Franz Junius, Junior
FRANZ JUNIUS, JUNIOR (in French, Francois du Jon) (1589-1677), a Hugenot scholar, son of FRANZ JUNIUS, was born at Heidelberg, and brought up at Leiden. His attention was diverted from military to theological studies by the peace of 1609 between Spain and the Netherlands. In 1617 he became pastor at Hillegondsberg, but in 1620 went to England, where he became librarian to Thomas Howard, earl of Arundel, and tutor to his son. He remained in England thirty years, devoting himself to the study of Anglo-Saxon, and afterwards of the cognate old Teutonic languages. His work, intrinsically valuable, is important as having aroused interest in a frequently neglected subject. In 1651 he returned to Holland; and for two years lived in Friesland in order to study the old dialect. In 1675 he returned to England, and during the next year resided in Oxford; in 1677 he went to live at Windsor with his nephew, Isaac Vossius, in whose house he died on the 19th of November 1677. He was buried at Windsor in St George's Chapel.
He was pre-eminently a student. He published De pictura veterum (1637) (in English by the author, 1638; enlarged and improved edition, edited by J. G. Graevius, who prefixed a life of Junius, with a catalogue of architects, painters, etc., and their works, Rotterdam, 1694); Observations in Willerami Abbatis francicam paraphrasin cantici canticorum (Amsterdam, 1655); Annotationes in harmoniam latino-francicam quatuor evangelistarum, laline a Tatiano confectam (Amsterdam, 1655) ; Caedmonis monachi paraphrases poetica geneseos (Amsterdam, 1655) (see criticism under CAEDMON); Quatuor D.N.I.C. evangeliorum versiones perantiquae duae, gothica scilicet et anglo-saxonica (Dort, 2 vols., 1665) (the Gothic version in this book Junius transcribed from the Silver Codex of Ulfilas; the Anglo-Saxon version is from an edition by Thomas Marshall, whose notes to both versions are given, and a Gothic glossary by Junius); Etymologicum anglicanum, edited by Edward Lye, and preceded by a life of Junius and George Hickes's Anglo-Saxon grammar (Oxford, 1743) (its results require careful verification in the light of modern research). His rich collection of ancient MSS., edited and annotated by him, Junius bequeathed to the university of Oxford. Graevius gives a .list of them, the most important are a version of the Ormulum, the version of Caedrnon, and 9 volumes containing Glossarium v. linguarum septentrionalium.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
