![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
In the early modern times, correspondence doubtlessly formed an indispensable tool of intercultural communication, exchange, and influence. To determine exactly how far this correspondence did not serve merely as a projection screen reflecting otherwise separated worlds, but effected true entanglement among the letter-writers and their cultural spheres, requires a detailed analysis of the interconnectedness of the ideas and intents transmitted by them. This article undertakes this task through the correspondence between the Livonian humanist and diplomat David Hilchen (1561–1610) and the humanists Justus Lipsius, Johannes Wowerius, Josephus Justus Scaliger, and Janus Dousa in the Low Countries.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 For the concept of the Republic of Letters, see, for example, Waquet (Citation2017, 66–80).
2 For an overview of the early modern letter-writing manuals, see Mack (Citation2011, 228–56); the letter collections and letter-writing manuals from sixteenth century Italy, France, Germany, and the Netherlands are collected in the catalog by Erdmann, Govi, and Govi (Citation2014).
3 The newest methodological approach to early modern correspondences from the perspective of networking is the research project ‘Reassembling the Republic of Letters. A digital framework for multi-lateral collaboration on Europe’s intellectual history (1500–1800)’ (COST Action IS1310), led by Howard Hotson (Oxford University). See the concluding volume of the project, Hotson and Wallnig (Citation2019).
4 ‘David Hilchen Epistolarum libri VI,’ Latvijas Nacionālais arhīvs, Latvijas Valsts vēstures arhīvs (hereafter – LNA LVVA), 4038. f., 2. apr., 297-1.
5 The first and second book of his letter collection were epistulae officiales, the third and fourth were epistulae alienarum nomine scriptae (letters sent in the name of other persons).
6 As Hilchen was in the service of many patrons from 1600 onwards (Jürgen/Georg von Fahrensbach 1600–2, Jan Zamoyski 1602–5, and Mikołaj Zebrzydowsky 1605–10), he wrote altogether more than 100 letters in Latin in the name of (and on behalf of) others within his patronage circles who were themselves not able to write in Latin.
7 Hilchen’s written legacy is typical of that of a civic humanist: he compiled numerous orations about politics and educational politics, of which more than twenty have survived; he compiled a short historical monograph about the unrest surrounding calendar reform in Riga; he wrote occasional poetry; and he is credited with composing the first satire in Livonia. See, Viiding (Citation2019).
8 We used the edition with both letters by Lipsius (Citation1639), 1) Centuria ad Germanos et Gallos Ep. XLIV, 2) in Centuria V. Ep. LVIIII. The first letter by Lipsius to Hilchen was first published already 1602 in Centuria ad Germanos et Gallos. A modern edition of the first letter has been provided by Deneire (Citation2009, 715–18).
9 The complete modern approach to Jacobus Battus is a desideratum. The main source of information about him is still Becker (Citation1548).
10 Buchholtz assumed erroneously, however, that Mollyn came from northern Germany.
11 See the confirmation given by the city of Riga to Hilchen 1598: ‘In addition … he founded the city library and initiated for this reason the first printing shop in the city, spending a lot of money for it’. See: Busch (Citation1937, 9).
12 The widespread approach in Polish scientific literature that the central person among Polish correspondents of Lipsius was Simon Simonides (e.g. Borowski Citation2007, 119) must be corrected on the basis of letters between Hilchen and Lipsius. Hilchen corresponded with Lipsius already in 1599, recommended to Lipsius many Polish intellectuals (e.g. Jan Dymitr Solikowski, Jan Zamoyski, etc.), and prepared letters to Lipsius even in the names of the Polish nobility. Simonides and Lipsius began their correspondence only 1604.
13 About cases of material aura of letter’s in Lipsius’ correspondence see Deneire (Citation2016, 121). The physically warming function of the letter is not only hyperbolic but represents, in its contrast with the cold place of sending (frigida illa axe), a paradox.
14 This large number can refer to the whole family, as Hilchen went into exile with his wife and all of his children (altogether he had nine children, six were born in Riga, three in exile between 1604 and 1607).
15 For Lipsius’ style, see the comprehensive articles by Deneire (Citation2012; Citation2020). According to Borowski (Citation2007, 114), Lipsius’ style was, however, a great model for the Polish humanists.
16 Letter from Hilchen to Lipsius, 20 July 1601.
17 Letter from Hilchen to Lipsius, 7 March 1606.
18 Letter from Lipsius to Hilchen, 9 November 1604.
19 Letter from Hilchen to Lipsius, 20 July 1601.
20 Letter from Lipsius to Hilchen, 9 November 1604. In 1604, Lipsius edited two books about Stoic Lipsius (Citation1604a), (Lipsius Citation1604b).
21 Letter from Hilchen to Lipsius, 8 August 1605.
22 See, regarding the position of Stoicism among the other philosophical schools in the early modern period, for example, Kraye (Citation2014, 617–29, especially 625–7), and specifically about Lipsius’s stoicism, Papy (Citation2002, 47–71; 2016, 203–21).
23 Letter from Hilchen to Lipsius, 20 July 1601.
24 LNA LVVA, 4038. f., 2. apr. 297-1. l., fols. 299–300 (liber 6, 76); fols. 300–300 v (liber 6, 77).
25 In the contemporary medical literature, an elk’s hoof was believed to prevent seizures from epilepsy and some wore a piece of it around their neck. Hilchen refers to this in his letter with a short sentence ‘praesentissimum apoplexiae antidoton’.
26 See, for example, Terence’s Phormio 83–4: ‘Tuis dignum factis feceris/ut amici inter nos simus.’
27 Other devices used by Hilchen in Lipsius’ style represent Hilchen’s awareness about Lipsian inconcinnitas, brevitas and argutiae: 1) usage of the interrupted non … solum, sed … etiam construction (non libenter solum sed avide id praestarem, 11 April 1608); 2) ellipsis (Icones aureos Lipsio destinatos, non esse tibi destinatos redditos, iniquo animo tuli, 26 February 1607; pro … non esse tibi destinatos, sed redditos …); 3) significant allowance of parentheses in the letter of 26 February 1607 three times (never present in Hilchen’s earlier letters to Lipsius); 4) unusual wordplays (Accipe nunc pro centuria litterarum centuriam florenorum, 11 April 1608).
28 ‘Lipsii nostri imaginem affabre sculptum accepi una cum elogio.’
29 Regarding the poem, see Enenkel (Citation1997, 43–4).
30 Neither in Sweertius (Citation1610), nor in Moretus (Citation1613).
31 This letter Hilchen wrote in the name of treasurer of Tomasz Zamoyski and Jan Firley (12 April 1608), but the situation is explained differently: ‘Aureas imagines Regis Stephani et Joannis Samoscii Justo Lipsio dono missas, quod apud te retinueris et precio ab haeredibus Lipsii redemeris, eleganter a te factum existimo: ut tuas non redemptas habeas: ex arca Thomae Samoscii heri mei remunero tibi precium.’
32 Letter of Hilchen to Wowerius, 11 April 1608.
33 ‘Nos qui in vita superstites sumus, amicitiam caeptam continuemus.’
34 Letter of Hilchen to Scaliger, 20 August 1604. The only extant copy of the letter seems to be the apograph in the Latvian Historical State Archives (LNA LVVA, 4038. f., 2. apr., 297-1., fols. 301–301 v [liber 6, 79]). This letter is not edited in Botley and van Miert (Citation2012). The only preserved copy of the letter to Dousa is the apograph in LNA LVVA, 4038. f., 2. apr., 297-1., fols. 300 v–301 (liber 6, 78).
35 Letter of Hilchen to Scaliger, 20 August 1604.
36 Between 1570 and 1573, Scaliger studied jurisprudence in Valence under Jacques Cujas, one of the greatest living jurists.
37 LNA LVVA, 4038. f., 2. apr., 297. l., fols. 279–280 (liber 6, 36).
38 Letter of Hilchen to Dousa, 20 August 1604.
39 According to Borowski (Citation2007, 173), Janus Dousa and Jan Zamoyski corresponded with each other. Hilchen’s remark about the origin of this collection, ‘Stoica Dialectica, offered to you by Simonides quasi from his [Zamoyski’s] lap and hand’, refers to the common story that the collection partly includes the notes made by Zamoyski during his studies in Padua. The collection was not published by the Polish Renaissance poet and secretary of the Academy of Zamość, Simon Simonides, but by the professor of philosophy at the Academy of Zamość, Adam Burski. Simonides, however, wrote a dedicatory poem for the book and evidently sent it to Janus Dousa. Regarding collective publishing practices in Zamość, see Facca and Lepri (Citation2016, 83–84).
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Kristi Viiding
Kristi Viiding (b. 1972) is Senior Researcher in Under and Tuglas Literature Center of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. Her main research interest is Neo-Latin literature from the Baltic Sea area. She has published the monographDie Dichtung neulateinischer Propemptika an der Academia Gustaviana (Dorpatensis) in den Jahren 1632–1656, Tartu 2002, an anthology of Neo-Latin occasional poetry from 17th century Tartu, O Dorpat, urbs addictissima musis. Valik 17. sajandi Tartu juhuluulet, Tallinn 2007, and is currently preparing – together with Thomas Hoffmann and Hesi-Siimets-Gross – the complete edition of correspondence of Livonian leading humanist David Hilchen.
Thomas Hoffmann
Thomas Hoffmann (b. 1979) was 2017-2019 Senior Researcher in Under and Tuglas Literature Center of the Estonian Academy of Sciences and is since 2017 Professor at Tallinn Law School at Tallinn University of Technology. Apart from European comparative private law, his research interest is Baltic legal history in Early modern times; he has published the monographDer Landrechtsentwurf David Hilchens von 1599 – ein livländisches Rechtszeugnis polnischer Herrschaft, Frankfurt/Main 2007.