58

Anonymous
Joannes Drusius (1550-1616). Dated 1606. Canvas, 66.5 × 55 cm.

Franeker, Museum 't Coopmanshûs, inv.nr. Sch. 16. From the Senate Chamber of Franeker University.

Drusius's father was a Flemish Protestant, his mother a Catholic. When the family was torn apart in the religious troubles, he chose his father's creed, and fled to England, where he studied Oriental languages so brilliantly that he was offered professorships by Oxford and Cambridge at the age of 22. In 1577 he accepted a chair in Oriental languages in the new university of Leiden, but was paid so poorly that he left for Franeker in 1585, where he earned five hundred guilders a year. There he remained for the rest of a highly productive life, despite the antagonism of his dogmatic Calvinist colleagues, who suspected him of being a Remonstrant. The unrelenting antagonism of Lubbertus is said to have led to his sudden death. His collected works were published in ten volumes in 1622-1636.

NNBW, vol. 1, cols.753-757. Ekkart 1977, nr. 17.