Description

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Justus de Harduwijn (also: Hardwijn, Herdewijn, Harduyn or Harduijn) (Ghent, April 11, 1582 – Oudegem, June 21, 1636) was a 17th-century Roman Catholic priest and poet from the Southern Netherlands. He was the poetic link between the Renaissance and the Counter-Reformation. De Harduwijn was born into a humanist, intellectual family. His father François had a bookbindery in Ghent and was a member of the Council of Flanders. His father was also friends with Jonker Jan van der Noot and through him he had become acquainted with the French Pléiade poets. His uncle, Dionysius Harduwijn, was a historian and Justus inherited a rich library from him. The humanist poet Maximilian de Vriendt was also his uncle and De Harduwijn was also related to Daniël Heinsius. De Harduwijn attended the humanities at the Jesuit college that had recently been founded in Ghent. Around 1600 he went to Leuven. He studied with Justus Lipsius, among others, and obtained his baccalaureate degree in law in 1605. He then went on to study theology at the seminary in Douai. In April 1607, De Harduwijn was ordained as a priest and in December of the same year he was appointed pastor in Oudegem and Mespelare. De Harduwijn remained employed there until his death. De Harduwijn became a member of the chamber of rhetoric in Aalst. Already in his student days he wrote the collection of sonnets De weverliicke Liefde tot Roose-mond. The influence of the Pléiade poets was visible in this and it was the first complete Dutch-language sonnet collection, in contrast to the humanists who always wrote in Latin. The collection was published in 1613 by Guilliam Caudron. Under the influence of Henricus Calenus and Bishop Jacobus Boonen, who would become his patron, De Harduwijn sought inspiration in divine reflections. It was the beginning of his Renaissance and Counter-Reformist period. In 1614 he wrote Lof-Sanck des Heylich Cruys, a translation of a work by Calenus. In his first important work Goddelicke Lofsanghen for the amusement of all gheestighe lovers from 1620, which was dedicated to Boonen, a number of earlier profane poems, which he believed would have negative consequences, were reworked. In the same year, The Fall and Revolt of David/Leed-tuyghende Pasalmen with biblical poetry was published. His most important collection, Goddelycke Wenschen. Illuminated with images, poems and the fourteen expressions of the ancient fathers was published in 1629. It was a complete adaptation of the work Pia desideria from 1624 by the Jesuit Herman Hugo. In 1630, Cornelius Jansenius, who had just been appointed professor in Leuven, called on De Harduwijn to translate the counter-reformist pamphlet Alexipharmacum into Dutch. Together with David Lindanus, De Harduwijn wrote the Goeden Yver tot het Vaderland ter joyful income in 1635 van den Coninclijcken Prince Ferdinand van Oostenryck. Harduwijn’s collections were not always original because they were often adaptations or translations of other works, but they had a fresh and powerful language, pure verse and a refined form. During his lifetime, De Harduwijn was one of the most read poets in the Netherlands.

Source: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justus_de_Harduwijn