Native name Pieter Nanninck Successor Cornelius Valerius | Occupation Humanist, Teacher Died 1557, Leuven, Belgium | |
Title Rector of the Collegium Trilingue | ||
Petrus Nannius (also Pieter Nanninck, b. 1496, Alkmaar - d. 1557) was a Dutch poet, accomplished Latin scholar and humanist of the 16th century. A contemporary of Desiderius Erasmus, he was born in Alkmaar and was an important figure in the humanism of the time, having provided a foundation with his teaching for the later flowering of humanism in the region.
Contents
We first hear of Nannius teaching in Gouda, South Holland. His appointment here is considered a turning point in the humanism of Gouda, in that the humanistic spirit was being found less inside monasteries, and more in public, secular life. In 1539, Nannius succeeded Conrad Goclenius as Latin teacher at the Collegium Trilingue, where he taught renowned intellectuals of the age such as Jacques De Crucque. Nannius was described by Flemish humanist Justus Lipsius as the first person to introduce a love of letters in the Collegium Trilingue. Nannius served in this capacity from 1539 to his death in 1557.
Works
Nannius was also a writer who wrote a commentary on the Ars Poetica of Horace, and saw in it many similarities to Menippean satire. He translated the works of many Greek authors, including Aeschines, Plutarch, and Athanasius. He also produced ten books of critical and explanatory Miscellanea, and commentaries on the Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil.