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104. - Jelles, Jarig (1619/20–1683)

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Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2025

By
Wiep van Bunge
Edited by
Karolina Hübner  and
Justin Steinberg
Karolina Hübner
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Justin Steinberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
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Summary

Jarig Jelles was among Spinoza’s closest Amsterdam friends. He was born in 1619 or 1620, either in Stavoren, Friesland or Amsterdam, where he passed away a bachelor in 1683. Jelles was the author of the Preface to Spinoza’s OP as well as of a personal Belydenisse (Confession) addressed to Spinoza in 1673 (Ep48a). Jelles’s elaborate Preface to the OP contains the earliest biography of Spinoza and played a crucial part in establishing Spinoza’s imago of a philosopher completely dedicated to the pursuit of truth. Many of Spinoza’s critics were wrestling with the uncomfortable recognition that the man who according to Bayle had turned atheism into a philosophical system had led a morally superior life. Few of them were prepared to agree with Jelles, according to whom ultimately Spinoza’s philosophy was in accordance with the essential truths of Christianity.

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Chapter
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The Cambridge Spinoza Lexicon , pp. 289 - 290
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Recommended Reading

Akkerman, F., and Hubbeling, H. G. (1979). The Preface to Spinoza’s Posthumous Works (1677) and its author: Jarig Jelles (c.1619/1620–1683). Lias 6, 103–73.Google Scholar
van Bunge, W. (2019). From Bayle to the Batavian Revolution: Essays on Philosophy in the Eighteenth-Century Dutch Republic. Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fix, A. C. (1991). Prophecy and Reason: The Dutch Collegiants in the Early Enlightenment. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Israel, J. (2001). Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650–1750. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kołakowski, L. (1969). Chrétiens sans Église: La conscience religieuse et le lien confessionel au XVIIe siècle, trans. Posner, A.. Gallimard.Google Scholar
Meinsma, K. O. (1980[1896]). Spinoza en zijn kring: Over Hollandsche vrijgeesten. HES.Google Scholar
Nadler, S. (2018). Spinoza: A Life. 2nd edn. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyden-Bullock, T. (2007). Spinoza’s Radical Cartesian Mind. Continuum.Google Scholar
Steenbakkers, P. (1994). Spinoza’s Ethica from Manuscript to Print: Studies on Text, Form, and Related Topics. Van Gorcum.Google Scholar
van der Tak, W. G. (1989). Jarig Jellesz’ Origins: Jellesz’ Life and Business, Mededelingen vanwege Het Spinozahuis, 59.Google Scholar

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