Petrus Scriverius

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Petrus Scriverius, the latinized form of Peter Schrijver or Schryver (12 January 1576 - 30 April 1660) was a Dutch writer and scholar.

He was born at Amsterdam, and educated at the University of Leiden, where he formed a close intimacy with Daniel Heinsius. He belonged to the party of Oldenbarneveldt and Grotius, and brought down the displeasure of the government by a copy of Latin verses in honor of their friend Hoogerbeets. Most of his life was passed in Leiden, but in 1650 he became blind, and the last years of his life were spent in his sons house at Oudewater, where he died in 1660.

He is best known as a scholar by his notes on Martial, Ausonius, the Pervigilium Veneris; editions of the poems of Joseph Justus Scaliger (Leiden, 1615), of the De re militari of Vegetius Renatus, the tragedies of Seneca (P. Scriverii collectanea veterum tragicorum, 1621), &c. His Opera anecdota, philologica, et poetica (Utrecht, 1738) were edited by A. H. Westerhovius, and his Nederduitsche Gedichten (1738) by S. Dockes.

He made many valuable contributions to the history of Holland: Batavia Illustrata (4 parts, Leiden, 1609); Corte historische Beschryvinghe der Nederlandscher Oorlogen (1612); Inferioris Germaniae . . . historia (1611, 4 parts); Beschryvinghe van Out Batavien (Arnheim, 1612); Het oude Goutsche chronycxken van Hollandt, edited by him, and printed at Amsterdam in 1663; Principes Hollandiae Zelandiae et Frisiae (Haarlem, 1650), translated (1678) into Dutch by Pieter Brugman.

See Peerlkamp, Vitae Belgarum qui latina carmina scripserunt (Brussels, 1822), and J. H. Hoeufft, Parnassus latino-belgicus (Amsterdam, 1819).

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• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.