Petrus Nannius

Petrus Nannius (also Pieter Nanninck, b. 1496, Alkmaar - d. 1557) was a Dutch poet, accomplished Latin scholar and humanist of the 16th century.[1] A contemporary of Desiderius Erasmus, he was born in Alkmaar and was an important figure in the humanism of the time, having provided a foundation with his teaching for the later flowering of humanism in the region.[2]

Petrus Nannius
Pieter Nanninck
Pieter Nanninck by Philip Galle
Born1496
Alkmaar
Died1557
Leuven
Occupation(s)Humanist, Teacher
TitleRector of the Collegium Trilingue
PredecessorConrad Goclenius
SuccessorCornelius Valerius

Life

We first hear of Nannius teaching in Gouda, South Holland. His appointment here is considered a turning point in the humanism of Gouda, in that the humanistic spirit was being found less inside monasteries, and more in public, secular life.[3] In 1539, Nannius succeeded Conrad Goclenius as Latin teacher at the Collegium Trilingue,[1] where he taught renowned intellectuals of the age such as Jacobus Cruquius. Nannius was described by Flemish humanist Justus Lipsius as the first person to introduce a love of letters in the Collegium Trilingue.[4] Nannius served in this capacity from 1539 to his death in 1557.[5][6] For his many scholarly endeavours, he could rely on the financial help of influential patrons, such as Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle.[7]

Works

Nannius was also a writer who wrote a commentary on the Ars Poetica of Horace, and saw in it many similarities to Menippean satire.[8] He translated the works of many Greek authors, including Aeschines, Plutarch, and Athanasius.[9] He also produced ten books of critical and explanatory Miscellanea, and commentaries on the Eclogues and fourth book of the Aeneid by Virgil.[4]

Selective bibliography
Image of the title page of Paralipomena Vergili sive De rebus inferis a poeta relictis (1545), a contemporary apograph of Nannius' Somnium or Dream Oration, held on the occasion of his course on the sixth book of Vegil's Aeneid. The first printed edition appeared in 1611. The manuscript apograph is kept at KU Leuven Libraries and is completely digitized.[10]

Philological Commentaries

  • Vergil: Aeneis IV (1544),[11] Bucolica (1559, published posthumously)
  • Livy: Ab Urbe condita III (1545)
  • Cicero: In Verrem (1546)
  • Σύμμικτα or Miscellanea (1548)
  • Horace: Ars poetica (1608, published posthumously)

Latin translations of Greek texts

  • Lucian: 7 Dialogues of the Gods and 4 Dialogues of the Sea Gods (1528)
  • Basil of Caesarea: several homilies (1538 and 1539)
  • Plutarch: Lives of Phocion and Cato the Younger (1540)
  • Athenagoras: On the Resurrection of the Dead (1541, editio princeps)
  • Athanasius: Complete works (1556)

Original literary output

  • Vinctus (1522)
  • Declamatio de Bello Turcis Inferendo (1535/6)[12][13]
  • Orationes tres (1541)
  • Dialogismi heroinarum (1541 and 1550)
  • Declamatio quodlibetica, de aeternitate mundi (1549)
  • Dream orations (1611, published posthumously)
    • Somnium, sive Paralipomena Virgilii: Res Inferae a Poeta relictae
    • Somnium alterum In lib. Il Lucretii Praefatio

Notes
  1. Bietenholz, Peter G.; Deutscher, Thomas Brian, eds. (2003). Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation. Vol. 1–3. University of Toronto Press. p. 93. ISBN 9780802085771. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
  2. MacKay, Angus; Goodman, Anthony, eds. (1990). The Impact of Humanism on Western Europe. Addison-Wesley Longman, Limited. pp. 149. ISBN 9780582052819. Retrieved 2016-05-28.
  3. Goudriaan, Koen (2004). "The Gouda Circle of Humanists". In De Ridder-Symoens, Hilde; Goudriaan, Koen; Van Moolenbroek, J. J.; Tervoort, Ad (eds.). Education and learning in the Netherlands, 1400-1600: essays in honour of Hilde de Ridder-Symoens. Brill's studies in intellectual history. Vol. 123. Brill Publishers. p. 156. ISBN 9789004136441. Retrieved 2016-05-28.
  4. Sandys, John Edwin (1908). From the revival of learning to the end of the eighteenth century (in Italy, France, England, and the Netherlands). A History of Classical Scholarship. Vol. 2. At the University Press. pp. 215–216. ISBN 9780524034224. Retrieved 2016-05-28.
  5. Sandys, John Edwin (2011). From the Revival of Learning to the End of the Eighteenth Century in Italy, France, England and the Netherlands. A History of Classical Scholarship. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press. p. 215. ISBN 9781108027090. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
  6. Feys, Xander (2020). "A Hippocrates for eight stuivers: On Petrus Nannius' library and the earliest known Leuven book auction (1557)". De Gulden Passer. 98 (1): 239–257.
  7. Feys, Xander. "A 16th-century Maecenas and his client. Three previously unedited letters from the Louvain professor Petrus Nannius (1496-1557) to his patron Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517-1586)". Erudition and the Republic of Letters. 7 (3): 265–301.
  8. de Smet, Ingrid A. R. (1996). Menippean Satire and the Republic of Letters, 1581-1655. Travaux du Grand Siècle. Librairie Droz. pp. 33–34. ISBN 9782600001472. ISSN 1420-7699. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
  9. Landfester, Manfred; Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2008). "Brill's New Pauly: Jap-Ode". Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Vol. 18. Brill Publishers. p. 751. ISBN 9789004142237. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
  10. KU Leuven Libraries, Ms. 1001 (1545). "Paralipomena Vergili sive De rebus inferis a poeta relictis".
  11. Feys, Xander (2023). 'Reading Vergil through Homer: the Role of the Greek Language in Petrus Nannius’ Deuterologiae sive spicilegia.' In Trilingual learning: The study of Greek and Hebrew in a Latin world (1000-1700), ed. by R. Van Rooy, P. Van Hecke, and T. Van Hal, pp. 207-230. Turnhout: Brepols.
  12. Jaspers, Martijn (2020). "Lazy but Cruel: Oriental Stereotypes in Petrus Nannius' 'Declamatio de bello Turcis Inferendo' (Leuven: Rutger Rescius, 1536)". Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance. LXXXII, no. 3: 515–533.
  13. Jaspers, Martijn (2020). Moeten we de Turken de oorlog verklaren? Petrus Nannius' 'Declamatio de bello Turcis inferendo (Leuven: Rutger Rescius, 1536). Leuven: University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Faculty of Arts.
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