Justus Lipsius
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"Nor in this do I glance at the composers of centos, who declare themselves for such; of which sort of writers I have in my time known many very ingenious, and particularly one under the name of Capilupus, besides the ancients. These are really men of wit, and that make it appear they are so, both by that and other ways of writing; as for example, Lipsius, in that learned and laborious contexture of his Politics."--Essays |
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Justus Lipsius (Joose Lips or Josse Lips) (18 October 1547 – 23 March 1606) was a Southern-Netherlandish (Flemish) philologist and humanist. Lipsius wrote a series of works designed to revive ancient Stoicism in a form that would be compatible with Christianity. The most famous of these is De Constantia (On Constancy). His form of Stoicism influenced a number of contemporary thinkers, creating the intellectual movement of Neostoicism. He taught at the universities in Jena, Leiden and Leuven.
His ideas about the ideal citizen—a man that acts according to reason, is answerable to himself, is in control of his emotions, and is ready to fight—found wide acceptance in the turbulent times of the Reformation. This Lipsian view, translated to politics, entails rationalisation of the state and its apparatus of government, autocratic rule by the prince, discipline dispensed to subjects, and strong military defence. These principles lie at the foundation of the early modern state.
Works
- Variarum Lectionum Libri Tres (1567)
- De Constantia Libri Duo, Qui alloquium praecipue continent in Publicis malis (Antwerp: Plantijn, 1584)
- On Constancy / De Constantia, edited by John Sellars and translated by John Stradling (1594), (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2006).
- Politicorum sive Civilis Doctrinae Libri Sex (Leiden: Plantijn-Raphelengius, 1589)
- De militia romana (Antwerp: Plantijn-Moretus 1595)
- Admiranda, sive de Magnitudine Romana Libri Quattuor (Antwerp: Plantijn-Moretus, 1598)
- De bibliothecis syntagma (Antwerp: Plantijn-Moretus, 1602)
- Manuductionis ad Stoicam Philosophiam Libri Tres, L. Annaeo Senecae, aliisque scriptoribus illustrandis (Antwerp: Plaintijn-Moretus, 1604)
- Diva Virgo Hallensis. Beneficia eius et miracula fide atque ordine descripta (Antwerp: Plantijn-Moretus, 1604)
- Annaei Senecae Philosophi Opera, Quae Exstant Omnia, A Iusto Lipsio emendata, et Scholiis illustrata (Antwerp: Plantijn-Moretus, 1605)
- Lovanium, sive Opidi et Academiae eius descriptio (Antwerp: Plantijn-Moretus, 1605)
- Monita et exempla politica (Admonitions), published in 1605