David Gorlæus (1591-1612)

CHRISTOPH LÜTHY David Gorlæus (1591-1612) An Enigmatic Figure in the History of Philosophy and Science Amsterdam University Press David Gorlæus (1591-1612) David Gorlæus (1591-1612) An Enigmatic Figure in the History of Philosophy and Science Christoph Lüthy Amsterdam University Press The publication of this book is made possible by a grant from the J.E. Jurriaanse Foundation, the Evert Willem Beth Foundation, the Foundation Sormani Fund, the M.A.O.C. Gravin van Bylandt Foundation, the Douwe Kalma Stifting, and the OAPEN Foundation. This book is published in print and online through the online OAPEN library (www.oapen.org). OAPEN (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) is a collaborative initiative to develop and implement a sustainable Open Access publication model for academic books in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The OAPEN Library aims to improve the visibility and usability of high quality academic research by aggregating peer reviewed Open Access publications from across Europe. Cover illustration: Head of a young man. Detail from the tomb of David Gorlaeus in Cornjum (see page 13, fig. 1) (Photograph by Klaas Tijdsma) Cover design: Kok Korpershoek, Amsterdam Lay-out: Heymans & Vanhove, Goes isbn 978 90 8964 438 1 e-isbn 978 90 4851 680 3 (pdf) e-isbn 978 90 4851 681 0 (ePub) nur 680/685 © C. H. Lüthy / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2012 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or trans- mitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. Table of Contents Preface 7 Chapter 1 Introducing Gorlæus 11 1.1. The Tomb 12 1.2. Gorlaeus in the Historiography of Philosophy 14 1.3. Gorlaeus in the Historiography of Science 18 Chapter 2 Gorlæus’ Two Treatises 25 2.1. Method of Presentation 25 2.2. A Description of Gorlaeus’ Two Works 29 2.3. Ontology as “First or Universal Philosophy” 35 2.4. Gorlaeus’ Physical Atomism 43 2.5. A Brief Appraisal 56 Chapter 3 Gorlæus’ Life 61 3.1. Gorlaeus’ Family Background 62 3.2. Gorlaeus’ Youth 69 3.3. Gorlaeus at Franeker University 71 3.4. Henricus de Veno’s Secrets 74 3.5. Henricus de Veno’s Teaching 83 3.6. Gorlaeus’ Debt to De Veno, Cardano and Scaliger 93 3.7. Gorlaeus at Leiden 97 3.8. Jacob Arminius and the Beginning 104 of the Arminian Controversy 3.9. The Vorstius Affair 113 3.10. The Link between Vorstius’ De Deo and Gorlaeus’ Exercitationes 119 3.11. Nicolaus Taurellus’ Influence on Vorstius and Gorlaeus 122 3.12. Gorlaeus’ Contribution to Philosophy 130 5 Chapter 4 Gorlæus’ Place in the History of Seventeenth-Century Thought 133 4.1. International Responses to Gorlaeus: The Parisian Case 134 4.2. Dutch Responses to Gorlaeus and the Rise of Cartesianism 139 4.3. Gorlaeus Forgotten and Rediscovered: A Conclusion 153 Notes 163 Bibliography 195 Index 217 6 Preface I came across the name of David Gorlaeus for the first time while working on my doctoral dissertation on seventeenth-century matter theory in the early 1990s. The dazzling diversity of the authors who pleaded for the existence of atoms in the period 1590-1630 puzzled me greatly as I could find neither a coherent pat- tern nor an overarching concern in the various antiquarian, historical, theological, metaphysical, physical, alchemical and microscopic reasons that they offered. In a number of publications I have since examined a range of particularly puzzling figures or types of argumentation in favor of the existence of atoms. When life’s circumstances took me to the Netherlands, where I have settled, I could not avoid turning my attention to David Gorlaeus, who seemed to me a particularly elusive figure. After all, very little was known about his life, and his ideas were particularly hard to place as they mixed metaphysics and natural philosophy in a markedly unusual way and in unexpected moments added observations taken from the fields of astronomy, optics and chemistry. When I read that the author had passed away at age 21, and that he was moreover starting out as a theology student and was not a person engaged in empirical research, my initial curiosity increased even further, turning into a detective’s quest for the reconstruction of the circumstances that led to an inexplicable fact. The more I searched, the more I became convinced that Gorlaeus was an unusually talented thinker of extraordinary originality and maturity, notably when one considered the young age at which he wrote his works. In fact, I remain persuaded that his philosophical synthesis renders him one of the early seventeenth century’s most brilliant Dutch intellects. Had he been granted more years to live and the chance to develop