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The basics
Quick facts
Intro
Dutch physician and philosopher
Gender:
Male
Places:
Work field:
Birth:
8 September 1577(Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands, Kingdom of the Netherlands)
Death:
14 July 1652(Leiden, South Holland, Netherlands, Kingdom of the Netherlands)
The details
Biography
Introduction
Otto Heurnius (Otto van Heurn) (8 September 1577 – 14 July 1652) was a Dutch physician, theologian and philosopher.
Life
He succeeded his father Johannes Heurnius as professor of medicine at the University of Leiden; and took over anatomy teaching from Pieter Pauw from 1617. Alongside his practical anatomy teaching, he had the care of a very various collection of zoological and botanical specimens. The aims of the collection included reconstruction of the life of the Israelites in Egypt, as in the Book of Exodus.
He was also a historian of philosophy, stressing the period before the philosophers of the Ancient Greeks (“barbarian philosophy”). He based his ideas on the Corpus Hermeticum.