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{{Short description|Flemish philologist, philosopher and humanist (1547–1606)}}
{{about|the person|the building|Justus Lipsius building}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=January 2014}}
{{infobox philosopher
| image                      = Justus Lipsius by Peter Paul Rubens.jpg
| birth_date               = {{birth date|1547|10|18}}
| birth_place             = [[Overijse]], [[Spanish Netherlands]]
| death_date             = {{death date and age|1606|3|23|1547|10|18}}
| death_place           = [[Leuven]], [[Spanish Netherlands]]
| alma_mater           = [[Catholic University of Louvain]]
| institutions            = [[Leiden University]] (1578–1591)
| notable_students = [[Erycius Puteanus]]
| notable_works      = ''[[De Constantia]]'' (1583)
| region                     = [[Western philosophy]]
| school_tradition    = [[Neostoicism]]
}}

'''Justus Lipsius''' ('''Joest Lips'''{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} or '''Joost Lips'''; October 18, 1547 – March 23, 1606) was a [[Flemish people|Flemish]] Catholic [[philologist]], [[philosopher]], and [[Christian humanism|humanist]]. Lipsius wrote a series of works designed to revive ancient [[Stoicism]] in a form that would be compatible with [[Christianity]]. The most famous of these is ''[[De Constantia]]'' (''On Constancy''). His form of Stoicism influenced a number of contemporary thinkers, creating the [[intellectual history|intellectual movement]] of [[Neostoicism]]. He taught at the universities in [[Jena]], [[Leiden]], and [[Leuven]].

==Early life==
[[Image:Peter Paul Rubens 118.jpg|thumb|''[[The Four Philosophers]]'' (c. 1615. Oil on panel; 167 x 143 cm, [[Pitti Palace]], [[Florence]]). One of Lipsius's students was [[Philip Rubens]], the brother of the painter [[Peter Paul Rubens]]. In his friendship portrait of about 1615, the painter depicted himself, his brother, Lipsius and [[Jan van den Wouwer]], another pupil of Lipsius, (left to right) along with Lipsius' dog Mopsulus. A bust of [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]] behind the philosopher references his work, while the ruins of [[Rome]]'s [[Palatine Hill]] in the background further commemorate the classical influences. Rubens painted a similar friendship portrait while in [[Mantua]] around 1602 (now in the [[Wallraf-Richartz Museum]], [[Cologne]]) that also includes Lipsius.]]

Lipsius was born in [[Overijse]], [[Duchy of Brabant|Brabant]] (in modern [[Belgium]]). His parents sent him early to the Jesuit college in [[Cologne]], but they feared that he might become a member of the [[Society of Jesus]], so when he was sixteen they removed him to the [[Old University of Leuven|University of Leuven]] in [[Leuven]].

The publication of his ''Variarum Lectionum Libri Tres'' (1567), which he dedicated to [[Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle|Cardinal Granvelle]], earned him an appointment as a Latin secretary, and a visit to [[Rome]] in the retinue of the cardinal. Here Lipsius remained for two years, devoting his spare time to the study of the Latin classics, collecting inscriptions and examining manuscripts in the [[Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana|Vatican]]. After he returned from Rome, he published a second volume of miscellaneous criticism (''Antiquarum Lectionum Libri Quinque'', 1575); compared with the ''Variae Lectiones'' of eight years earlier, it shows that he had advanced from the notion of purely [[conjectural emendation]] to that of emending by [[collation]].

==Academic career==
In 1570 he travelled through [[Burgundy (region)|Burgundy]], [[Germany]], [[Austria]], and [[Bohemia]], where the [[University of Jena]] engaged him as a teacher for more than a year, a position which implied conformity to the [[Lutheran Church]]. On his way back to [[Leuven]], he stopped some time in [[Cologne]], where he must have comported himself as a [[Catholic]].

