Gerardus Joannes Vossius (1577–1649) and the study of Latin grammar

Abstract

Summary Gerardus Joannes Vossius (1577–1649) published his De arte grammatica libri septem in 1635. From the second edition in 1662 the work became known as Vossius’s Aristarchus. This important Latin grammar of Vossius, and also his other publications devoted to Latin, have their particular place in the evolution of grammatical studies in the 17th century. Vossius’s works were used in the first place because in them he had given a complete survey and systematization of all the scholarly information concerning Latin existing up to his own days. Neoscholastic Aristotelism was the philosophical basis of his treatment with Latin language and grammar. However, we find at the same time in Vossius’s work sometimes hints at a new approach to the study of Latin grammar. He followed in many respects the new directions pointed out by men like Scaliger and Sanctius. Thus, on the one hand, Vossius stood in the Humanist tradition of his day while, on the other, his work could be used profitably also by the Port-Royal grammarians and other philologist of the late 17th and 18th centuries. Following an appraisal of Vossius’s place in the Humanist tradition and of the contribution he made in his Aristarchus, the paper deals at some length with the analogy principle as used by Vossius and his successors. It concludes with sections on the evolution of grammatical ideas in the 17th and early 18th centuries marked especially by the tradition associated with the works of Sanctius, Vossius, and Port-Royal.