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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.

     
©1995 Al Van Helden
Last updated
 
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