Snellius was an influence on some of the leading political and intellectual forces of the Dutch Golden Age.

Born to a wealthy family in Episcopal principality of Utrecht while this province was under the dominion of the emperor Charles V, Rudolf Snel grew up in the city of Oudewater.

It was not long before he was offered, and accepted, a position as professor of Hebrew and mathematics at the University of Leiden.

While visiting Utrecht in 1575, he befriended the young Jacobus Arminius, then an impoverished student in Oudewater who would accompany him back to Marburg to take up his studies.

Jacob Dircksz de Graeff, who later became burgomaster of Amsterdam, lived in the house of Snellius while he was studying classical language at Leiden.