Product Code Database
In 1648, he completed a doctorate in Leiden and refused calls to both Frankfurt University and Heidelberg University as professor of theology, instead accepting the position of professor of history, politics and geography at the new University of Harderwijk, where he became rector in 1652. In 1653, he became professor of history at Leiden University, a position he held until his death in 1670.
In his later life, Horn was also greatly interested in alchemy. In 1665, he was swindled out of the considerable sum of 5,000 guilders5,000 guilders ( Carolusgulden) at the time corresponded to 8.55 kg of gold at 14 carat, or 5 kg (176 oz) of pure gold. by a fraudulent alchemist. His interest in alchemy als resulted in an edition of Pseudo-Geber in 1668. From about this time, he also began to suffer from intermittent spells of mental distraction, although he remained a prolific writer until his death.
Among his publications, his Latin works on universal history, intended as a textbook for students, were especially influential ( Historia ecclesiastica et politica, Arca Noae, Orbis Politicus, Orbis Imperans). These works were re-published long after his death in both the Netherlands and Germany. His treated universal history in a modern manner, no longer divided into the history of the four classical empires (Assyria, Persian Empire, Macedon, Roman Empire) but based on the concept of national history, including the history of the peoples of the New World ( De originibus Americanis). He was also one of the earliest historiographers to divide world history into three major epochs, antiquity from earliest times until the Migration period, the Middle Ages from the Migration period to the year 1500, and modernity from 1500 to his own day. His coverage of the Migration period is presented as the history of the "Scythians" nation, which is divided into Germanic peoples, Huns and early Slavs.
In all his works, Horn presents himself as a pious Protestant and as a patriot of his homeland, considering himself a native of and exile from the Upper Palatinate (which had been annexed by the Catholic Duke of Bavaria in 1628).An example of his continued patriotic attachment to his homeland is his description of Rauher Kulm, a hill of 682 m close to his native Kemnath, in his Orbis Politicus (1667) as "standing in the center of Germany, standing taller than all mountains far and wide, as it were a Wonder of the World".
translations:
|
|
