All Scholars

HAVERKAMP, Siegbert

  • Date of Birth: December 1684
  • Born City: Leeuwarden
  • Born State/Country: The Netherlands
  • Parents: Evert (Everhardus) H. & wife
  • Date of Death: April 27, 1742
  • Death City: Leiden
  • Death State/Country: The Netherlands
  • Married: Agneta Root.
  • Education:

    Study at Utrecht.
  • Professional Experience:

    Minister in Stad aan 't Haringvliet in 1710, lectr. Greek, Leiden, 1720; prof. Greek, 1721-4; prof. rhetoric & history, 1724-41; curator, Latin school, Leiden, 1741.
  • Publications:

    Tertulliani Apologeticus recogn. et perpetuo commentario illustrav. (Leiden, 1718); Disquisitio de vera aetate Apologetici(Leiden, 1720); Dissertationes de Alexandri Magni numismate, quo quatuor summa orbis terrarum imperia continentur, et de nummis contorniatis (Leiden, 1722); Oratio de actione oratoris, sive corporis eloquentia (Leiden, 1724); T. Lucretius Carus, De Rerum Natura libri VI, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1725); Flavii Josephi quae reperiri potuerunt opera omnia, graece et latine, cum plurimorum interpretum animadversionibus, 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1726); Series Numismatum antiquorum Henr. Adriani a Mark (Leiden 1727); Poetae latini rei venaticae ed. with Edward Bruce and others, (1728); Museum Uilenbroekianum, 3 vols. (n.p. 1729); Eutropii et Sexti Rufi Breviarium Historiae Romanae cum annotationibus(Leiden, 1729); Thesaurus Morellianus, sive Familiarum Romanarum Numismata omnia commentario perpetuo illustrata, 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1734); Algemeene histori der zaaken in Asie, Afrike en Europe, en in derzelver koningrijken, landschappen, staaten en steden, zedert het ophouden der fabel-eeuwe, 3 vols. (The Hague, 1736-9); Sylloge scriptorum de Pronunciatione Graecae Linguae, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1736, 1740); Dionysius Periegetes, Graece et Latine, cum Aristophanis Pluto (Leiden, 1736); Regum et Imperatorum Romanorum Numismata ducis Croyiaci et Arschotani etc. (Amsterdam, 1738); Orosii adversus Paganos Historiarum libri VII (Leiden, 1738); Introductio in historiam patriam (Leiden, 1739); Jo. Nicolai libellus de Luctu Christianorum, ex ejus bibliotheca editus (Leiden, 1739); Jo. Nicolai Adnotationes ad libellum Domini de Fleury de moribus Patriarcharum, et ad Bonav. Cornel. Bertramum de republica Ebraeorum (Leiden, 1740); Josephi Abudacni seu Barbati Historia Jacobitarum seu Coptorum in Aegypto etc. cum adnotationibus Jo. Nicolai (Leiden, 1740); Introductio in Antiquitates Romanas: et Antiquitatum Graecarum, praecipue Atticarum descriptio brevis (Leiden, 1740); Museum Wildianum (Amsterdam, 1741); Nummophylacium Reginae Christianae cum commentario (The Hague, 1742); C. Crispi Sallustii quae extant, cum observationibus, 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1742); Censorinus de die natali, et Lucilii Satirarum reliquae (Leiden, 1743).
  • Notes:

    Siegbert Haverkamp (also Sijvert, Syvert, or Sigebertus  and Havercamp) began his career as a Protestant Reform minister on the remote isle of Overflakkee. After a decade, he was called to Leiden with the help of the Latinist Pieter Burman (1668-1741). When it became clear that Tiberius Hemsterhuis (1685-1766), professor of Greek at Franeker, was a candidate for the Greek chair at Leiden following the death of Jacob Gronovius in 1716. An offer was made to Haverkamp by Franeker that would open a path for Hemsterhuis, but Burman, leading others who feared the star power of Hemsterhuis, secured the professorship of Greek at Leiden for the Latinist Haverkamp. After three years Haverkamp was given the chair of rhetoric and history. Sandys writes that Haverkamp’s appointment “cast a cloud over the university for more than twenty years.” (450)

          Haverkamp’s specialty was history through numismatics. His history books were filled with reproductions of coins and medals, particularly the contorniate coins, large medals struck for special occasions (contorniati = deep rings cut around the rims of the coins) associated with Alexander the Great. His most notable editions were of Josephus, a copy of which Thomas Jefferson owned, and his three-volume General History of Asia, Africa, and Europe up to the Middle Ages, illustrated with more than 1000 coins and medals. He intended a fourth volume on Greece but was unable to complete it. Sandys points out that in editing Lucretius, Haverkamp failed to properly report two manuscripts lying in the Leiden library. He also proved “his incompetence as a commentator.” (447) He provided translations for Ludovico Antonio Muratori’s (1672-1750) 28-volume collection of medieval resources, the Thesaurus Rerum Italicarum (1723-51) and co-edited with Edward Bruce the anthology Poetae latini rei venaticae (1728).

           When ill health obliged him to retire from his chair, he was succeeded by Hemsterhuis.
  • Sources:

    Biographisch woordenboek der Nederlanden. Deel 8, Eerste Stuk (1867) 290-de Biographisch Woordenboek van Protestantsche Godgeleerden in Nederland, ed. J.P. de Bie and Jakob Loosjes, (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1907) 3:582; Sandys, 2:447; F.S. Knipscheer, Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek, ed. P.J. Blok & P.C. Molhuysen (Leiden: Sijthoff, 1911-37) 7: 538 
  • Author: Ward Briggs