XV.
Isaac Vossius
Isaac Vossius was born at Leyden in Holland, one of the sons of the renowned scholar Gerard John Vossius by his second wife Elizabeth, daughter of Francis du Jon (Junius) (1545–1602), French theologian and philologist. All the sons were precocious scholars, but Isaac was undoubtedly the most eminent.... He was invited by Queen Christina of Sweden, one of the most erudite women of her time, to come and shed the lustre of his learning upon Stockholm. He arrived towards the end of 1649, was appointed a Court Chamberlain, and taught the Queen Greek. In 1650 he sold her his father’s library for twenty thousand florins, with the stipulation that he received five thousand florins yearly with board and residence for its superintendence. In 1652 owing to certain differences he left Sweden. In 1655 Manasseh Ben Israel dedicated to him:—
אבן יקרה | Piedra Gloriosa | O | De La | Estatua | De | Nebuchadnesar. |
Con muchas y diversas authoridades | de la S.S. y antiguos sabios. | Compuesto por el Hacham | Menasseh Ben Israel. | Amsterdam An. 5415. |
(12mo. 6 ll. + 259 pp. + 3 ll. + 4 etchings at pp. 5, 87, 160, 180.) [I. S.]
“All muy noble y doctissimo Señor Isaco Vossio, Gentil hombre de la camara de su Magestad, La Reyna de Svedia.
Muy noble y doctissimo Señor, ... Intimo amigo y afficionado servidor de V. M.,
Menasseh ben Ysrael.
Amsterdam 25. de Abril, An. 5415.”