Jan Gerard Kerkherdere (7 November 1677 – 16 March 1738) was a Dutch Latinist. He was a Latin teacher at the Collegium Trilingue in

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

, in the

Spanish Netherlands The Spanish Netherlands (; ; ; ) (historically in Spanish: , the name "Flanders" was used as a '' pars pro toto'') was the Habsburg Netherlands ruled by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1556 to 1714. They were a collection of States of t ...

(from 1713 known as the

Austrian Netherlands The Austrian Netherlands was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The period began with the acquisition by the Austrian Habsburg monarchy of the former Spanish Netherlands under the Treaty of Ras ...

). Kerkherdere provoked controversy over his analyses of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

. His name in Latin was Ioannes Gerardus Falcoburgensis.

Biography

Kerkherdere was born in Hulsberg, Staats-Overmaas,

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, in the Valkenburg region (French: ''Fauquemont''). The latter is reflected in his Latin name. Erroneously, his place of birth is sometimes indicated as Valkenburg or Wijnandsrade. He was a son of Jan Kerkherdere, alderman of the court of Climen, and of Maria Roebroox. He attended Latin school with the Jesuits in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; ; ; ) is a city and a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital city, capital and largest city of the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. Maastricht is loca ...

. In 1694 he moved to Leuven, where he studied

liberal arts Liberal arts education () is a traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''skill, art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. ''Liberal arts education'' can refe ...

. Kerkherdere was a student at the ', at the former

Old University of Leuven The Old University of Leuven (or of Louvain) is the name historians give to the Medieval university, university, or ''studium generale'', founded in Leuven, Duchy of Brabant, Brabant (then part of the Burgundian Netherlands, now part of Belgium ...

. He graduated two years later as a

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

(1696). He continued his studies in classical languages as well as theology, after which he received his diploma in the year 1700. He was never ordained. He spoke

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

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

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

fluently. From 1700 until his death in 1738 he was professor of Latin at the Collegium Trilingue in

. During his career as a Latinist, Kerkherdere was often asked to write Latin verses for festivities and special occasions. For example, he would proclaim a new Austrian governor or an anniversary at the university. He was known for the publication of a grammar of the Latin language. Readers appreciated his explanation of the rules and the exceptions without citing copious examples. In 1722

Emperor Joseph I Joseph I (Joseph Jacob Ignaz Johann Anton Eustachius; 26 July 1678 – 17 April 1711) was Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1705 until his death in 1711. He was the eldest son of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor from his thi ...

of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

appointed him Imperial Historiographer. As an historiographer, Kerkherdere published on the

. His analyzes were not always appreciated. During his life, but also after his death, some of his theses became controversial, namely when he saw a relationship between civil history and the biblical books. Kerkherdere married Anna Maria Caulants in 1719. He died in Leuven in 1738.

Works

All his publications were in

. * ''Grammatica latina in faciliorem methodum redacta additis anomaliarum causis''. Leuven, 1st edition in 1706. * ''Systema apocalypticum''. Leuven, 1st edition in 1708. This is where his research work on the Old Testament began. * ''Prodroma Danielicus, sive novi conatus historici critici in celeberrimas difficultates historiae Veteris Testamenti, monarchiarum Asiae et ac praecipue Danielem prophetam''. Study on the prophet Daniel and princes in the

Near East The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

. * ''Monarchia Romae paganae, secundum concordiam inter Sanctos Prophetas Danielem et Joannem nunquam hactenus tentatum. Consequens historia a Monarchia conditoribus usque ad Urbis et Imperii ruinam, opus praemissum quatuor monarchiis. Accedit series Historiae Apocalypticae''. Leuven, 1st edition 1727. He received critical acclaim for this work on the relationship between

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

and the Bible. * ''De situ Paradisi terrestris''. Leuven, 1731. This work deals with the location of the

Garden of Eden In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden (; ; ) or Garden of God ( and ), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the biblical paradise described in Genesis 2–3 and Ezekiel 28 and 31.. The location of Eden is described in the Book of Ge ...

. * There are several compilations of his poems. One of these is his ode on the accession to the throne of Emperor Charles VI of the

and thus the new

Duke of Brabant The Duke of Brabant (, ) was the ruler of the Duchy of Brabant since 1183/1184. The title was created by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in favor of Henry I, Duke of Brabant, Henry I of the House of Reginar, son of Godfrey III of Le ...

( Peace of Utrecht (1713)): ''Carolus sextus semper augustus inauguratur dux Brabantiae''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kerkherdere, Jan Gerard 1677 births 1738 deaths Dutch Latinists People from Hulsberg People from Limburg (Netherlands) Historiographers Dutch historians