Editing Johan Huizinga

{{Short description|Dutch cultural historian (1872–1945)}}
{{about|the Dutch historian|the American physicist|John Huizenga}}

{{Infobox historian 
| name = Johan Huizinga
| image = Johan-huizinga1.jpg
| image_size = 200px
| birth_date = {{birth date|1872|12|07|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Groningen (city)|Groningen]], Netherlands
| death_date = {{death date and age|1945|02|01|1872|12|07|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[De Steeg]], Netherlands
| occupation = Historian, professor, writer
| employer = 
| notable_works = {{plainlist|
* ''[[The Autumn of the Middle Ages]]'' (1919)
* ''[[Homo Ludens]]'' (1938)
* ''[[Dutch Civilisation in the Seventeenth Century]]'' (1941)
}}
| workplaces = {{Nowrap|[[Groningen University]] (1905–1923) <br> [[Leiden University]] (1915–1942)}}
| influences = [[Jacob Burckhardt]]
| discipline = [[History]]
}}
'''Johan Huizinga''' ({{IPA|nl|ˈjoːɦɑn ˈɦœyzɪŋɣaː|lang}}; 7 December 1872 – 1 February 1945) was a Dutch historian and one of the founders of modern [[cultural history]].

==Life==
[[File:Professoren Nieuwenhuis en Huizinga, SFA001019999.jpg|thumb|left|Huizinga (right) with the ethnographer [[Anton Willem Nieuwenhuis|A.W. Nieuwenhuis]], [[Leiden]] (1917)]]
[[File:Leiden - Doelensteeg 16 (Johan Huizinga).jpg|thumb|Huizinga plaque at [[Leiden University]] ]]

Born in [[Groningen (city)|Groningen]] as the son of Dirk Huizinga, a professor of [[physiology]], and Jacoba Tonkens, who died two years after his birth,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/huizin.htm |title=Johan Huizinga |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150210175324/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/huizin.htm |archive-date=10 February 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> he started out as a student of [[Indo-European languages]], earning his degree in 1895. He then studied [[comparative linguistics]], gaining a good command of [[Sanskrit]]. He wrote his doctoral thesis on the role of the [[jester]] in Indian drama in 1897.

In 1902 his interest turned towards [[Middle Ages|medieval]] and [[Renaissance]] history. He continued teaching as an Orientalist until he became a Professor of General and Dutch History at [[Groningen University]] in 1905. In 1915, he was made Professor of General History at [[Leiden University]], a post he held until 1942. In 1916 he became member of the [[Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/biografie/pmknaw/?pagetype=authorDetail&aId=PE00001026 |title=J. Huizinga (1872 - 1945) |publisher=Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |access-date=21 July 2015}}</ref>

In 1942, he spoke critically of his country's German occupiers, comments that were consistent with his writings about [[Fascism]] in the 1930s. He was held in detention by the [[Nazi Germany|Nazis]] between August and October 1942. Upon his release, he was banned from returning to Leiden. He subsequently lived at the house of his colleague [[Rudolph Cleveringa]] in [[De Steeg]] in [[Gelderland]], near [[Arnhem]], where he died just a few weeks before Nazi rule ended.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hugenholtz|first= F.W.N.|title=Huizinga, Johan (1872-1945)|work= Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland|url=http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/bwn1880-2000/lemmata/bwn1/huizinga |date=November 12, 2013}}</ref> He lies buried in the graveyard of the Reformed Church at 6 Haarlemmerstraatweg in [[Oegstgeest]].<ref>Van Ditzhuijzen, Jeannette (September 9, 2005). ''Bijna vergeten waren ze, de rustplaatsen van roemruchte voorvaderen''. Trouw (Dutch newspaper), p. 9 of supplement.</ref>

==Works==
Huizinga had an aesthetic approach to history, where art and spectacle played an important part.  His most famous work is ''[[The Autumn of the Middle Ages]]'' (also released as ''The Waning of the Middle Ages'' or ''Autumntide of the Middle Ages'') (1919).

Other works include ''Erasmus'' (1924) and ''[[Homo Ludens]]'' (1938). In the latter book he discussed the possibility that play is the primary formative element in human culture. Huizinga also published books on American history and Dutch history in the 17th century.

