Abstract

Although Isaac Vossius (1618-89) was one of the Dutch Republic's most famous intellectuals of the 1660s, and his influence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was far-reaching, he is still not well known today among early modern scholars; consequently, he has not been the subject of much research. My intention in this essay, therefore, is to put a spotlight on this humanist and to demonstrate why he should be labeled an "erudite libertarian." The way Vossius lived his life, and more specifically the fact that he felt at home in certain libertarian circles, such as the societas Puteana in Paris and the court of Charles II in England, is evidence for my conclusions. After a theoretical discussion of libertarianism, i.c. libertinage d'action, libertinage d'écriture, and libertinage érudit, to provide a context for Vossius's philosophical framework, this essay examines the erudite libertarian ideas in biblical chronology that he expressed in his De vera aetate mundi (1659).

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