This volume deals with the study of Old Germanic languages in the Low Countries, in the seventeenth century. The work of the philologist and lawyer Jan van Vliet (1622-1666) has been taken as a starting point for a discussion of the intellectual background and philological methodology of seventeenth-century investigations into the earliest recorded forms of the Germanic languages. Van Vliet's activities provide an extraordinary example of the earliest attempts to approach Old Germanic languages from a comparative point of view. The cosmopolitan tradition of philological studies in the Dutch Republic as well as van Vliet's great admiration of Francis Junius (1590-1677), the founding-father of Germanic philology, formed the basis for his ideas about vernacular languages. His work allows us a unique insight in the pioneering seventeenth-century studies in Germanic philology.
Author(s): Kees Dekker
Series: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 92
Publisher: Brill
Year: 1999
Language: English
Pages: 494
City: Leiden
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
INTRODUCTION
1. The state of the art
2. Methodological considerations
3. Contents of the chapters
CHAPTER ONE. THE STUDY OF OLD GERMANIC LANGUAGES: THE BEGINNINGS
1. Humanism and method
2. Manuscripts
3. Feelings of national identity
4. The Reformation
5. The art of printing
6. The Leiden philological tradition
7. The study of language
7.1. Classical philology
7.2. Comparative language studies
7.3. Literacy and eloquence
8. Concluding remarks
CHAPTER TWO. JAN VAN VLIET (1622-1666): VICISSITUDES OF A PHILOLOGIST
1. Youth and parentage (1622-1637)
2. University and grand tour (1637-1643)
3. Marriage and early career (1643-1647)
4. Gathering storms and migration (1647-1650)
5. England, sorrow and recovery (1651-1654)
6. Historian and philologist (1654-1659)
7. Breda and royalism
8. Germanic philology and Francis Junius (1659-1665)
9. Bankruptcy and death (1665-1666)
10. Concluding remarks
CHAPTER THREE. VAN VLIET'S PHILOLOGICAL KITCHEN: THE PRIMARY MATERIAL
1. Manuscripts and incunables
2. Printed books
3. Excerpts
4. Glossaries
5. Miscellaneous studies
6. Published works
7. Final remarks
CHAPTER FOUR. HACTENUS MIHI FERE INAUDITA: SOURCES AND REFERENCES
1. Old English
2. Old High German
3. Gothic
4. Frisian
5. Dutch
6. Scandinavian
7. Special groups
8. Concluding remarks
CHAPTER FIVE. CONTEMPORARY SCHOLARS AND INFLUENCES
1. The native language
2. History and law
3. Vredius, Boxhorn, and De Laet
4. Vossius, Grotius, and Salmasius
5. Casaubon and Ménage
6. Ole Worm
7. Concluding remarks
CHAPTER SIX. VAN VLIET'S GERMANIC STUDIES
1. Scope
1.1. Languages and names
1.2. Gothic
1.3. 'Runic'
1.4. Ancient German
1.5. Anglo-Saxon
1.6. Frisian
1.7. Dutch
1.8. Comparison with Junius
2. Motivation
2.1. Attitude to the Germanic languages
2.2. 'Cognatio verborum', or 'origo' versus 'etymologia'
2.3. Universal language
2.4. Empiricism
3. Methods
3.1. Treatment of Junius's material
3.2. Sound and meaning
3.3. Onomastics, toponymy, and history
3.4. Emendatio
3.5. Concluding remarks
CHAPTER SEVEN- AFTER VAN VLIET
1. England
2. Lambert ten Kate
3. ''t Vader ons'
4. Frisian proverbs
5. Concluding remarks
CHAPTER EIGHT. RETROSPECT
1. Humanism
2. Words
3. The vernacular
4. From the Batavian myth to the Gothic myth
5. Knowledge, views, and theories
APPENDIX ONE. INVENTORY OF VAN VLIET'S CORRESPONDENCE
1.Letters by Jan van Vliet
2.Letters to Jan van Vliet
APPENDIX TWO. VAN VLIET'S DEDICATION TO MAGNUS GABRIEL DE LA GARDIE
APPENDIX THREE. INVENTORY OF WORKS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
