Daniel Heinsius - His Later Years

His Later Years

In 1617 he married Ermgard Rutgers, sister of Janus Rutgersius (alias of Mr. Johan Rutgers 1589-1625) one of Scaliger's favorite pupils. They had two children: Nicolas (1620), who was to become a famous Latin poet and book collector, and Elizabeth (1623). At the Synod of Dort (1618-1619) Heinsius was secretary on behalf of the States-General. Afterwards he paid more attention to theology and worked on the text of the Greek New Testament for Elzeviers edition (1624, 1633). In these years he also wrote a large didactic poem, De contemptu mortis (‘On the contempt of death’, 1621), which has a Christian-Stoical content. His wife died in 1633, and Heinsius got into a conflict with Claudius Salmasius, who was appointed as his colleague in 1631. He became more and more lonely and embittered. He stopped lecturing in 1647. He died in The Hague, aged 74, and was buried in Leiden.

He collected some Greek manuscripts, e.g. codex 155.