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

Chapter 3. Biography
the trivium that consisted of grammar (grammatica
( ), rhetoric (rethorica) and
dialectics (dialectica), and the quadrivium that consisted of mathematics (arithmetica),
), geometry (geometrica ( ), astronomy (astronomia) and music (musica). In
the course of time many shifts took place as the free arts, which had never
been regarded as well-defined academic disciplines, were constantly adapted
to new discoveries and changing circumstances. In the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries humanist scholars turned their focus to eloquence and ethics (ethica),
the latter being one of the four parts of philosophy, which on its turn was
often grouped under dialectics. 56 The humanists’ endeavour to return to the
sources (ad fontes) in order to retrieve the wisdom of the ancients, the Church
fathers and, above all, the Bible from the dark recesses of the past, and their
interest ‘in the vita activa, in knowledge for the use of the civil community’,
made besides Latin and ethics also Greek (Graeca), Hebrew (Hebraeica), history
(historia), and politics (politica) important subjects of study. 57
Within the faculty of arts at Leiden University three more or less defined
areas of study can be discerned: philology, philosophy, and mathematics. 58 It
was especially in the field of philology that Leiden University excelled. Giants
like Justus Lipsius, Joseph Justus Scaliger, and Claude Salmasius (1588-1653)
– the later two were invited to illuminate the University merely with their
presence and illustrious name – but also lesser gods like Heinsius, Vossius,
Thomas Erpenius (1584-1624), and Jacob Golius (1596-1667) pushed to new
levels the studies in the classical languages Latin and Greek, in the oriental
languages Hebrew and Arabic, and in the ‘antiquities’ (antiquitates) and
history. In the field of philosophy Burgersdijk became highly influential. For
mathematics the merits of father Rudolf (1546-1613) and son Willebrord (1580-
1626) Snellius and Golius should be mentioned.
Politics had no fixed place within the curriculum. Officially, politics
belonged to the field of ethics. It was also, however, introduced through the
philological study of Latin and Greek, based on the reading and recitation of
classical authors such as Cicero, Caesar (100-44 BC), Livy, and Tacitus. The
ostensible goal of such study was the obtaining of eloquence (eloquentia) and
practical wisdom (prudentia), particular in the field of ethics. But the topics
treated by the classical authors, the purposes of eloquence, and the nature
56 The other three parts of philosophy were logic (logica), ), physics (fysica ( ), and metaphysics
(metafysica). Wansink, Politieke wetenschappen aan de Leidse universiteit, pp. 42-45.
57 De Ridder-Symoens (ed.), Universities in Early Modern Europe, passim. Quotation taken from
Walter Rüegg, “Themes”, in ibidem, p. 30.
58 Wansink, Politieke wetenschappen aan de Leidse universiteit, pp. 51-53.
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