Ubbo Emmius (5 December 1547 – 9 December 1625) was a German historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 and geographer

Geographer

A geographer is a scholar whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society.Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...

.

Early life

Ubbo Emmius was born on 5 December 1557 in Greetsiel

Greetsiel

Greetsiel is a small port on the bight of Leybucht in western East Frisia, Germany that was first documented in letters from the year 1388. Since 1972, Greetsiel has been part of the municipality of Krummhörn, which has its administrative seat in Pewsum...

, East Frisia

East Frisia

East Frisia or Eastern Friesland is a coastal region in the northwest of the German federal state of Lower Saxony....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. From the ages of 9 to 18 Emmius studied in a Latin school, before having to leave on the death of his father, a Lutheran preacher. After studying at Rostock

Rostock

Rostock -Early history:In the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc ; the name Rostock is derived from that designation. The Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161.Afterwards the place was settled by German traders...

, at the age of 30, Emmius took classes in Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

 with Theodorus Beza, a Calvinist who influenced Emmius greatly.

Life

Upon returning to East Friesland in 1579 he took the position of rector in the very school in which he was taught, the college at Norden. He was subsequently sacked by the local court in 1587 because, as a Calvinist, he would not subscribe to the confession of Augsburg. Following this, in 1588, the Calvinist count Johan offered him the position of rector in the Latin school of Leer

Leer

Leer is a town in the district of Leer, the northwestern part of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated at the river Ems, near the border with the Netherlands....

. (Later renamed the Ubbo-Emmius-Gymnasium

Ubbo-Emmius-Gymnasium

The Ubbo-Emmius-Gymnasium is a Gymnasium in the town of Leer in Lower Saxony, Germany.-History:The UEG was founded in 1584 as a High School for boys only and girls were not accepted before 1972...

). Whilst remaining in Leer it is know that Emmius had corresponded with many other important people of the time whom had fled from Groningen after the area fell into the hand of the Spanish. When Groningen surrended to Prince Maurits in 1594 those who fled returned and offered Ubbo the posision of rector in St Maarten school. When in 1614 the choice was made to form a university, under the guidance of Emmius. As a result he was chosen as the principal and professor of history and Greek and ultimately became the first rector magnificus of the Academy in which he formed.

Work

Ubbo Emmius' primary works were on the History of the Frisia

Frisia

Frisia is a coastal region along the southeastern corner of the North Sea, i.e. the German Bight. Frisia is the traditional homeland of the Frisians, a Germanic people who speak Frisian, a language group closely related to the English language...

n Territories: his 6 part Rerum Frisicarum historiae decades from 1592 to 1616.

Other works include:

• Opus chronologicum (Groningen, 1619)
• Vetus Graecia illustrata (Leiden, 1626)
• Historia temporis nostri, which was first published at Groningen in 1732

An account of his life, written by Nicholas Mulerius, was published, with the lives of other professors of Groningen, at Groningen in 1638.

Death

Ubbo Emmius died on the 9 December 1625; his grave stone reads:

“For the immortal memory of the famous and faithful old man Ubbo Emmius, a Frisian from Greetsiel, first rector of the academy, theologist of the pure doctrine, excellent philologist, perfect historian.”