His appointment here is considered a turning point in the humanism of Gouda, in that the humanistic spirit was being found less inside monasteries, and more in public, secular life.

[3] In 1539, Nannius succeeded Conrad Goclenius as Latin teacher at the Collegium Trilingue,[1] where he taught renowned intellectuals of the age such as Jacobus Cruquius.

Nannius was described by Flemish humanist Justus Lipsius as the first person to introduce a love of letters in the Collegium Trilingue.

[5][6] For his many scholarly endeavours, he could rely on the financial help of influential patrons, such as Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle.

[7] Nannius was also a writer who wrote a commentary on the Ars Poetica of Horace, and saw in it many similarities to Menippean satire.