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

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Chapter 2. Intellectual context
in the present. Besides these more theoretical aspects of Boxhorn’s historical
thought, I will also look at how Boxhorn wrote about the past by discussing
some of his historical works. By taking into account both theory and practice,
it is possible to get a more complete picture of Boxhorn’s historical thought,
than if we would focus on only one of them.
To place Boxhorn’s historical thought and his historical works into perspective
it is necessary to provide some general information about how people
in early modern Europe thought about the past, how they thought about the
study of the past, and how they wrote about the past. Since these matters
differed from time and place, we have to look at some of the general developments
that occurred in European historical thought and historiography during
the early modern period. Within this overview, special attention will be
paid to the Dutch Republic and Dutch scholars, since the Dutch context constitutes
the most immediate context with which we can compare Boxhorn’s
historical thought.
One of the hallmarks of Renaissance humanism was the idea that history is
‘the teacher of our lives’ (historia magistra vitae). This idea, borrowed from the
Roman orator and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC), implied that
the past, or at least certain matters from the past, had an educational value for
present generations. 3 It also turned the historian, the one who investigated
the past and transmitted it to others, into a teacher. But what could be learned
from the past? What did history teach in the eyes of those living in the early
modern period? For a man like Gerard Vossius (1577-1649), professor at Leiden
University and later at the Athenaeum Illustre in Amsterdam, history
revealed God’s providence. 4 It also showed ‘the true feeling about God’ and
‘what we should believe about Christ and his church’. 5 In addition to this,
3 Cicero, De oratore libri tres. With Introduction and Notes by Augustus S. Wilkins (Hakkert;
Amsterdam, 1 st ed. 1892, 1962), II.9.36, p. 245. ‘Historia vero testis temporum, lux veritatis, vita memoriae,
magistra vitae, nuntia vetustatis …’ For the English translation, I have followed Cicero, On the Ideal
Orator (De Oratore). Translated, with Introduction, Notes, Appendixes, Glossary and Indexes by James
M. May and Jacob Wisse (Oxford University Press; Oxford, 2001), p. 133.
4 See the introduction of Cor Rademaker in Gerard Vossius, Geschiedenis als wetenschap. Uitgegeven,
ingeleid en van aantekeningen voorzien door Cor Rademaker. Geschiedenis van de wijsbegeerte, Vol.
9 (Ambo; Baarn, 1990), pp. 31-35.
5 Vossius, Geschiedenis als wetenschap, pp. 65-66, 68. ‘Maar deze twee zaken, de norm voor geloof
en leven en wat er in de kerk gebeurt of gebeuren moet, dat meende Hijzelf op schrift te moeten stellen.
En beide dingen hebben niet alleen dezelfde Auteur, maar ze komen ook hierin overeen, dat ons geloof
en onze godsvrucht alleen hierdoor worden opgevoed en volwassen worden. Ten eerste immers als niet
de ware mening over God uit de geschiedenis geput werd, zou God zelf niet door Mozes het begin van
de wereld en de geschiedenis van zoveel eeuwen uiteen hebben willen zetten, maar met voorbijgaan
hiervan het voldoende gevonden hebben het volk van Israël de Wet voor te houden … Wat wij moeten
geloven over Christus en zijn kerk, dat openbaart ons de geschiedenis. Want wat had het voor zin dat
de geschiedenis van het leven en de dood van onze Zaligmaker werd vastgelegd door evangelisten en