Johannes Isacius Pontanus

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Johan Isaaksz Pontanus (1571–1639) was a Dutch historian. He was the son of Margaretha van Delen and Isaac Pietersz, the Dutch consul to Denmark in Helsingør, and his older brother was the painter Pieter Isaacsz. In 1578 his family moved back to the Netherlands, and Pontanus grew up in Amsterdam. He studied medicine at Franeker in 1589 and at Leiden in 1592, writing under the name Joannes Hellespontius Danus. After defending his thesis in 1593, he traveled to Rome and met scholars, then visited Denmark where his parents had returned and met Tycho Brahe and Arild Huitfeldt. In 1596 he spent much time in England (Canterbury, Oxford, Stamford) and later traveled to German, Swiss and French cities, sometimes escorting three of Brahe’s young relatives.

In 1604 he became a professor at the Gelderse Academie in Harderwijk, where he taught for the rest of his life. Pontanus is best known for writing histories of places and countries. His Amsterdam history (1611) is considered the first city history of Amsterdam and was controversial enough to be banned by the Roman Church. In 1618 he was asked to write a Latin history of Denmark and was named Royal Danish official historian; the work continued until his death, with the first part published in 1631. In 1621 he began a history of Guelders, finished in 1639, drawing on earlier works by Paulus Merula and Johannes Luntius. He married Annetjen van den Herde in 1606 and had at least four children. Pontanus died in Harderwijk in 1639, nine years before the academy there was officially declared a university.