Johannes Despauterius

Jan de Spauter (Ninove, c. 1480 – Komen, 1520) was a prominent Flemish humanist. His name was latinized to Johannes Despauterius as was common in the Middle Ages.

At the age of 18 Despauterius went to the humanistic college "De Lelie" in Leuven where he studied for three years. In Leuven he became a "Master in the Arts", which meant he had studied and mastered Latin grammar, rhetorica, dialectica, musica, arithmica, geometrica and astronomica.

After his studies he starts teaching. After several years teaching, Despauterius published books with regards to Latin grammar ("Syntaxis", "Ars versificatoria", "Grammatica pars prima" and "Ortographia"), which became the standard works of reference for the study of Latin for the next centuries in Western Europe.