Philip Numan (born around 1550, died 19 February 1627) was a lawyer and humanist from the Low Countries, and a writer in prose and verse, sometimes under the pen name Hippophilus Neander.[1]

Philip Numan
Part of the frontispiece to Den Leydtsman der Sondaren, Numan's translation of a work by Luis de Granada
Part of the frontispiece to Den Leydtsman der Sondaren, Numan's translation of a work by Luis de Granada
Bornaround 1550
Brussels
Died19 February 1627
Brussels
Pen nameHippophilus Neander
Occupationsecretary to the city of Brussels
LanguageDutch, French, Latin
NationalityDuchy of Brabant
CitizenshipBrussels
PeriodBaroque

Life

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Numan was appointed city secretary of Brussels in 1583, and planned the joyous entries into the city of Archduke Ernest of Austria in 1594 and of Albert VII, Archduke of Austria in 1596.[2]

His account of the miracles attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of Scherpenheuvel was published in Dutch and French, and soon translated into Spanish and English.[3]

He translated a number of Latin and Spanish works into Dutch (and in one case into French). When he was translating Diva Virgo Hallensis by Justus Lipsius, Lipsius wrote to him on 9 April 1605 that he should not translate too literally, but in his own natural style, because "each language has its own character and as it were its own genius, which cannot be conveyed in another language".[4] In preliminary verses to Richard Verstegan's Neder-duytsche epigrammen (Mechelen, Henry Jaye, 1617) Numan wrote in praise of the "genius" of Dutch as a literary language.[5][6]

Works

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As author

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As translator

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Bibliography

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  • Aa, A.J. van der, Biographisch woordenboek der Nederlanden, volume 13, Haarlem, 1868, pp. 344–345
  • Witsen Geysbeek, P.G., Biographisch anthologisch en critisch woordenboek der Nederduitsche dichters, volume 4, Amsterdam, 1822, p. 520

References

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  1. ^ Philip Numan, in K. ter Laan, Letterkundig woordenboek voor Noord en Zuid (2nd edition; The Hague and Jakarta, 1952).
  2. ^ Katharina van Cauteren, Eight unknown designs by Hendrick de Clerck for Archduke Albert's entry into Brussels in 1596, Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art Vol. 34, No. 1 (2009/2010), pp. 18–32, at p. 20. Published by: Stichting Nederlandse Kunsthistorische Publicaties. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20779988
  3. ^ Jeanine De Landtsheer, "From Philip Numan’s Miracles of the Virgin of Montaigu (1604) towards Justus Lipsius's Diva Sichemiensis sive Aspricolis (1605)", in Texts beyond Borders: Multilingualism and Textual Scholarship, edited by Wout Dillen, Caroline Macé and Dirk Van Hulle (Variants 9; Amsterdam and New York, 2012), pp. 62-65.
  4. ^ Erik De Bom, Geleerden en politiek: De politieke ideeën van Justus Lipsius in de vroegmoderne Nederlanden (Hilversum, 2011), p. 86.
  5. ^ Brendan Maurice Dooley (2010). The Dissemination of News and the Emergence of Contemporaneity in Early Modern Europe. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 197. ISBN 978-0-7546-6466-6.
  6. ^ Richard Verstegan, Neder-duytsche epigrammen (Mechelen, 1617), sig. [A6v].
  7. ^ Margit Thøfner, Marrying the City, Mothering the Country: Gender and Visual Conventions in Johannes Bochius's Account of the Joyous Entry of the Archduke Albert and the Infanta Isabella into Antwerp, Oxford Art Journal Vol. 22, No. 1 (1999), pp. 3–27, at p. 13. Published by: Oxford University Press. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1360681
  8. ^ Arblaster, Paul. "Clement, Caesar". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5601. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  9. ^ Arblaster, Paul. "Chambers, Robert". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5077. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)