Of the many fine scholars who made and have maintained the high reputation of the Dutch Republic in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Franciscus Junius the Younger (1591-1677) is one who has not yet been given the attention he deserves. Born and brought up among the élite Calvinist scholars of Leiden University, he began his career as a theologian. As a consequence of the religious quarrels between the Arminians and Gomarists, he resigned from his office, and went to England where in 1620 he was attached as a tutor and librarian to the household of the Earl of Arundel, an assiduous art-collector. His work as Arundel's librarian resulted in the publication in 1637 of De pictura veterum, a penetrating analysis of the Classical arts. This book laid the foundation of modern art-history. Later in his life Junius devoted most of his time and energy to the study of the Old Germanic languages, culminating in 1665 in the publication of the first edition of the Gothic Bible, together with a Gothic dictionary.
The present volume contains contributions on many aspects of Junius's life, his work as an art-historian, as a Neo-Latin author, his studies of Philip Sydney and Edmund Spencer, and of his Germanic philology. A check-list of his correspondence completes the volume. Contributors include C.S.M. Rademaker, Philipp Fehl, Colette Nativel, Judith Dundas, Chris H. Heesakkers, Ph.H. Breuker, Peter J. Lucas, E.G. Stanley and Rolf H. Bremmer Jr., and Sophie van Romburgh.