Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T19:47:22.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Doctrine, Life, and Roman Trial of the Frisian Philosopher Henricus de Veno (1574?-1613)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Christoph Lüthy  and
Leen Spruit
Christoph Lüthy
Affiliation:
University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Leen Spruit
Affiliation:
University "La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper retraces the life of Henricus de Veno, professor of philosophy at the Frisian University of Franeker, summarizes his teaching, and documents the trial that was conducted against him by the Roman Inquisition in 1597-98. De Veno was probably the most innovative Dutch teacher of philosophy in the first years of the seventeenth century, as he combined the new Protestant metaphysics with a cosmology and physics inspired by Girolamo Cardano. Instead of admitting before his Calvinist colleagues that he had been in prison and had converted to Catholicism before the Roman Inquisition, he claimed to have obtained various university degrees abroad. His philosophical views and religious interests correspond to the Arminian demand for a libertas prophetandi and a certain doctrinal open-mindedness.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 56 , Issue 4 , Winter 2003 , pp. 1112 - 1151
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The authors wish to thank the editor of RQ, Professor Paul F. Grendler, and the referees, Professors Joseph S. Freedman, John Tedeschi, and Jan Papy, for their insightful comments on earlier versions of this paper. The research of C.H. Lüthy has been made possible by a fellowship of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

References

Abels, Paul. 1988. “Das Arnoldinum und die Niederlande wahrend seiner ersten Bliitezeit: Das Verhaltnis einer Hafiliebe.” In 400 Jahre Arnoldinum 1588-1988, ed. Kreisheimatbund Steinfurt, 78–97. Greven.Google Scholar
Adama, Lollius. 1606. Theses logicae, de natura logices. [Resp.] Liebwertus a Wynshem. Franeker.Google Scholar
Adama, Lollius. 1609. Fortunati Crellii Isagoges logicae, in duas partes tributae, in communem etpropriam. Franeker.Google Scholar
Baldini, Ugo, and Spruit, Leen. 2000. “Cardano e Aldrovandi nelle lettere del Sant'Uffizio Romano all'Inquisitore di Bologna (1571-73).” Bruniana e Campanelliana 6:145-63.Google Scholar
Baldini, Ugo, and Spruit, Leen. 2001. “Campanella tra il processo romano e la congiura di Calabria. A proposito di due lettere inedite a Santori.” Bruniana e Campanelliana 7:179-87.Google Scholar
Beretta, Francesco. 1998. GaliUe devant le Tribunal de TInquisition. Fribourg.Google Scholar
Beretta, Francesco. 2000. “L'Archivio della Congregazione del Sant'Ufficio: bilancio provvisorio della storia e natura dei fondi d'antico regime.” In L'lnquisizione romana: metodologia delle fonti e storia istituzionale, ed. A. Del Col and G. Paolin, 119-44. Trieste-Montereale Valcellina.Google Scholar
Blair, Ann. 2000. “Mosaic Physics and the Search for a Pious Natural Philosophy in the Late Renaissance.” Zj«91:32–58.Google Scholar
Boeles, W.B.S. 1879. Frieslands Hoogeschool en het Rijks Athenaeum te Franeker. 1 parts in 3 vols. Leeuwarden.Google Scholar
