Lipsius, Justus (Iustus Lipsius, Latinized from Joost Lips)

LIPSIUS, Justus (Iustus Lipsius, Latinized from Joost Lips). - Flemish humanist and writer, b. at Overyssche, near Brussels, on 18 Oct. 1547 into a Catholic family, d. at Louvain on 24 March 1606. He studied at Cologne and at Louvain. From 1572 to 1575 he taught Latin letters at the Lutheran University of Jena, in Germany, and from 1578, for twelve years, at the Calvinist one of Leiden in Holland. Both at Jena and at Leiden L. adhered without doubt, at least externally, to Protestantism. However, in 1591 he was reconciled, in the Jesuit College of Mainz, with the Catholic Church. Having returned to Louvain, in 1592 he was appointed professor of history. He died assisted in his final hour by the celebrated Jesuit Lessius.

The numerous works of J. L. concern above all Latin philology and archaeology. Of interest for the ecclesiastical sciences is his De cruce libri tres ad sacram profanamque historiam utiles (Antwerp 1593), containing a detailed study on the punishment of the cross in antiquity. L.'s writings were several times gathered into comprehensive collections, all of them, however, incomplete. The best is the one edited by Moretus (J. Lipsii opera omnia, 4 vols. in-fol., Antwerp 1637, with a biography of the author at the beginning).