Lipsius, Justus (1547–1606)

Netherlands scholar and teacher. One of the leading Latin scholars of his age, Lipsius is noted for important editions of the classical authors Tacitus and Seneca. These works popularized a terse prose style that can be seen, for example, in the works of Francis Bacon. His own writings developed a neo-Stoicism combining Christianity with ancient Stoic philosophy.

He was educated at the Catholic university of Louvain, he then went to Italy as secretary to Cardinal Granvelle. Returning via Vienna he then taught at the Lutheran university of Jena, where he became a Lutheran. He married a Catholic and returned to lecture at Louvain. In 1579 he accepted an invitation to the Calvinist university of Leyden where he was professor of Roman history for 12 years. He then reverted to Catholicism and spent the last 14 years of his life teaching at Louvain, where he died.

His major editions of Tacitus (1574) (second edition 1600) and Seneca (1605) combine critical insight with wide knowledge of Roman social and political history. He published his much admired and translated book on Stoicism, De Constantia, in 1584.