Bots, J.A.H., and W.Th.M. Frijhoff. 1985. “De studentenpopulatie van de Franeker academie: een kwantitatief onderzoek (1585-1811). In Universiteit te Franeker 1585-1811, ed. G. Th. Jensma, F.R.H. Smit, and F. Westra, 56–72. Leeuwarden.Google Scholar
Cardano, Girolamo. 1550. De subtilitate libriXXI. Nuremberg.Google Scholar
Cardano, Girolamo. 1560. In calumniatorem librorum de subtilitate, actio prima. In De subtilitate libri XXI. Third rev. ed., 1265-1426. Basel.Google Scholar
Cardano, Girolamo. 1565. Contradicentium medicorum libri II. Paris.Google Scholar
Carena, Cesare. 1655. Tractatus de Officio Sanctissimae Inquisitionis, et modo procedendi in causis fidei. Cremona.Google Scholar
Casmann, Otto. 1598. Cosmopoeia et Ovpavoypafia Christiana. Frankfurt.Google Scholar
Cifres, Alejandro. 2001. “Das Archiv des Sanctum Officium: Alte und neue Ordnungsformen.” In Inquisition, Index, Zensur: Wissenskulturen der Neuzeit im Widerstreit, ed. H. Wolf, 45–67. Paderborn.Google Scholar
de Castro, Alfonso. 1549. De iusta haereticorum punitione. 1547. 2nd. ed. Venice.Google Scholar
de Ridder-Symoens, H. 1985. “Buitenlandse studenten aan de Franeker universiteit 1585-1811.” In Universiteit te Franeker 1585-1811, ed. G.Th. Jensma, F.R.H. Smit, and F. Westra, 73-89. Leeuwarden.Google Scholar
de Veno, Henricus. 1603. Disputationum physicarum prima, de physica. [Resp.] Bernardus Paludanus. Franeker.Google Scholar
de Veno, Henricus. 1604a. Disputatio metaphysica de signo et signato. [Resp.] Augustinus Arnoldi. Franeker.Google Scholar
de Veno, Henricus. 1604b. Disputationum physicarum secunda, deprincipiis et causis rerum naturalium. [Resp.] Duco a Buvama. Franeker.Google Scholar
de Veno, Henricus. 1604c. Disputationum physicarum quarta, de infinito et loco. [Resp.] Pierius H. Winsemius. Franeker.Google Scholar
de Veno, Henricus. 1604d. Disputationum physicarum quinta, de mundo in genere. [Resp.] Gualtherus Zellius. Franeker.Google Scholar
de Veno, Henricus. 1604e. Disputationum physicarum octava, de elementis. [Resp.] Duca a Buvama. Franeker.Google Scholar
de Veno, Henricus. 1604f. Disputationum physicarum nona, de misti generatione et ejus interitu. [Resp.] Bernardus Paludanus. Franeker.Google Scholar
de Veno, Henricus. 1604g. Theoremataphysicadea'ere. [Resp.] Petrus Theocari. Franeker.Google Scholar
de Veno, Henricus. 1604h. Theoremata physica de anima rationali et eius facultatibus. [Resp.] Petrus Theocari. Franeker.Google Scholar
de Veno, Henricus. 1605. Quaestiones illustres ex tota philosophia conquisitae, quas ad summum in philosophiae gradum consequendum publice ventilandasproponit Hieronimus Fredericus Ishrandi. Franeker.Google Scholar
de Veno, Henricus. 1606. Dissertatio politica de magistrate. [Resp.] Hero a Weerdum et Inhusen. Franeker.Google Scholar
Decreta Sancti Officii, 1597; 1598; 1599. MS. Archivio della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede. Vatican City.Google Scholar
Dibon, Paul. 1954. La philosophic nterlandaise au siecle d'or. Vol. 1, L'enseignement philosophique dans les universites a Tepoque precartesienne (1575-1650). Paris.Google Scholar
Düring, Ingemar. 1944. Aristotle's Chemical TreatiseMeteorologica, Book IV, with Introduction and Commentary. Goteborg.Google Scholar
Ekkart, R.E.O. 1977. Franeker Professorenportretten. Iconografie van de Professoren aan de Academie en het Rijksathenaeum te Franeker 1585-1843. Franeker.Google Scholar
