Johan Huizinga

Johan Huizinga (IPA: [joːhɑn hœyzɪŋaː]) (December 7, 1872 - February 1, 1945), a Dutch historian, a philosopher of culture, one of the founders of modern cultural history.

Life and works

Born in Groningen, he started out as a student of Sanskrit and did a doctoral thesis on the role of the jester in Indian drama in 1897. It was only in 1902 he turned his interest towards medieval and Renaissance history. He continued teaching as an Orientalist until becoming Professor of General and Dutch History at Groningen University in 1905. Then, in 1915, he was made Professor of General History at Leiden University, a post he held until 1942. From this point until his death in 1945 he was held in detention by the Nazis. He died in De Steeg in Gelderland near Arnhem, and lies buried in the graveyard of the Reformed Church at 6 Haarlemmerstraatweg in Oegstgeest^[1].

Huizinga had an esthetic approach to history, where art and spectacle played an important part. His most famous work is The Autumn of the Middle Ages (1919). In a dialectic, Hegelian way he here reinterprets the later Middle Ages as a period of pessimism and decadence rather than rebirth.

Worthy of mentioning are also Erasmus (1924) and Homo Ludens (1938). In this last book he discusses the influence of play on European culture. Huizinga also published books on American history and Dutch history in the 17th century.

The Autumn of the Middle Ages

The Autumn of the Middle Ages, or The Waning of the Middle Ages, (published in 1919 as Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen and translated into English in 1924) is the best-known work by the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga. In it, he presents the idea that the exaggerated formality and romanticism of late medieval court society was a defense mechanism against the constantly increasing violence and brutality of general society. He saw the period as one of pessimism and nostalgia for the past, rather than of rebirth and optimism.

Huizinga's work has later come under criticism, especially for relying too heavily on evidence from the rather exceptional case of the Burgundian court. A new English translation of the book has been made because of perceived deficiencies in the original translation.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• The Autumn of the Middle Ages (1919)
• Erasmus of Rotterdam (1924)
• Homo Ludens (1938)
• Geyl, P. and F.W.N. Hugenholtz (eds.), Dutch Civilization in the Seventeenth Century and Other Essays (1968)
• Holmes, J.S. and H. Van Marle (eds.), Men and Ideas (1970)

• ^  Van Ditzhuijzen, Jeannette (September 9 2005). Bijna vergeten waren ze, de rustplaatsen van roemruchte voorvaderen. Trouw (Dutch newspaper), p. 9 of supplement.

External links

• Biographical notes
• Johan Huizinga The Waning of the Middle Ages
• Works by Johan Huizinga. Project Gutenberg
• Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen, available for free via Project Gutenberg (In Original Dutch)

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