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Vossius, Gerardus Joannes

Born: Spring 1577, Heidelberg

Died: 17 March 1649, Amsterdam

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy

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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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Secondary Literature

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Huygens Institute Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Hague, The Netherlands

    Jan Bloemendal

  2. Huygens Institute and Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Hague, The Netherlands

    Henk J. M. Nellen

Authors
  1. Jan Bloemendal
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  2. Henk J. M. Nellen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jan Bloemendal .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Verona, Mantova, Italy

    Marco Sgarbi

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Bloemendal, J., Nellen, H.J.M. (2014). Vossius, Gerardus Joannes. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_452-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_452-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02848-4

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