Justus Lipsius

Timeline

1. 1568–1574Jena · JenaFrom 1568 to 1570 he served as secretary to Cardinal Granvelle in Rome, collating Latin texts using Vatican and private libraries, and met figures such as Muretus. He published Variarum Lectionum Libri in Antwerp in 1569. Passing through Liège and Vienna during the Low Countries' wars, in October 1572 he became professor of history at the Lutheran University of Jena, completing a Tacitus edition that first clearly distinguished the Annals from the Histories, and left Jena in 1574 to return to the Netherlands.
2. 1578–1591Leiden · LeidenHe spent thirteen years at the Calvinist University of Leiden, which he considered his most productive. In 1584 he published the dialogic De Constantia, recasting the Stoic virtue of constancy into a Christian-acceptable form through the voice of his friend Langius, answering the fear and displacement of the Dutch wars. The 1589 Politica offered rulers a prudence drawn from Tacitus and Roman history, but provoked fierce controversy over religious tolerance and coercion, prompting his departure from Leiden in 1591.
3. 1592–1606Louvain · LouvainAfter reaffirming the Catholic faith, in August 1592 he became professor of history at the University of Louvain and professor of Latin at the Paedagogium Castri (Three Languages College). Appointed royal historiographer in 1595, he wrote antiquarian works on Roman warfare, siege engines, and Roman greatness. In later life he completed his edition of Seneca's philosophical works and two theoretical books, the Manuductio ad Stoicam Philosophiam and Physiologia Stoicorum, advancing Neo-Stoicism from moral exhortation into a teachable system; he died at Louvain in spring 1606.