A Brill Calendar: October 8

The Responsibilities of Janus Dousa

Few individuals nursed and nurtured so many of the responsibilities of the nascent Leyden University as Johan van der Does, a country squire born in Noordwijk village, 1545.

Janus Dousa, (to give the Latinate version of his name), was a participator by nature. He belonged to the League of Noblemen presenting grudges against Spanish abuse of the Low Countries and of their leading families early in resistance against Habsburg authority.

During the siege of Leyden – near his native Noordwijk – he stood fast, stubbornly refusing surrender, commanding armed citizens in the city's defence and sharing their troubles. Directly afterwards, he participated in the founding of the University as its Curator; a post he held till his final days. Janus Dousa Senior died October 8th 1604 in The Hague, where Counts of Holland had kept court and hunted since the 13th century.

It is seldom that a personal vocation has so many various aspects. Without the personal benefit – and burden – of an academic education, van der Does became Librarian to the University – a lofty position indeed - ten years after its founding, under the proviso he would write a history of Holland in Latin. And he did; albeit as co-author with his son, Janus Dousa Junior, scholar at Leyden University until his early death at age 25, in 1596, eight years before his father died.

Dousa Senior wrote also Latin poetry. A diplomat by temper, he headed a number of overseas embassies to Queen Elizabeth I of England, drawing on the two countries’ mutual opposition to Spanish military might north of the Pyrenees. Dousa edited literary work and chronicles by contemporaries as well, whilst his notes on authors of Classical Antiquity found a wide readership.

Johan van der Does participated in many worlds, and in many ways. As a patrician in the local affairs of his region of birth; in those of Holland as a statesman, and in education and learning as a founding father.