Johannes Loccenius (Johan Locken) (13 March 1598 – 27 July 1677) was a German jurist and historian, known as an academic in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Life

He was born at

Itzehoe Itzehoe (; ) is a town in Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. As the capital of the district Steinburg, Itzehoe is located on the Stör, a navigable tributary of the Elbe, 51 km (31.7 mi) northwest of Hamburg and 24 km (14.9&nb ...

Holstein Holstein (; ; ; ; ) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider (river), Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost States of Germany, state of Germany. Holstein once existed as the German County of Holstein (; 8 ...

, the son of a tradesman, and educated at the

Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums The ''Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums'' ( ''Academic School of the Johanneum'', short: Johanneum) is a '' Gymnasium'', or grammar school, in Hamburg, Germany. It is Hamburg's oldest school and was founded in 1529 by Johannes Bugenhagen. The sch ...

. He went to study at

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

and

Helmstedt Helmstedt (; Eastphalian: ''Helmstidde'') is a town on the eastern edge of the German state of Lower Saxony. It is the capital of the District of Helmstedt. The historic university and Hanseatic city conserves an important monumental heritage o ...

in 1616, and in 1617 was in

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 ...

. After a period at

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, where he encountered in particular

Holstenius Lucas Holstenius, born Lucas Holstein (1596 – 2 February 1661), was a German Catholic humanist, geographer, historian, and librarian. Life Born at Hamburg in 1596, he studied at the gymnasium of Hamburg, and later at Leiden University, wh ...

, he returned to Leiden in 1624, where he received a doctorate in law. Loccenius was recruited by

Johan Skytte Johan Skytte (1577, in Nyköping – 15 March 1645, in Söderåkra, Sweden) was a Swedish statesman, and the founder of the ''Academia Gustaviana'' (today's University of Tartu in Estonia), in 1632. He was a son of the mayor of Nyköping, Beng ...

for

Gustavus Adolphus Gustavus Adolphus (9 December N.S 19 December">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Old Style and New Style dates">N.S 19 December15946 November Old Style and New Style dates">N.S 16 November] 1632), also known in English as ...

, and went to Sweden. From 1628 to 1642 he taught a humanist and political syllabus as '' professor skytteanus''; from 1634 he also taught

Roman law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. Roman law also den ...

. As librarian also at the

University of Uppsala Uppsala University (UU) () is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially founded in the 15th century, the university rose to s ...

, he received the embassy of

Bulstrode Whitelocke Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke (6 August 1605 – 28 July 1675) was an English lawyer, writer, parliamentarian, and one of the commissioners of the Great Seal during the Interregnum. Early life He was the eldest son of Sir James Whitelocke and ...

, and they discussed English jurists including

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

and

John Selden John Selden (16 December 1584 – 30 November 1654) was an English jurist, a scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law. He was known as a polymath; John Milton hailed Selden in 1644 as "the chief of learned m ...

Works

The ''De jure maritimo'' was a commentary on Swedish maritime law as published in the ''Legisterium Sueciæ''. As ''De jure maritimo et navali'' it went through a number of editions. The maritime law work of Loccenius was later republished, with works by Franz Stypmann and

Reinhold Kuricke Reinhold Curicke (12 January 1610 – 2 April 1667) was a jurist and historian from Danzig (Gdańsk) who specialized in the history of the city and its connections with Hanseatic merchant organization. In 1645, Curicke published a German langu ...

, by

Johann Gottlieb Heineccius Johann Gottlieb Heineccius (September 11, 1681 – August 31, 1741) was a German jurist from Eisenberg, Thuringia. Life He studied theology at Leipzig, and law at Halle; and at the latter university he was appointed in 1713 professor of phi ...

. Loccenius wrote in particular on

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

. He was an early author on legal concepts of

territorial waters Territorial waters are informally an area of water where a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potentially the extended continental shelf ( ...

, whose views were quoted long afterwards. As legal antiquarian Loccenius published an edition of the corpus of Swedish provincial law, the ''Lex Sueo-Gothorum''. His ''Synopsis juris ad leges Sueticas accommodata'' (1648) was an early example of the 17th-century use of the

Decalogue The Ten Commandments (), or the Decalogue (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , ), are religious and ethical directives, structured as a covenant document, that, according to the Hebrew Bible, were given by YHWH to Moses. The text of the Ten C ...

to classify

capital crime Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

s. The ''Lexicon juris Svevo-Gothicae'' (1651) was a largely linguistic work. Loccenius was given the title ''

Rikshistoriograf The position of ''rikshistoriograf'' ( Swedish, known in Latin as ''historiographus regni'', i.e. ''Historiographer of the Realm'' or ''Royal Historiographer''), existed in Sweden from the early 17th century until 1834. The first appointment of a s ...

'' in 1651. In the 1650s he moved from the study of Swedish medieval law to writing on the general history of Sweden. He initially minimised the pre-Christian period, and he followed

Ericus Olai Ericus Olai () was a Swedish theologian and historian. He served as a professor of theology at Uppsala University and dean at Uppsala Cathedral. Ericus Olai was the author of the chronicle ''Chronica regni Gothorum'' and was an early proponent of ...

in arguing that foreign kings were responsible for negative aspects of the history. He published: *Three volumes on Swedish history (1647) *''Rerum Suecicarum Historia'' (1654) *''Erici Olai Historia Sueicorum Gothorumque'' (1654) *''Antiquitates Sveo-Gothicae'' (1670) *''Antiquitatum Sueo-Gothicarum''

Notes

External links

WorldCat pageEMLO page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Loccenius, Johannes 1598 births People from Itzehoe 1677 deaths Jurists from Schleswig-Holstein Swedish jurists 17th-century Swedish historians Uppsala University people People educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums