- Rudolph Snellius
Rudolph Snellius (Rudolph Snel van Royen;
Oudewater October 5 ,1547 –Leiden 1613) was a linguist and mathematician who held appointments at theUniversity of Marburg and the University of Leiden.Born to a wealthy family in the
the Netherlands while the latter were under the dominion of the SpanishHabsburg s, Rudolf Snel grew up in the Utrecht city ofOudewater . At maturity he left to study at theUniversity of Cologne underValentin Naboth and at theUniversity of Heidelberg underImmanuel Tremellius and soon received a teaching position at theUniversity of Marburg . Though trained inAristotelian logic, he had become impressed with the new logic ofPetrus Ramus , which he taught along with mathematics and languages at his university posts. [Bangs, Carl. "Arminius". Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1971, p. 37.]In 1578, he returned to Oudewater soon after its devastation in a Spanish siege during the
Dutch Revolt . It was not long before he was offered, and accepted, a position as professor of Hebrew and mathematics at theUniversity of Leiden . That summer he married Machteld Cornelisdochter, who had survived the Oudewater massacre. She accompanied him to Leiden, where he taught until his death in 1613. [Bangs (1971), pp. 37-38.]Snellius (the name being the Latinized form of his Dutch surname, Snel or Snell) was an influence on some of the leading political and intellectual forces of the
Dutch Golden Age . While visiting Utrecht in 1575, he befriended the youngJacobus Arminius , a promising but impoverished student in Oudewater who would accompany him back to Marburg to take up his studies; Arminius, too, would return to Leiden to teach, and his theological doctrines would have a sweeping effect on theReformation in Holland and beyond. [Bangs, chapter 2.] Another student of Snellius, this time at Leiden, was the child prodigy,Hugo Grotius , who would not only become famously involved in the political battles surrounding Arminius, but would later establish himself as a founding political theorist of the early modern age. Finally, not the least of Snellius' influence was cast upon his son,Willebrord Snellius , who would become the distinguished astronomer and mathematician who gave his name toSnell's law .Notes
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