He then returned to Leuven, but the [[Eighty Years' War]] soon drove him to take refuge via [[Antwerp]] to the Northern Netherlands, where, in 1579, the newly founded [[University of Leiden]] appointed him professor of history. He held the position of rector of the university for four terms and was a driving force behind the growth and innovation in the early years.<ref name="WOI">Willem Otterspeer: ''Het bolwerk van de vrĳheid : de Leidse universiteit, 1575–1672''. Amsterdam : Uitgeverij Bert Bakker, 2000. {{ISBN|9035122402}}</ref>

The eleven years that Lipsius spent in [[Leiden]] were the period of his greatest productivity.  It was during this time that he prepared his [[Lucius Annaeus Seneca|Seneca]], and perfected, in successive editions, his [[Gaius Cornelius Tacitus|Tacitus]], and brought out a series of other works. Some were pure scholarship, some were collections from classical authors, and others were of general interest. One of this latter class was a treatise on politics (''Politicorum Libri Sex'', 1589), in which he showed that, though a public teacher in a country which professed toleration, he had not departed from the state maxims of [[Duke of Alva|Alva]] and [[Philip II of Spain|Philip II]]. He wrote that a government should recognize only one religion, and extirpate dissent by fire and sword. This avowal exposed him to attacks, but the prudent authorities of Leiden saved him, by prevailing upon him to publish a declaration that his expression ''Ure, seca'' ("Burn and cut") was a metaphor for a vigorous treatment.

==Later life==
[[Image:2006 Belgium 10 Lipsius Justus front.JPG|160px|thumb|The [[Euro gold and silver commemorative coins (Belgium)#2006 coinage|Justus Lipsius Commemorative Coin]]]]
In the spring of 1590, leaving Leiden under pretext of taking the waters in [[Spa, Belgium|Spa]], he went to [[Mainz]], where he reconciled with the [[Roman Catholic Church]]. This event deeply interested the Catholic world, and invitations from the courts and universities of [[Italy]], [[Austria]] and [[Spain]] poured in on Lipsius. But he preferred to remain in his own country, and he finally settled in Leuven, as professor of Latin in the [[Collegium Trilingue|Collegium Buslidianum]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} In 1591 he undertook a grand tour of France, Italy and Germany with his young friend and later Amsterdam burgomaster [[Jacob Dircksz de Graeff]].<ref name="dbnl_jacob">[https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/molh003nieu02_01/molh003nieu02_01_1041.php Biography of Jacob Dircksz de Graeff at Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek]. Deel 2 (1912), by [[Petrus Johannes Blok|P.J. Blok]] and [[Philipp Christiaan Molhuysen|P.C. Molhuysen]]</ref>

He was not expected to teach, and appointments as [[privy council]]lor and [[historiographer royal]] to King Philip II of Spain eked out his trifling stipend. He continued to publish dissertations as before, the chief being his ''De militia romana'' (1595) and his ''Lovanium'' (1605), intended as an introduction to a general history of Brabant.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Lipsius died in [[Leuven]], at the age of 58.

==Legacy==
The former headquarters of the [[European Council]] (2004–2017) and the [[Council of the European Union]] (1995–2017), the [[Justus Lipsius building]], bears his name, having been constructed over the site of ''Rue Juste Lipse'', which linked ''[[Rue Belliard]]'' to ''[[Rue de la Loi]]'' in the [[Brussels and the European Union|European Quarter]] of [[Brussels]]. The building is still used by both institutions for offices and low-level meetings and so ''Justus Lipsius'' features heavily in the EU-lexicon.

In 2006, he was selected to appear on the 10 euro [[Euro gold and silver commemorative coins (Belgium)#2006 coinage|Justus Lipsius Silver commemorative Coin]], minted by Belgium. The reverse side of the coin shows his portrait together with the years of his life (1547–1606).

One of the main buildings of Leiden University which serve as the Faculty of Humanities was named after Lipsius.

