Broeckhusius, John

, or John Broeckhuizen, a distinguished scholar in Holland, was born Nov. 20, 1649, at Amsterdam, where his father was a clerk in the admiralty. He learned the Latin tongue under Hadrian | Junius, and made a prodigious progress in polite literature, but his father dying when he was very young, he was taken from literary pursuits’, and placed with an apothecary at Amsterdam, with whom he lived some years. Not liking this, he went into the army, where his behaviour raised him to the rank of lieutenant-captain; and, in 1674, was sent with his regiment to America in the fleet under admiral de Ruyter, but returned to Holland the same year. In 1678 he was sent to the garrison at Utrecht, where he contracted a friendship with the celebrated Grsevius; and here, though a person of an excellent temper, he had the misfortune to be so deeply engaged in a duel, that, according to the laws of Holland, his life was forfeited: but Gnevius wrote immediately to Nicholas Heinsius, who obtained his pardon from the stadtholder. Not long after, he became a captain of one of the companies then at Amsterdam; which post placed him in an easy situation, and gave him leisure to pursue his studies. His company being disbanded in 1697, a pension was granted him; upon which he retired to a country-house near Amsterdam, where he saw but little company, and spent his time among his books. He died Dec. 15, 1707, and was interred at Amsterween, near Amsterdam; a monument was afterwards erected to his memory, with an inscription, the letters of which are arranged so as to form the date of the year, which we presume was considered as a great effort of genius:

prInCeps poetarVM DeCessIt.

His works are, 1. his “Carmina,” Utrecht, 1684, 12 mo, and afterwards more splendidly by Hoogstraaten, at Amst. 1711, 4to, under the title of “Jani Broukhusii poematnm libri sedecim.” 2. “Actii Sinceri Sannazarii, &c. Opera Latina; accedunt notoe, &c.” Amst. 1680, 12mo, without his name, which was added to the best edition, Amst 1727. 3. “Aonii Palearii Verulani opera,” ibid. 1696,8vo, without his name, and by some mistaken for one of Greevius’s editions. 4. “S. Aurelii Propertii Elegiarum libri IV.” ibid. 1702, 4to; ibid. 1727, 4to. 5. “AlbiiTibulli quse extant, &c.” ibid. 1708, 4to. His “Dutch poems” were published by Hoogstraaten, Amst. 1712, 8vo, with the author’s life. Modern critics seem agreed in the value of his editions of the classics, although he has been sometimes censured for bold freedoms. ¹

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