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The Bodleian library at Oxford is one of the most important repositories of manuscripts and early printed books documenting the study of Old Frisian in the seventeenth century. Together with primary texts, two copies of the incunable print of the Frisian land laws, Codex Aysma and transcripts of the now lost Codex Unia, the collection includes annotations and glossaries by three pioneers of Old Frisian philology: Franciscus Junius (1591–1677), Jan van Vliet (1622–1666) and Thomas Marshall (1621–1685). This contribution explores Junius's and van Vliet's appraisal of the Old Frisian texts, their plans for an edition, and their interest in the narrative aspects of texts, such as the Statutes of Magnus and the Book of Rudolf. By analysing van Vliet's and Junius's annotations in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MSS Junius 109 and Marshall 60, it becomes apparent that these seventeenth-century philologists studied Old Frisian texts not only for lexicographical reasons or to compare Frisian with the other Old Germanic languages, but also for their fascinating historical and literary qualities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews two important contributions to the study of Early Modern Northern European art theoretical literature, a dictionary of art terms and an edited volume of case studies on writings on art published between 1600 and 1750 in German, French, English, and Dutch. These two volumes are the first systematic comparison of artistic vocabulary in four languages as the terms appeared in a range of publications indebted to Italian sources. They study the literature from c. 1604, when Karel Van Mander s Schilder-boek was first published, until c. 1750, when Alexander Baumgarten introduced the term “aesthetics” to establish the analytical philosophy of art. Broadening the study to several countries and languages shows both the fragmentation of a received discourse and the emergence of common elements in an evolving, dynamic conception of painting.

Franciscus Junius was librarian to Thomas Howard and Alethea Talbot, Earl and Countess of Arundel, and curator of the most important collection of antiquities north of the Alps. His text De pictura Veterum published in 1637, a collection of ancient texts on ancient art, with commentary, was intended as a complement to the collection and guide to its study. He translated the text into English as On the Painting of the Ancients in 1638, and into Dutch as De Schilder-konst der Oude in 1641. Thijs Weststeijn’s book is the first comprehensive study of this work, examining its origins, the differences between editions and translations in light of their different audiences, and its impact upon art lovers, artists, and subsequent artwriting. Finally, he locates Junius’ project in the context of northern efforts to recover their own Anglo-Dutch Germanic past which remained alive for the ‘modern’ world.

Manuscripts in German have formed part of the holdings of the Bodleian Library in Oxford since the 1630s. The article discusses how they came to be acquired at that time by Archbishop William Laud, and then traces further acquisitions from Germany that came with the collections of John Selden, Franciscus Junius, Elias Ashmole, Richard Rawlinson, Jacobus Philippus D'Orville, Matteo Luigi Canonici, Francis Douce, Sir William Hamilton, James P. R. Lyell, and Alfred Ehrmann's Broxbourne Library. The collection is notable for Old High German glosses, many of them from Würzburg, for theMurbacher Hymnen,a number of significant Middle High German texts, as well as late-medieval prayer books. The finding tools for all this material consist of a series of printed catalogues from the late-seventeenth century to the present, as well as online-resources which are currently in the process of development. Deutschsprachige Handschriften waren in der Bodleian Library in Oxford seit den 1630er Jahren vertreten. Der Aufsatz beschreibt die Erwerbsgeschichte unter Erzbischof William Laud und den weiteren Aufbau des Bestands durch die Sammlungen von John Selden, Franciscus Junius, Elias Ashmole, Richard Rawlinson, Jacobus Philippus D'Orville, Matteo Luigi Canonici, Francis Douce, Sir William Hamilton, James P. R. Lyell und Alfred Ehrmanns Broxbourne Library. Bemerkenswert sind besonders die althochdeutschen Glossenhandschriften, viele aus Würzburg, die Murbacher Hymnen, mehrere nicht unbedeutende mittelhochdeutsche Texte und die spätmittelalterlichen Gebetbücher. Gedruckte Kataloge wurden vom späten 17. Jahrhundert bis in die Gegenwart veröffentlicht und werden zur Zeit durch neue Formen digitaler Erschließung ergänzt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Frisian state historian Simon Abbes Gabbema (1628-1688) actively collected manuscripts and has thus been of tremendous importance for the preservation of medieval Frisian sources. It turns out that he possessed all but one of the Old Frisian law manuscripts from present-day Friesland. Gabbema also borrowed important manuscripts from other scholars in his network and (partly) copied these. His contacts with Franciscus Junius were especially important. Junius copied the archaic Old Frisian law manuscript Codex Unia from Gabbema, which is now lost. In this article, the focus lies on Gabbema's collection of Old Frisian manuscripts and the study he made of Old Frisian sources. An appendix with an overview of the manuscripts discussed in this article has been added. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay I analyze two emerging theistic accounts of the laws of logic, one precipitated by theistic conceptual realism and the other from an archetype-ectype paradigm in Reformed Scholasticism. The former posits the laws of logic as uncreated and necessary divine thoughts, whereas the latter thinks of those laws as contingent, accommodated forms of a pre-existing archetypal rationality. After the analysis of the two accounts, I offer an explication of the theological rationale motivating the archetype-ectype model of the laws of logic, and apply that model to recent discussions on theological paradox, abstract objects, and the function of natural-theological argumentation in apologetics. Finally, I respond to three anticipated objections against the archetype-ectype model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sketches the theological profile of the Synopsis Purioris Theologiae (1625) by focusing on its exposition of the doctrine of God. Earlier disputations by Leiden theologians Franciscus Junius (1545-1602) and Franciscus Gomarus (1563-1641) are discussed as a background for the theology of Antonius Thysius (1565-1640), the author of the disputation in the Synopsis on God's nature and attributes. For a further specification of the doctrinal position presented in the Synopsis, it is contrasted with the more innovative accounts proposed by Jacob Arminius (1559-1609) in his disputation "De natura Dei" (1603) and by Conrad Vorstius (1569-1622) in his Tractatus theologicus de Deo (1606). This analysis yields the conclusion that both Arminius and Vorstius advocated a structural differentiation between God's inner essence and his outward operations, which leaves room for human freedom and independence. While the Synopsis does not explicitly discuss their views, in its own formulations it maintains the common Reformed orthodox notion of divine simplicity, and keeps the balance between—on the one hand—the (hypothetical) necessity of God's foreknowledge and decree, and—on the other hand—the contingency and freedom in the created world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]