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Lucas Holstenius

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Lucas Holstenius, born Lucas Holstein[1] (1596 – 2 February 1661), was a German Catholic humanist, geographer, historian, and librarian.

Life

Born at Hamburg in 1596, he studied at the gymnasium of Hamburg, and later at Leiden University, where he was closely acquainted with some of the most famous scholars of the age, including Johannes Meursius, Daniel Heinsius and Philip Cluverius, whom in 1618 he accompanied on his travels in Italy and Sicily, thus giving him a taste for the study of geography. Disappointed at his failure on his return to obtain a post in the gymnasium of his native Hamburg, he left Germany for good. Having spent two years from 1622 in England, at Oxford and London, gathering materials for his Geographi Minores, he then proceeded to Paris.[2]

At Paris in 1624, he became librarian to the President de Mesmes, the friend of the scholarly brothers Dupuy, and the correspondent of N. Peiresc. At this time he was converted to Catholicism. He was probably led to take this step from reading the writings on mystical theology of the Greek and Latin Fathers. However, he showed his liberal-mindedness by strenuously opposing the strict censorship exercised by the Congregation of the Index.[2]

In 1627 he went to Rome, and through the influence of Peiresc was admitted to the household of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, former papal nuncio and the possessor of the most important private library in Rome.[2] In 1636 he became the cardinal's librarian. Much of Holstenius' collection was deposited in the Biblioteca Angelica in Rome.[3]

Finally, under Innocent X, he was placed in charge of the Vatican Library. The popes sent him on various honorable missions, such as bearing the cardinal's hat to the nuncio at Warsaw in 1629, and Alexander VII sent him to Innsbruck to receive the formal abjuration of Protestantism from Christina, former Queen of Sweden. He also acted as intermediary in the conversion of the Danish nobleman, Friedrich, Landgrave of Hessen-Darmstadt and of Christoph, Graf von Rantzau.[4]

Mostly, however, he was occupied with his studies. Holstenius formed great projects. He was a man of unwearied industry and immense learning, but he lacked the persistency to carry out the vast literary schemes he had planned.[2] Among them, he desired to correct Philipp Clüver's errors and complete his work; to edit, translate and comment the works of the Neoplatonists; to form a collection of the unedited homilies of the Greek Fathers; to collect inscriptions; to write a critical commentary on the Greek text of the Bible; to form a collection of all the monuments and acts of the history of the popes. These diverse undertakings consumed his energies and filled his notebooks, but without profit to scholarship. His notes and collations have been used by various editors.

Holstenius died on 2 February 1661 in Rome.

Works

The principal works that Holstenius actually published are notes on Cluvier's Italia antiqua (1624); an edition of portions of Porphyry (1630), with a dissertation on his life and writings; notes on Eusebius Against Hierocles (1628), on the Sayings of the later Pythagoreans (1638),[2] and the De diis et mundo of the neo-Platonist Sallustius (1638); an edition of Arrian's treatise on the Chase (1644), and the Codex regularum monasticarum, a collection of monastic rules (1661). This last included in an appendix the first printing of the De admonitio ad filium spiritualem. He also rediscovered and edited for the first time the Liber Diurnus Romanorum Pontificum, a collection of ancient Roman chancery formulae used in the administration of the Roman Church (1660), but this edition, however, was immediately suppressed by Alexander VII.

Holstenius is also important as the first to locate Horace's fanum Vacunae (the shrine of Vacuna, mentioned in Epistles 1.10.49) as that of Victoria in Roccagiovine following the discovery there of an inscription commemorating Vespasian's restoration of the shrine of Victoria.[5]

After his death there were published from his papers collections of synods and ecclesiastical monuments, the Collectio romana bipartita (1662), also the acts of the martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas; Boniface; Tarachus, Probus and Andronicus (1663); Notae et castigationes in Stephan Byzantini ethnica (1684).

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Lucas Holstenius — (HOLSTE).