Engels, M.H.H. 1995. Brieven aan de Curator van de Universiteit van Franeker Johannes Saeckma (1572-1636). Uitgave van de Codex Saeckma en de brieven van 12 overeenkomstige correspondenten uit de verzameling Gabbema. 2 vols. Leeuwarden.Google Scholar
Fernel, Jean. 1548. De abditis rerum causis. Paris.Google Scholar
Firpo, Luigi. 1993. IIprocesso di Giordano Bruno. Ed. D. Quaglioni. Rome.Google Scholar
Fockema Andreae, S.J., and Meijer, T.J.. 1968. Album studiosorum Academiae Franekerensis (1585-1811, 1816- 1844). Vol. 1, Naamlijst der studenten. Franeker.Google Scholar
Foxius Morzillo, Sebastiano. 1561. Ethices philosophiae compendium, ex Platone, Aristoteli aliisque optimis quibus auctoribus collectum. Heidelberg.Google Scholar
Freedman, Joseph S.. 1988. European Academic Philosophy in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries: The Life, Significance, and Philosophy of Clemens Timpler (1563/64-1624). 2 vols. Hildesheim.Google Scholar
Fuller, Thomas. 1837. The Church History of Britain from the Birth of Jesus Christ, untilthe Year 1648. 1655. Newed. 3 vols. London.Google Scholar
Galama, Sybrand Haije Michiel. 1954. Het Wijsgerig Onderwijs aan de Hogeschool te Franeker 1585-1811. Franeker.Google Scholar
Goclenius, Rudolph. 1596-99. Problemata logica. 5 vols. Marburg.Google Scholar
Gorlaeus, David. 1620. Exercitationesphilosophicae post mortem auctoris editae. Leiden.Google Scholar
Gorlaeus, David. Idea physicae. 1651. Utrecht.Google Scholar
Gysens, Steven. 1992. “Vossius, Gerard.” In Nationaal Biografische Woordenboek 14:734-40. Brussels.Google Scholar
Gysens, Steven. 1994. “Gerardus Vossius, editeur et traducteur de textes patristiques. L'exemple de la Vita et encomium Gregorii Thaumaturgi par Grégoire de Nysse.” In Philohistor: Miscellanea in honorem Caroli Laga septuagenarii, ed. A. Schoors and P. Van Deun, 553-68. Leuven.Google Scholar
Harrison, Archibald Harold Walter. 1926. The Beginnings of Arminianism to the Synod of Dort. London.Google Scholar
Heuermann, G. 1878. Geschichte des reformirten grdflich Bentheimschen Gymnasium lllustre Arnoldinum zu Burgsteinfurt. Burgsteinfurt.Google Scholar
Hunt, Thomas Sterry. 1875. Chemical and Geological Essays. Boston.Google Scholar
Ingegno, Alfonso. 1980. Saggiosullafilosofia di Cardano. Florence.Google Scholar
Javelli, Crisostomo. 1552. Super tres libros Aristotelis de anima quaestiones subtilissimae, in quibus clarissime resolvuntur dubia Aristotelis et commentatoris, eaque utplurimum decisa habentur iuxta Thomisticum dogma. Venice.Google Scholar
Jensma, G.Th. 1985a. “Inleiding.” In Universiteit te Franeker 1585-1811, ed. G. Th. Jensma, F.R.H. Smit, and F. Westra, 11-39. Leeuwarden.Google Scholar
Jensma, G.Th. 1985b. “Uit het huis van Arcerius. Acht ‘artes'-studenten en hun opvattingen over wetenschap en maatschappij, 1589-1639.” In Universiteit te Franeker 1585-1811, ed. G. Th. Jensma, F.R.H. Smit, and F. Westra, 452-69. Leeuwarden.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Thomas S.. 1977. The Essential Tension: Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change. Chicago.Google Scholar
Lasswitz, Kurd. 1890. Geschichte der Atomistik vom Mittelalter bis Newton. 2 vols. Hamburg and Leipzig.Google Scholar
Leijenhorsr, Cees, and Lüthy, Christoph. 2002. “The Erosion of Aristotelianism. Confessional Physics in Early Modern Germany and the Dutch Republic.” In The Dynamics of Aristotelian Natural Philosophy from Antiquity to 1700, ed. Cees Leijenhorst, Christoph Lüthy, and Johannes M.M.H. Thijssen, 375-411. Leiden.Google Scholar
