All Scholars

Tiberius Hemsterhuis grew up in an intellectual household that reflected his father’s combined interests in science and literature. As a young man Tiberius wed the scientific study and collation of manuscripts with a broader humanistic understanding of Greek culture. Early on he adopted the method of the great British text critic Richard Bentley (1662-1742) by favoring learned conjectures over manuscript tradition. Hemsterhuis’s mature method is covered in the various essays and speeches of Lectio publica de originibus linguae graecae: he realized that the study of a text must reach beyond merely language and grammar to systematically consider the historical, artistic, and cultural context in which the work was written. In this regard, he pre-dated F.A. Wolf’s (1759-1824) concept of Altertumswissenschaft as a holistic study. One of his vehicles for ascertaining the proper conjecture was his theory of analytical etymology—that root forms of a language become stems to which different sounds attach themselves to make different words. This idea animated his early study of Pollux’s Onomasticon but was widely discounted even in Wilamowitz’s (1848-1931) day. Indisputable, however, is his role as the first Dutch classicist to focus solely on Greek in bringing Greek studies, heretofore an offshoot of theology, into prominence in the Netherlands. In Sandys’ words, “The honour of reviving the study of Greek in the Netherlands belongs to Timberius Hemsterhuis.” (Sandys, 2: 447)

      Hemsterhuis entered Groningen at 13 to study theology and, encouraged by reading Descartes, mathematics, for which he had a special aptitude. There he studied under the mathematician Johannes Jacob Bernoulli (1655-1705). Two years later he transferred to Leiden to study philology under Jakob Voorbroek (Perizonius) (1651-1715), whose Animadversiones historiae (1685) revolutionized historical inquiry. While a student, Hemsterhuis helped Perizonius catalogue manuscripts using his mathematical sense of order and precision as he familiarized himself with the range of classical literature and scholarship. 

      Hemsterhuis began his career at 19, moving to Franeker on the death of Lambert Bos (1670-1717). His interest was exclusively Greek  for in his view, Latin scholars need Greek as the body needs the soul (Elogium 28.3) At Freneker and Leiden he founded a group devoted to the study of Greek literature, history, and culture called the Schola Hemsterhusiana. His lecture on the origins of Greek (ca. 1750) argued for his use of analogous etymologies and is foundational for the Dutch revival of Hellenic studies. His first effort was to complete books 8-10 of Julius Polluz’s Onomasticon (1706), begun by Jean-Henri Lederlin (1672-1737). Hemsterhuis used metrical analysis and previously unexamined manuscripts to emend the comic fragments of Book 10. The volume was received with praise on the Continent, but Bentley wrote two long letters criticizing Hemsterhuis’s imperfect understanding of prosody and offering his own reading of many passages. Hemsterhuis’s Pollux was published before he could include Bentley’s suggestions.  His hero’s criticism stung so deeply that after receiving his second long letter from Bentley, he reportedly did not pick up a Greek book for the next two months and having been chastened by his hero, he edited no poets (except for Aristophanes’ Plutus). Nevertheless, the two admired each other, Bentley for his “genius,” Hemsterhuis for his learning and character. 

        Hemsterhuis continued to teach and practice Bentley’s method, and his teaching allowed him only to complete one-sixth of his projected complete Lucian; the publisher transferred the project to J.F. Reitz (1841-1930). He corrected passages in Lucian and Xenophon of Ephesus and his work on the sermons of John Chrysostom advanced Patristic text criticism. He sent annotations and readings to many editors, particularly his student David Ruhnken (1723-98), who was working on an edition of Timaeus and one of Hesychios with J.A. Ernesti (1707-81), who also benefited from Hemsterhuis’s readings for his Callimachus. 

        Part of Hemsterhuis’s legacy is historical in that he elevated Dutch criticism of ancient texts and fostered an international reputation for Dutch text criticism. His posthumously published essays essentially define the role and character of the classical scholar. This model was not lost on his students, the most eminent of whom carried on his methods, in the judgement of some more successfully than their teacher: Lodewijk Caspar Valckenaer (1715-85), who would succeed him in Franeker and Leiden, David Ruhnken, and the poet and Amsterdam classicist David Jacob van Lennep (1774-1853). Nowhere is this admiration better stated than in Ruhnken’s Elogium, which provides in the life of Hemsterhuis a fundamental definition the value of classical scholarship. 

His posthumous publications have been reprinted in the 21^st century as has Ruhnken’s essay (as a separate book).