his thoughts further, so I now imag- ine, he might well have become as radical and famous a thinker as Spinoza. Al- though such counterfactual musings do not belong to the historian’s task, they do in this particular case explain one of the main emotional reasons for investigating the short life of this talented thinker. Some of my findings concerning Gorlaeus have been published before, but in places that are not easily accessible. When it was decided to organize an academic celebration on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Gorlaeus’ death, to be held in Cornjum on 27 April 2012, it was pointed out to me that in the absence of any preface 7 monographic study of this thinker, it would be difficult to persuade the larger public of the status that I wished to claim for my young thinker. This justified observation has led me to write down everything I have so far managed to uncover about the life, circumstances and thoughts of David Gorlaeus. I realize of course that much remains to be found, in manuscript and published sources, about his family, personal circumstances and impact on the evolution of seventeenth-century philosophy and science. For this reason, the present book cannot offer more than a provisional account and is written in the hope that the story told here will inspire other historians of philosophy, science and theology to take over where I have left off. It gives me great pleasure to thank a number of persons who have helped me in this enterprise. The long section on Gorlaeus’ teacher Henricus de Veno has benefitted enormously from the contribution of Leen Spruit, who found De Veno’s inquisitorial acts in the Vatican. Arjen Dijkstra has joined me in the hunt for Gor- laeus’ Frisian circumstances; a profound expert on early modern Friesland, he has uncovered a number of important facts, texts, and connections that I am pleased to acknowledge in the relevant passages. Gerben Wierda, a formidable archival hunter, has contributed considerably to my attempts to reconstruct Gorlaeus’ family circumstances. Once again, whatever I owe to him is gratefully acknowledged in the footnotes. My research on Gorlaeus has also benefitted from the expert ad- vice of Sander de Boer, Theo Bögels, Erik-Jan Bos, Jos van den Broek, Robin Bun- ing, Davide Cellamare, Paul Dijstelberge, Martin Engels, Paul Hoftijzer, Ulrich G. Leinsle, Ferenc Postma, Jarich Renema, Jacob van Sluis, Jaap van der Veen and Huib Zuidervaart, all of whom I would like to thank most emphatically. I am particularly grateful to four extremely knowledgeable experts in the history of Dutch philosophy and science, who have carefully examined the final draft of this book: Klaas van Berkel, Theo Verbeek, Han van Ruler and Chungling Kwa have contributed to a substantial improvement of my account. Amsterdam University Press, and notably Anniek Meinders and Maaike Groot, deserve to be praised here for the competent way in which they accompanied me in the pro- duction of this book. I should furthermore like to thank Thomas Swann for his excellent editorial work. I am also grateful to Brill Academic Publishers and the Renaissance Quarterly for allowing me to reproduce passages from earlier publications on Gorlaeus and De Veno. Finally, I must thank the two organizations that have sponsored my research. Ten years ago, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) provided me with a luxurious fellowship that allowed me to carry out my initial investigations into Gorlaeus. Thereafter, I was able to conduct most of my research within a programme sponsored by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific 8 david gorlæus (1591-1612) Research (NWO). In these times of shrinking research budgets, such generous donors deserve to be mentioned with particular gratitude. I dedicate this book to Carla Rita Palmerino, with whom I enthusiastically share a home, a university office and thus my entire life, and to our two boys, Tommaso and Filippo, who are growing up far too quickly. preface 9 Chapter 1 Introducing Gorlæus Human history presents itself in stories about the past. Wherever these stories are not records of first-hand experience, they are based on the examination of archival materials, old books, archeological digs, paintings or material objects. History books present smaller or larger segments of this past in an organized narrative and inevitably from a certain perspective. Taken together, these books provide some- thing like a large map of everything of which we know or believe, on the basis of a rational reconstruction, that it has been the case or has happened.

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