LIPSIO, GIUSTO (Iustus Lipsius, Latinized from Joost Lips). — Flemish humanist and writer, born at Overyssche, near Brussels, on 18 October 1547 to a Catholic family; died at Louvain on 24 March 1606. He studied in Cologne and Louvain. From 1572 to 1575 he taught Latin literature at the Lutheran University of Jena, in Germany, and from 1578, for twelve years, at the Calvinist University of Leiden in Holland. Both at Jena and at Leiden, L. undoubtedly adhered, at least outwardly, to Protestantism. In 1591, however, he was reconciled with the Catholic Church at the Jesuit College in Mainz. Having returned to Louvain, he was appointed professor of history in 1592. He died assisted in his final hour by the celebrated Jesuit Lessius.
The numerous works of G. L. concern above all Latin philology and archaeology. Of interest to ecclesiastical sciences is his De cruce libri tres ad sacram profanamque historiam utiles (Antwerp 1593), containing a detailed study of crucifixion in antiquity. L.’s writings were several times assembled in complete collections, though all of them were incomplete. The best is the one edited by Moretus (J. Lipsii opera omnia, 4 vols. in-folio, Antwerp 1637, with a biography of the author at the beginning).