Henk Nellen, born in Horst, the Netherlands, in 1949. Ph.D. from the Radboud University Nijmegen. Senior Research Fellow at the Constantijn Huygens Institute, The Hague.
Fellow (1 September 2004 – 30 June 2005)
BIOGRAPHY OF HUGO GROTIUS (1583-1645)
During my stay at NIAS, I contributed to the Theme Group “De iure praedae and the Grotian concept of rights”. Together with Jan Waszink, I was responsible for establishing the text of the first two chapters of De iure praedae, on the basis of the original manuscript, preserved at the University Library in Leiden. Additionally, I did research on the sources of this treatise.
However, I concentrated mainly on writing my biography on the humanist and jurisconsult Hugo Grotius (1583-1645). This book will be published in Dutch. It is intended for a general reading public with an interest in the history of the Dutch Golden Age. By June 2005, a provisional version of thirteen chapters had been completed. These chapters describe Grotius’ life and scholarly activities based mainly on evidence from his correspondence, which comprises more than 7000 letters. I focussed on his public career in his Dutch period (until 1621), the period of exile in France and Germany, and his scholarly activities during the last phase of his life, when he devoted much of his time to his exegetical works, the Annotations on the New Testament in particular (Amsterdam-Paris 1641-1650). I hope to complete the biography around March 2006.