==Political thinking==
The German historian Gerhard Oestreich has argued that Lipsius's ideas about the ideal citizen, a man who acts according to reason, is answerable to himself, is in control of his emotions, and is ready to fight, had found wide acceptance in the turbulent times of the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]]. The Lipsian view, translated to politics, would have been at the basis of rationalisation of the state and its apparatus of government, autocratic rule by the prince, discipline dispensed to subjects, and strong military defence. The principles would have laid the foundation for military revolution that transformed first European warfare and then the internal organisation of the European states themselves.<ref>Oestreich, G: ''Neostoicism & the Early Modern State'', Cambridge University Press, 1982</ref>  These conclusions of Oestreich have met with some scepticism in the academic community, and the notion that Lipsius' political ideas had a decisive influence on political developments and military reforms in the [[Dutch Republic]] has been challenged.<ref>[http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s9737.pdf Chapter 1.  Justus Lipsius and the Post-Machiavellian Prince], in: Christopher Brooke, ''Philosophic Pride: Stoicism and Political Thought from Lipsius to Rousseau'', Princeton University Press, 2012, pp. 12–36</ref>

==Works==
[[File:Houghton NC5 L6698 596d - Lipsius, 146.jpg|thumb|Illustration from {{lang|la|De militia romana libri quinque}}, 1596]]
* {{lang|la|Variarum Lectionum Libri Tres}} (1567)
* {{lang|la|[[De Constantia|De Constantia Libri Duo]], Qui alloquium praecipue continent in Publicis malis}} (Antwerp: Plantijn, 1584)
* {{lang|la|Politicorum sive Civilis Doctrinae Libri Sex}} (Leiden: Plantijn-Raphelengius, 1589) [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ucm.532361028x;view=1up;seq=5 Online version]
* {{lang|la|De militia romana}} (Antwerp: Plantijn-Moretus 1595)
* {{lang|la|Admiranda, sive de Magnitudine Romana Libri Quattuor}} (Antwerp: Plantijn-Moretus, 1598) [https://digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb11217209 Online version]
* {{lang|la|De bibliothecis syntagma}} (Antwerp: Plantijn-Moretus, 1602)
* {{lang|la|Manuductionis ad Stoicam Philosophiam Libri Tres, L. Annaeo Senecae, aliisque scriptoribus illustrandis}} (Antwerp: Plaintijn-Moretus, 1604)
* {{lang|la|Diva Virgo Hallensis. Beneficia eius et miracula fide atque ordine descripta}} (Antwerp: Plantijn-Moretus, 1604)
* {{lang|la|Annaei Senecae Philosophi Opera, Quae Exstant Omnia, A Iusto Lipsio emendata, et Scholiis illustrata}} (Antwerp: Plantijn-Moretus, 1605)
* {{lang|la|Lovanium, sive Opidi et Academiae eius descriptio}} (Antwerp: Plantijn-Moretus, 1605)
* {{lang|la|Monita et exempla politica}} (Admonitions), published in 1605

==See also==
* [[Erycius Puteanus]], his student

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal|doi=10.1017/S026021050800822X|last=Leira|first=H.|year=2008|title=Justus Lipsius, political humanism and the disciplining of 17th century statecraft|journal=Review of International Studies|volume=34|issue=4|pages=669–692|s2cid=146484821 }}

==References==
* {{CE1913|wstitle=Justus Lipsius}}
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Lipsius, Justus |volume=16|page=743}}

==External links==
* {{commons category-inline|Justus Lipsius}}
* {{wikisource author-inline}}
* {{cite SEP |url-id=justus-lipsius |title=Justus Lipsius |last=Papy |first=Jan}}
* {{cite IEP |url-id=lipsius |title=Justus Lipsius |last=Sellars |first=John}}
* [https://www.stoictherapy.com/elibrary-constancy ''On Constancy''] at the Stoic Therapy eLibrary
* [http://www.wku.edu/~jan.garrett/lipsius1.htm Justus Lipsius His First Book of Constancy]
* [http://www.wku.edu/~jan.garrett/lipsius2.htm Justus Lipsius His Second Book of Constancy]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lipsius, Justus}}
[[Category:1547 births]]
[[Category:1606 deaths]]
[[Category:16th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:17th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:Christian humanists]]
[[Category:Catholic philosophers]]
[[Category:Flemish classical scholars]]
[[Category:Flemish Renaissance humanists]]
[[Category:Old University of Leuven alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Old University of Leuven]]
[[Category:Classical scholars of Leiden University]]
[[Category:People from the Duchy of Brabant]]
[[Category:Neo-Stoics]]
[[Category:Medieval military writers]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic writers]]