Leinsle, Ulrich Gottfried. 1985. Das Ding und die Methode: Methodische Konstitution und Gegenstand der friihen protestantischen Metaphysik. Augsburg.Google Scholar
Lubbert, Sibrand. 1611. Declaratio responsionis Conradi Vorstii. Franeker.Google Scholar
Lubbert, Sibrand. 1614. Responsio adpietatem Hugonis Grotii. Franeker.Google Scholar
Lüthy, Christoph. 2001a. “David Gorlaeus’ Atomism, or: The Marriage of Protestant Metaphysics with Italian Natural Philosophy.” In Late Medieval and Early Modern Corpuscular Matter Theories, ed. Christoph Lüthy, John E. Murdoch, and William R. Newman, 245-90. Leiden.Google Scholar
Lüthy, Christoph. 2001b. “An Aristotelian Watchdog as Avant-Garde Physicist: Julius Caesar Scaliger.” The Monist 84: 542-61.Google Scholar
Mahnke, Dietrich. 1908. “Rektor Casmann in Stade, ein vergessener Gegner aristotelischer Philosophic und Naturwissenschaft in 16. Jahrhundert.” Archiv fur die Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik 5:183-97, 226-40, 352-63.Google Scholar
Matricula facultatis theologicae, 1597. MS. Universitatsbibliothek Basel, A II 6.Google Scholar
Mercenarius, Archangelus. 1585. Dilucidationes obscuriorum locorum et quaestionum philosophiae naturalis. Leipzig.Google Scholar
Meursius, J. 1625. Athenae Batavae, sive de urbe Leidensi etAcademia, virisque claris qui utramque ingenio suo atque scriptis illustrarunt. Leiden.Google Scholar
Michael, Emily. 1997. “Daniel Sennert on Matter and Form. At the Juncture of the Old and the New.” Early Science and Medicine 2:272-99.Google Scholar
Mirto, Alfonso. 1986. “Un inedito del Seicento sull'Inquisizione.” Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres 7:99–138.Google Scholar
Napius, W.J., and Lindeboom, G.A.. 1985. Hoogleraren in de Geneeskunde aan de Hogeschool en het Athenaeum te Franeker. Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Nerdenus, Henricus Antonii. 1596. Disputatio theologica de usura. [Resp.] Henricus de Veno. Franeker.Google Scholar
Nijenhuis, W. 1985. “De Theologische Faculteit: Inleiding.” In Universiteit te Franeker 1585-1811, ed. G. Th. Jensma, F.R.H. Smit, and F. Westra, 227-35. Leeuwarden.Google Scholar
Otterspeer, W., and J.E., Aerts-van Bueren. 1985. Werkplaatsen van wijsheid, geleerdheid en het ware geloof of De wisselwerking tussen de universiteiten van Leiden en Franeker. Franeker.Google Scholar
Pagano, S.M., ed. 1984.1documenti delprocesso di Galileo Galilei. Vatican City.Google Scholar
Partington, James Riddick. 1939. “The Origins of the Atomic Theory.” Annals of Science 4:245-82.Google Scholar
Piccolomini, Francesco. 1600. De mixtione. In Librorum ad scientiam de natura attinentium partes quinque. 2 vols. Venice. 2:98r-112v.Google Scholar
Postma, Ferenc and Sluis, Janvan. 1995. Auditorium Academiae Franekerensis, Bibliographie der Reden, Disputationen und Gelegenheitsdruckwerke der Universitat und des Athendums in Franeker 1585-1843. Leeuwarden.Google Scholar
Prosperi, Adriano. 1991. “Per la storia dell'Inquisizione romana.” In L'inquisizione romana in Italia nell'eta moderna: Archivi, problemi di metodo e nuove ricerche, ed. Andrea Del Col and G. Paolin, 27–64. Rome.Google Scholar
Reif, Patricia. 1969. “The Textbook Tradit i o n in Natural Philosophy, 1600-1650. “Journal of the History of Ideas 30:17-32.Google Scholar
