Keckerman, Bartholomew

, a very learned man, was born at Dantzic, in Prussia, 1571. He received the first rudiments of learning under James Fabricius, so distinguished by his zeal against Papists, Anabaptists, and other heretics; and in 1589, was sent to the university of Wirtemberg, where he studied philosophy and divinity. Two years after, he removed to the university of Leipsic; whence, after half a year’s stay, he went in 1592, to that of Heidelberg. Here he took a master’s degree, and was so highly esteemed by the governors of the university, that he was first made a tutor and afterwards Hebrew professor there. In 1597, the senate of Dantzic, pleased with the reputation and merit of their countryman, sent him a formal and honourable invitation, by letter, to come and take upon him part of the management of their academy, which he at first refused, but on a second invitation, in 1601, consented, after having first received the degree of D. D. at Heidelberg. As soon as he was settled at Dantzic, he proposed to lead the youth through the very penetralia of philosophy, by a newer and more compendious method than had hitherto been found out, according to which they might, within the compass of three years, finish a complete course. For this purpose he pursued the scheme he had begun at Heidelberg, and drew up a great number of books and systems upon all sorts of subjects; logic, rhetoric, ceconomics, ethics, politics, | physics, metaphysics, geography, astronomy, &c. and in this industrious manner he went on till 1609, when, fairly worn out with constant attention to the business of teaching, he died at the early age of thirty-eight. His works were published at Geneva in 1614, 2 vols. fol. The most valuable are his systematic treatises on rhetonc; but they were all for some time used in teaching, and afterwards pillaged by other compilers, without acknowledgment. ¹