardus Joannes. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14169-5_452

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