Horne, Johannes van

1. Dates

Born: Amsterdam, a few days before 2 Sept. 1621.

Died: Leiden, 5 Jan. 1670.

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan: 49

2. Father

Occupation: Merchant

Jacob van Horne, descended from a rich Flemish family of merchants who moved north with the Reformation. The father was one of the first Directors of the Dutch East India Company, and one of the great merchants of Amsterdam.

Clearly the family was wealthy.

3. Nationality

Birth: Dutch

Career: Dutch

Death: Dutch

4. Education

Schooling: Leiden; Utrecht; Padua, M.D.

Horne matriculated in Leiden in 1636 and there discovered medicine which became his field.

He continued his medical education in Utrecht, and went from there to Italy and Padua where he completed his M.D. I assume a B.A. or its equivalent along the way.

Horne was a student abroad for six years; he visited quite a string of universities (Naples, Montpelier, Basel, et al.) before he returned home. The implication is that he was not a student, but solely a visitor, at these other universities.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Calvinist

He could not have held that position in Leiden otherwise.

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Anatomy

Subordinate: Surgery

Although primarily interested in anatomy, Horne later lectured and published on surgery.

He was the first to describe the ductus chyliferus in man.

He prepared a anatomical atlas which was never published.

He investigated the ovaries with Swammerdam.

His introduction to anatomy was translated from its original Latin into Dutch, German, and French.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Personal Means, Academia

The limited biographical literature on Horne does not explicitly mention his personal wealth (from his father), but his support of Swammerdam for at least a year cannot have come from his academic salary.

Upon his return to the Netherlands, Horne asked permission to give anatomical demonstrations at Leiden. (Note the premise of sufficient personal means in this request.) Soon thereafter he was appointed extraordinary professor of anatomy in 1651, and upon the death of the ordinary professor he was appointed professor of anatomy and surgery in 1653. His salary with his first appointment was 400 guilders; it rose over the years to 1000.

I did not find reference to medical practice.

8. Patronage

Type: Unknown

Someone had to stand behind the appointments in Leiden. Given his family connections, one can readily imagine the influence, but no name is mentioned explicitly.

9. Technological Involvement

Type: Medical Practice

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

Sources

1. G.A. Lindeboom, Dutch Medicald Biography.
2. Nieuw Nederlandsch Biographisch Woordenboek.
3. A. Hirsch, Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Aerzte aller Zeiten und Voelker (3rd ed., Munich, 1962), 3, 300.

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University

Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue cannot answer email on geneological questions.