Rübel, Rudolf. 1953. Das Burgsteinfurter Gymnasium Arnoldinum im Wandelder Zeiten. Burgsteinfurt.Google Scholar
Sassen, F. 1941-42. “Grotius, philosophe aristotilicien.” Grotiana 9:37–52.Google Scholar
Scaliger, Julius Caesar. 1576. Exotericarum exercitationum liber XV de subtilitate, ad Hieronymum Cardanum. 2” ed. Frankfurt.Google Scholar
Schmidt, P. 2000. “L'Inquisizione e gli stranieri.” In L'Inquisizione e gli storici: un cantiere aperto, 365-72. Rome.Google Scholar
Schmidt, P. 2001. “Fernhandel und romische Inquisition. ‘Interkulturelles management’ im konfessionellen Zeitalter.” In Inquisition, Index, Zensur: Wissenskulturen der Neuzeitim Widerstreit, ed. H. Wolf, 105-20. Paderborn.Google Scholar
Simonutti, Luisa. 1984. Arminianesimo e tolleranza nelSeicento olandese: Ilcarteggio Ph. van Limborch —J. le Clerc. Florence.Google Scholar
Spruit, Leen, and Preti, C.. 2003. “I documenti inediti e editi negli archivi romani del Sant'Ufficio e dell'Indice.” In [new edition of] L. Amabile, Fra Tommaso Campanella. La sua congiura, i suoiprocessi e la sua pazzia. 5 vols. Paris-Turin, vol. 1: forthcoming.Google Scholar
Sprunger, K.L. 1985. “William Ames and the Franeker Link to English and American Puritanism.” In Universiteit te Franeker 1585-1811, ed. G. Th. Jensma, F.R.H. Smit, and F. Westra, 264-74. Leeuwarden.Google Scholar
Stellingwerff, Frederik. 1610. De constitutione logicae disputatio scholastica. Franeker.Google Scholar
Sutton, Robert B.. 1953. “The Phrase Libertas philosophandi.” Journal of the History ofIdeas 14:310-16.Google Scholar
Tedeschi, John. 1997. IIgiudice e I'eretico. Studi sull'Inquisizione romana. Milano.Google Scholar
Timpler, Clemens. 1604. Metaphysicae systema methodicum, libris quinque comprehensum. Steinfurt.Google Scholar
Trutius, Antonius. 1593. Theses logicae ex Categoriis; theses physicae de principiis. [Resp.] Henricus de Veno. Leiden.Google Scholar
van Berkel, Klaas. 1985. “Franeke*>als centrum van ramisme.” In Universiteit te Franeker 1585-1811, ed. G. Th. Jensma, F.R.H. Smit, and F. Westra, 424-37. Leeuwarden.als+centrum+van+ramisme.”+In+Universiteit+te+Franeker+1585-1811,+ed.+G.+Th.+Jensma,+F.R.H.+Smit,+and+F.+Westra,+424-37.+Leeuwarden.>Google Scholar
van der Woude, Cornells. 1963. Sibrandus Lubbertus. Leven en werken, in het bijzonder naarzijn correspondentie. Ph.D. thesis, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.Google Scholar
van Limborch, Ph., ed. 1704. Prutstantium ac eruditorum virorum epistoLe ecclesiastic* et theologies. 3rd revised ed. Amsterdam.Google Scholar
van Nienes, A.P., Rinzema, J., Offringa, M., van den Berg, P.A.J. et al. 1985. De archieven van de Universiteit te Franeker 1585-1812. Leeuwarden.Google Scholar
Vorstius, Conrad. 1610. Anti-Bellarminus contractus: hoc est, compendiosum examen omnium fidei controversiarum. Hanau.Google Scholar
Vriemoet, Emon Luius. 1758. Athenarum Frisiacarum libri II. Leeuwarden.Google Scholar
Wackernagel, Hans Georg et al., eds. 1951-80. Die Matrikelder Universitdt Basel. 5 vols. Basel.Google Scholar
Wybinga, Martinus à. 1645. Laudatio funebris habita post exequias in templo academico in honorem ac moemoriam … D. Pierii Winsemii …. Leeuwarden.Google Scholar
Zijlstra, Samme. 1996. Hetgeleerde Friesland — een mythe? Universiteit en maatschappij in Friesland en Stad en Lande a 1380-1650. Leeuwarden.Google Scholar