Vossius, Isaac

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Vossius, Isaac

Vossius, Isaac , Netherlands scholar; b. Leiden, 1618; d. Windsor, England, Feb. 21, 1689. He was educated at the Univ. of Leiden. After traveling in England, France, and Italy (1641-46), he taught at the court of Queen Christina of Sweden (1649-54). He was active in The Hague from 1655 before settling in England in 1670. That same year he was made a doctor of civil law by Oxford Univ. He became canon of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, in 1673. In addition to his writings on non-musical subjects, he wrote the important treatise De poematum cantus et viribus rythmi (London, 1673), which influenced such composers as Bach, Kuhnau, and Mattheson.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire