Theodore Haak

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Theodore Haak (Neuhausen 1605 – London 1690) was a German Calvinist scholar. He came to England aged about 20[1]. He worked as a translator, from 1645, on the Dutch Annotations Upon the Whole Bible (1657)[2].

He studied in Oxford, Cambridge and Leiden. He was in Cologne in 1626 [3]. Apart from a short time in Leiden, and in the Palatinate, he was resident in England, but kept up an international correspondence, including with Mersenne. He acted as secretary to Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine, who was in England 1644-9; he turned down the offer of a post in Germany with Charles Louis after the 1648 Peace of Westphalia.[4] He was still an agent for the Palatinate. In 1643-4 he was a diplomat in Denmark for the Parliamentary regime.

He became an Original Fellow of the Royal Society in 1661. He had previously participated in the 'Invisible College' (active from 1645). [5] He is sometimes credited with the idea of the Society; this is apparently based on a casual remark of John Wallis at the end of the century[6][7][8]. Jardine points out[9] the geography: Haak was in London, held by the Parliamentarians during the war, because the court of the Palatinate was there, while others contributing to the eventual foundation of the Royal Society were in royalist Oxford. Haak taught at the Puritan Gresham College.

He also translated part of Paradise Lost into German[10], though his work was not published as such. He tried it on Henrich Ludolff Benthem[11].

[edit] References

  • Dorothy Stimson, Hartlib, Haak and Oldenburg: Intelligencers, Isis, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Apr., 1940), pp. 309-326

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Concise Dictionary of National Biography
  2. ^ Biblical Criticism Catalogue Number 72
  3. ^ J. T. Young (1998), Faith, Alchemy and Natural Philosophy: Johann Moriaen, Reformed Intelligencer, and the Hartlib Circle, p.12.
  4. ^ Lisa Jardine, On a Grander Scale (2002), p. 66.
  5. ^ Pamela Barnett, Theodore Haak and the early years of the Royal Society, Annals of Science, Volume 13, Number 4, December 1957, pp. 205-218(14)
  6. ^ http://www.compilerpress.atfreeweb.com/Anno%20Johnson%20Gresham.htm
  7. ^ PDF, p. 2.
  8. ^ Royal Society of London (Nuttall Encyclopædia)
  9. ^ On a Grander Scale, p. 111.
  10. ^ Pamela R. Barnett, Theodore Haak (1605-1690): The First German Translator of Paradise Lost
  11. ^ Christopher Hill, Milton and the English Revolution (1977), p. 391.

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