historical and political thought in the seventeenth - RePub - Erasmus ...

Chapter 7
The mistress of life
In the previous chapter we have seen that his work on the interrelationships
between the different European and some non-European languages has
earned Boxhorn a premier place among the discoverers of the Indo-European
language. However, Boxhorn was first and foremost a historian. 1 Yet this side
of Boxhorn has often been neglected. 2 His historical thought has never been
closely examined, to the detriment of the understanding of both his historical
and political thought. For, as will become clear in this chapter and in chapters
8 and 9, Boxhorn’s historical and political thought are closely related, both
with regard to content and their epistemological principles. So much so, that
it is justifiable to say that without a clear understanding of Boxhorn’s histori-
1 In the large and highly heterogenous corpus of Boxhorn’s works, works of a historical character
are prominently present. Boxhorn published and annotated the works of several classical historians
such as Caesar’s Gallic War and Civil Wars, C. Julii Caesaris quae extant (Bonaventura Elzevier; Leiden,
1635), Tacitus’s Annals, Histories, Germania and Agricola, C. Corn. Tacitus et in eum M.Z. Boxhornii
observationes (Johannes Janssonius; Amsterdam, 1643), and Justin’s Historiarum Philippicarum libri XLIV
(Johannes Janssonius; Amsterdam, 1644). He wrote or edited at least four historical-topographical
works. Respublica Moscoviae et urbes (Johannes Maire; Leiden, 1630); De Leodiensi republica (Isaac Commelinus;
Leiden, 1632); Theatrum sive Hollandiae comitatus et urbium nova descriptio (Hendricus Hondius;
Amsterdam, 1632); Respublica et status Imperii Romano-Germanici (Bonaventura Elzevier; Leiden, 1634).
He also wrote various, more narrative historical works such as his description of the capture of Breda
in 1637, the Historia obsidionis Bredae, his Nederlantsche historie (1649), and his world history, the Historia
universalis (1652), that covered the history of the world from the birth of Christ to the execution of king
Charles I of England.
2 The one exception being Herman Kampinga, who, in his Ph.D. thesis of 1917, attributed Boxhorn
an important place among the Dutch historians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Kampinga,
De opvattingen over onze oudere vaderlandsche geschiedenis, passim. Boxhorn is also given his due place in
the ‘Repertoire of Dutch historians’. E.O.G. Haitsma Mulier, G.A.C. van der Lem and P. Knevel, Repertorium
van geschiedschrijvers in Nederland, 1500-1800 (Nederlands Historisch Genootschap; The Hague,
1990), pp. 65-67. Otherwise, the attention has been limited to only a few remarks in some works and articles.
Meijer Drees, Andere landen, andere mensen, pp. 65-67; E.O.G. Haitsma Mulier, “Het begrip ‘vaderland’
in de Nederlandse geschiedschrijving van de late zestiende tot de eerste helft van de achttiende
eeuw”, in N.C.F. van Sas (ed.), Vaderland: een geschiedenis vanaf de vijftiende eeuw tot 1940 (Amsterdam
University Press; Amsterdam, 1999), pp. 171-72; Langereis, Geschiedenis als ambacht, passim; Raingard
Esser, “‘Concordia Res Parvae Crescunt’: Regional Histories and the Dutch Republic in the Seventeenth
Century”, in Pollmann and Spicer (eds.), Public Opinion and Changing Identities in the Early Modern Netherlands,
pp. 229-48, esp. pp. 239-45. Boxhorn is also mentioned in passing by Johan van der Zande for
his contribution to world history. Johan van der Zande, “De universele geschiedenis: een onbehaaglijke
omgang met de wereld”, in Tollebeek, Verschaffel and Wessels (eds.), De palimpsest, Vol. 1, p. 107. On
the same topic, Meijer, Kritiek als herwaardering, pp. 180-81, and Peter Burke, “America and the Rewriting
of World History”, in Karen Ordahl Kupperman (ed.), America in European Consciousness, 1493-1750
(University of North Carolina Press; Chapel Hill/London; 1995), p. 37. There is also a short article on
the town descriptions in Boxhorn’s Theatrum by W.E. Penning, “Balthasar Florisz. van Berckenrode en
de plattegrondjes in het Theatrum van Boxhorn”, in Caert-Thresoor: Journal for the History of Cartography
in the Netherlands, No. 4 (1997), pp. 85-87.