Otto Heurnius


Otto Heurnius was a Dutch physician, theologian and philosopher.

Life

He succeeded his father Johannes Heurnius as professor of medicine at the University of Leiden; and took over anatomy teaching from Pieter Pauw from 1617. Alongside his practical anatomy teaching, he had the care of a very various collection of zoological and botanical specimens. The aims of the collection included reconstruction of the life of the Israelites in Egypt, as in the Book of Exodus.
He was also a historian of philosophy, stressing the period before the philosophers of the Ancient Greeks. He based his ideas on the Corpus Hermeticum.