Abraham Gronovius (the Latinized form of Gronow; 14 June 1668 – 18 August 1775) was a Dutch

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

and

classical scholar Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

from the Gronovius dynasty of scholars. As the eleventh librarian of

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

he introduced prudent library management enhancing the collection. Gronovius curated several editions of Latin and Greek language classical works.Berkvens-Stevelinck 2012.Van der Aa 1862Bierma 1911

Biography

Born the son of

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

professor of

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

Jakob Gronovius Jacobus Gronovius a.k.a. Jacob Gronow (10 October 1645 – 21 October 1716) was a Dutch classical scholar. He was born in Deventer, the son of the German classical scholar Johann Friedrich Gronovius and Aleyda ten Nuyl, and father of the b ...

, grandson of Leiden professor and

university librarian An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution, which supports the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are an es ...

Johann Friedrich Gronovius Johann Friedrich Gronovius (the Latinized form of Gronow; 8 September 1611 – 28 December 1671) was a German classical scholar, librarian and critic. Born in Hamburg, he studied at several universities and travelled in England, France and ...

, and brother of

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

Jan Frederik Gronovius Jan Frederik Gronovius (also seen as Johann Frederik and Johannes Fredericus) (10 February 1690 in Leiden – 10 July 1762 in Leiden) was a Dutch botanist notable as a patron of Carl Linnaeus, Linnaeus. John Clayton (botanist), John Clayton, a pl ...

, Abraham Gronovius inherited the love for the classics from his father Jacob and studied law in his home town. He obtained a law doctorate at the

University of Angers The University of Angers () is a public university in western France, with campuses in Angers, Cholet, and Saumur. It is part of the Angers-Le Mans University Community. History The University of Angers was initially established during the 11 ...

, France, and went to England to study Greek, Latin and Syriac manuscripts in Cambridge, Oxford and London. In 1720 he married Dorothea Wynanda van Asch van Wijk from a Dutch patrician family. In 1741 he became the first professional Leiden University librarian, by not being a professor at the same time, and raising the standards of library management.

Works

Gronovius' works include:

Claudius Aelianus: ''Varia Historia''

* Full text in Greek with Latin comments at archive.org.

Justinus: ''Historiae Philippicae''

* **

Pomponius Mela: ''De situ orbis''

* * *

Other works

Gronovius Collection

The Gronovius Collection at Leiden University Library consists of 150 manuscripts, including medieval codices and unpublished notes of Gronovius, his father and grandfather in Latin and Greek, and 317 partly annotated printed books.

References

External links

* * Also at * * *

Literature

* * Reprint from L. Brummel et al., Eds. ''Het Boek. Tijdschrift voor boek- en bibliotheekwezen'', third series, volume 35, pages 91–120 https://catalogue.leidenuniv.nl/. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gronovius, Abraham 1695 births 1775 deaths Academic staff of Leiden University Dutch classical scholars Dutch librarians Leiden University alumni