German philologist, b. at Hamburg, 1596; d. at Rome, 2 February, 1661. He studied at the gymnasium of Hamburg, and later at Leyden, where Vossius, Heinsius, Meursius, and Scriverius then taught. In 1618 Cluver induced him to accompany him on a journey to Italy and Sicily, thus giving him a taste for the study of geography. He returned for a short time to Leyden, failed to be accepted as professor in the gymnasium of Hamburg, and went to England in 1622, where he gathered materials for his "Geographi Minores". At Paris in 1624, he became librarian to the president de Mesmes, the friend of the scholarly brothers Dupuy, and the correspondent of Peiresc. At this time he was converted to Catholicism. The liking he had always displayed for Platonic philosophy impelled him to read eagerly the Greek and Latin Fathers, especially those who treated of contemplative and mystical theology. This led him quite naturally to the Catholic Church. In 1627 he went to Rome, and through the influence of Peiresc was admitted to the household of Cardinal Barberini, becoming his librarian in 1636. Finally, under Innocent X, he was placed over the Vatican Library. The popes sent him on various honorable missions, such as bearing the cardinal's hat to the nuncio at Warsaw (1629), receiving the abjuration of Queen Christina at Innsbruck, acting as intermediary in the conversion of the Landgrave of Darmstadt and of Ranzau, a Danish nobleman. Mostly, however, he was occupied with his studies. He had formed great projects; he desired to correct Cluver's errors and complete his work; to edit, translate and comment the works of the Neoplatonists; to form a collection of the unedited homilies of the Greek Fathers; to collect inscriptions; to write a critical commentary on the Greek text of the Bible; to form a collection of all the monuments and acts of the history of the popes. These diverse undertakings consumed his energies and filled his notebooks, but without profit to scholarship. His notes and collations have been used by various editors. His principal works are an edition and a life of Porphyry (1630), the "Thoughts" of Democritus, Demophilus and Secundus, little mythological works (1638), an edition of Arrian's treatise on the Chase (1644), and the "Codex regularum monasticarum", a much used collection of monastic rules (1661; edited anew by Brockie, Ratisbon, 1759). He also edited for the first time the "Liber Diurnus", a collection of ancient chancery formulae used in the administration of the Roman Church (1660); this edition, however, was immediately suppressed by Alexander VII (see LIBER DIURNUS). After his death there were published from his papers collections of synods and ecclesiastical monuments, the "Collectio romana bipartita" (1662), also the acts of the martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas, Boniface, Tarachus, Probus and Andronicus (1663). His observations on the geography of Italy appeared in 1666, in the form of notes on the previously published works of Charles de Saint-Paul, Cluver and Ortelius. The notes on Stephen of Byzantium were published at Leyden in 1684 by Rycke. Lambecius was the nephew of Holstenius, but they quarrelled towards the end of his life.

CRUEGER, Holstenii Epistolae XXII ad Pt. Lambecium (Jena, 1708); PELISSIER, Les amis d'Holstenius in Melanges d'archeologie et d'histoire, published by the Ecole francaise de Rome, VI (1886), 554; VII (1887), 62; VIII (1888), 323, 521; and in the Revue des langues romanes, XXXV (1892); BOISSONADE, Lucae Holstenii epistolae ad diversos (Paris, 1817); TAMIZEY DE LARROQUE, Lettres de Peiresc a Holstenius in Lettres de Peiresc, V (Paris, 1894), 245-488; NICERON, Memoires, XXXIX.

References

  1. Back to citation Zhu, X. (2024). "The Vernacular Name of Holstenius". Notes and Queries. doi:10.1093/notesj/gjae088.
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Back to citation occurrence 2.2 Back to citation occurrence 2.3 Back to citation occurrence 2.4 Chisholm 1911.
  3. Back to citation A Handbook of Rome; by John Murray, 11th edition (1872), page 128.
  4. Back to citation Ricarda Matheus, Konversionen in Rom in der Fruhen Neuzeit, 2012, p. 76f.
  5. Back to citation Annotationes in Geographiam sacram Caroli a S. Paulo, Italiam antiquam Cluuerii, et Thesaurum geographicum Ortelii: quibus accedit Dissertatio duplex de sacramento confirmationis apud graecos (Rome 1666) 106.

Bibliography

  • Holstenius's correspondence (Epistolae ad diversos, ed. J.F. Boissonade, 1817)
  • Nicolaus Wilckens, Leben des gelehrten Lucae Holstenii (Hamburg, 1723)
  • Johannes Moller, Cimbria literata, iii. (1744).
  • Alfonso Mirto, Lucas Holstenius e la corte medicea. Carteggio (1629-1660), Firenze, Leo S. Olschki, 1999
Specific

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