Hugo Grotius - by Henk J M Nellen Paperback

About the Book

This biography offers a detailed portrait of the famous humanist scholar Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), jurist, politician, Neo-Latin poet and Christian apologist, on the basis of his voluminous correspondence.

Book Synopsis

Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) is the most famous humanist scholar of the Dutch Golden Age. He wrote influential works on the laws of war and peace, Dutch history and the unification of the churches. His plea for a freedom of the seas in Mare liberum offered the Dutch East India Company a ready justification for the establishment of a trading empire in the East Indies. As far as his daily duties left him any spare time, he penned confidential, learned and beautifully-written letters. This voluminous correspondence offers a trove of information on Grotius' life and works, and forms the basis of his newest biography which sketches a life caught in a fierce struggle for peace in Church and State.

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AWARDS

The Dutch version of this biography, Hugo de Groot, een leven in strijd om de vrede (Amsterdam: 2007) was awarded two literary prizes: the 'Litteraire Witte Prijs' by Sociëteit de Witte (The Hague) in 2008 and the 'Henriëtte de Beaufort Prijs' by the Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde (Leiden) in 2010.

About the Author

Henk Nellen (1949) is staff member of the Huygens Institute (The Hague) and teaches Early Modern History of Ideas at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He has co-edited the last five volumes of Hugo Grotius' correspondence, bringing this almost century-long undertaking to completion in 2001.