- Bonaventura Vulcanius
Bonaventura Vulcanius of
Bruges (1538 - 1614) was a leading personality in Dutchhumanism of the 16th and 17th century. He was the secretary to theArchbishop of Burgos (1459-1466) and the secretary to the brother of Archbishop of Burgos in Toledo until 1570. He was later the secretary to the leadingCalvinist Marnix van Sint-Aldegond . He had access to the silver-on-purplecodex containing the surviving portion of the ancient Gothic translation of theBible by BishopWulfila or Ulphilas, and in 1597 he published the text, the first publication of a Gothic text altogether. He gave the manuscript the name by which it is still known, "Codex Argenteus ", from the Latin word forsilver .Vulcanius studied
medicine at the University of Leuven (Louvain). In 1581 he arrived inLeyden when for 30 years he 'taught the future elite of the Dutch Republic', among themDaniel Heinsius andHugo Grotius . He was a professor of Greek atLeyden University . His publications include a scholarly edition of the "Historia Alexandri" of Arrian (Geneva , 1575), incorporating a newLatin translation; for this he had the co-operation ofHenri Estienne , who published the work.After living for some time in
Geneva andBasle , he returned to his nativeFlanders and became rector of the Latin school atAntwerp .
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