Johannes Meursius

Johannes Meursius (van Meurs) (9 February 1579 – 20 September 1639) was a Dutch classical scholar and antiquary.

He was extremely precocious, and at the age of sixteen produced a commentary on the Cassandra of Lycophron.

[2] In 1610 he was appointed professor of Greek and history at Leiden, and in the following year historiographer to the States-General of the Netherlands.

[2] In consequence of this he welcomed the offer (1625) of Christian IV of Denmark to become professor of history and politics at Soro, in Zealand, combined with the office of historiographer royal,[1] in which role he produced a Latin history of Denmark (1630–38), Historia Danica.

Their lack of arrangement detracts from their value, but they are a storehouse of information, and Meursius does not deserve the epithets of "pedant" and "ignoramus" which Joseph Justus Scaliger applied to him.