Heinsius was born in
Leiden, the
Netherlands as the son of
Daniel Heinsius, one of the most famous scholars of the
Dutch Renaissance. His
boyish Latin poem Breda expugnata was printed in 1637, and attracted much attention. In 1642 he began his wanderings with a visit to
England in search of
manuscripts of the
classics but met with little courtesy from the English scholars. In ill health, he went to
Spa in 1644 to seek a cure by drinking the local mineral water. His health restored, he set out once more in search of
codices, passing through
Leuven,
Brussels,
Mechelen,
Antwerp and so back to Leiden, everywhere collating manuscripts and taking
philological and textual notes. Almost immediately he set out again, and arriving in
Paris was welcomed with open arms by the French
scholars. After studying the classical texts he could obtain, he traveled in 1646 southwards visited on the way
Lyon,
Marseille,
Pisa,
Florence (where he paused to publish a new edition of
Ovid) and
Rome. The next year, he was in
Naples, which he left during the reign of
Masaniello. He pursued his studies in
Livorno,
Bologna,
Venice, where he received assistance from
Jan Reynst and
Padua. In Padua he published in 1648 his volume of original Latin verse entitled
Italica. He proceeded to
Milan and worked for a considerable time in the
Biblioteca Ambrosiana. While preparing to explore
Switzerland the news of his father's illness recalled him hurriedly to Leiden. Soon after he was invited to
Stockholm by
Christina of Sweden. At the Swedish court he became embroiled in a heated dispute with
Claudius Salmasius over the Greek of the
New Testament. The quarrel became both highly personal and widely known, and Heinsius as university librarian refused him access to the books he wished to consult. Heinsius paid a brief visit to Leiden in 1650 and immediately returned to Stockholm. In 1651 he visited France and Italy with
Isaac Vossius to buy books and coins for Christina. In 1654 Christina stepped down. Two years later Heinsius became a diplomat for the
States General of the Netherlands at the invitation of
Coenraad van Beuningen. In 1665 he was appointed by the city of Amsterdam as the official historian. In 1669 he visited Moscow and in 1672 Bremen. In 1675 he settled down in his country house near
Vianen, but moved to the Hague later. Heinsius had two illegitimate children by Margareta Wullen, daughter of a Lutheran minister from Stockholm, who was a nude model in Amsterdam. He married her only after a lawsuit, and did not want to recognise his sons, Daniel and
Nicolaas Heinsius the Younger (1655–1718) but was eventually forced to do so. Nicolaas the Younger had to flee the Dutch Republic in 1677 for committing manslaughter in the streets of the Hague. Nicolaas the Younger became a physician, and in 1679 he was appointed Queen
Christina of Sweden's private physician in Rome. He later returned to Holland and was the author of the
Den vermakelyken avanturier, ofte De Wispelturige, en niet min Wonderlyke Levens-Loop van Mirandor (
The Jolly Adventurer or the Unpredictable and not less Wonderful Life of Mirandor) (1695), the only Dutch-language romance novel of the 17th century. Nicolaas the Elder collected one of the biggest private libraries in Europe. He was visited by
Lorenzo Magalotti in 1668 when visiting the
United Provinces. After his death about 13.000 books were sold in 1683. The famous catalogue was used by many scholars as a reference. He maintained an extensive correspondence with other scholars of his time such as
Christiaan Huygens,
Gaspar Gevartius and
Albert Rubens, the son of
Peter Paul Rubens. In 1653 Heinsius collected his Latin poems into a volume. His latest labours were the editing of
Velleius Paterculus in 1678 and of
Valerius Flaccus in 1680. He died at
The Hague on 7 October 1681. ==Sources==