Author: Grotius, Hugo [Hugo de Groot]
Title: The antiquity of the Batavian Republic.Edited and tranlated by Jan Waszink, a.o.
Description: Assen, Van Gorcum, 2000. Bound in blue cloth with silver lettering. 184 pp. With extensive antiquarian notes to the work by Petrus Scriverius (1630) which offers a picture of contemporary antiquarian scholarship and its applications in political debate. l Written during the Dutch war of independence against the Spanish, De Antiquitate Reipublicae Batavicae of 1610 defends the sovereignty and maturity of the republican government in Holland. Hugo Grotius shows from the Roman and Medieval history of Holland that government there had always been aristocratic rather than monarchical, and that the Batavians and Dutch had always been politically independent from foreign powers. Using a wealth of historical and antiquarian sources, the work gives a fascinating picture of a humanist's use of history and rhetorics for political purposes. It contains important keys to the development of Grotius' political thought as well.

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