Alarmed by the rise of [[National Socialism]] in Germany, Huizinga wrote several works of cultural criticism. Many similarities can be noted between his analysis and that of contemporary critics such as [[Ortega y Gasset]] and [[Oswald Spengler]]. Huizinga argued that the spirit of technical and mechanical organisation had replaced spontaneous and organic order in cultural as well as political life. {{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

The [[Huizinga Lecture]] (Dutch: ''Huizingalezing'') is a prestigious annual lecture in the Netherlands about a subject in the domains of cultural history or philosophy in honour of Johan Huizinga.<ref>{{citation | url = http://www.hum.leiden.edu/history/huizinga-lezing/over-huizinga-lezing/over-1.html | publisher = Universiteit Leiden | title = Huizinga-lezing | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110725204113/http://www.hum.leiden.edu/history/huizinga-lezing/over-huizinga-lezing/over-1.html | archive-date = 2011-07-25 }}</ref>

Johan Huizinga’s archive and papers are held by [[Leiden University Library|Leiden University Libraries]]’ Special Collections and also available in its Digital Collections.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://digitalcollections.universiteitleiden.nl/view/collection/huizinga | title = Huizinga Papers}}</ref> A complete inventory has been published.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://collectionguides.universiteitleiden.nl/resources/ubl057 | title = Johan Huizinga archive}}</ref>

==Family==
Huizinga's son Leonhard Huizinga became a writer, including his series of tongue-in-cheek novels on the Dutch aristocratic twins {{ill|Adrian and Oliver|nl|Adriaan en Olivier}} ("Adriaan en Olivier").

==Bibliography==
*''Mensch en menigte in America'' (1918), translated by Herbert H. Rowen as ''America; A Dutch historian's vision, from afar and near'' (Part 1) (Harper & Row, 1972)
*''Herfsttij der Middeleeuwen'' (1919), translated as ''Herbst des Mittelalters'' by [[Mathilde Wolff-Mönckeberg]] (1924), ''The Waning of the Middle Ages'' (1924), as ''[[The Autumn of the Middle Ages]]'' (1996) and as ''[[Autumntide of the Middle Ages]]'' by Diane Webb (2020)
*''Erasmus of Rotterdam'' (1924), translated by Frederik Hopman as ''Erasmus and the Age of Reformation'' (1924)
*''Amerika Levend en Denkend'' (1926), translated by Herbert H. Rowen as ''America: A Dutch Historian's Vision, from Afar and Near'' (Part 2) (Harper & Row, 1972)
*''Leven en werk van [[Jan Veth]]'' (1927)
*''Cultuurhistorische verkenningen'' (1929)
*''In de schaduwen van morgen'' (1935), translated by his son Jacob Herman Huizinga ''In the Shadow of Tomorrow''
*''De wetenschap der geschiedenis'' (1937)
*''Geschonden wereld'' (1946, published posthumously)
*''Homo Ludens. Proeve eener bepaling van het spel-element der cultuur'' (1938), translated as ''[[Homo Ludens (book)|Homo Ludens, a study of the play element in culture]]'' (1955)
*''Nederland's beschaving in de zeventiende eeuw'' (1941). Translated by [[Arnold Pomerans]] as ''[[Dutch civilisation in the seventeenth century]]'' (1968)
*“Patriotism and Nationalism in European History”. In: ''Men and Ideas. History, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance''. Transl. by James S. Holmes and Hans van Marle. New York: Meridian Books, 1959.
*''Men and ideas. History, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance. Essays'' (1959). Translations by James S. Holmes and Hans van Marle of parts of Huizinga's Collected Works

==See also==
*[[Courtly love]]
*[[C. S. Lewis]] and his ''[[The Allegory of Love]]''
*[[D. W. Robertson Jr.]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Willem Otterspeer: ''Reading Huizinga''. Amsterdam University Press, 2010. {{ISBN|978-90-8964-180-9}}
* Jo Tollebeek: "At the crossroads of nationalism: Huizinga, Pirenne and the Low Countries in Europe," ''European Review of History'' (2010) 17#2 pp 187–215
* Donald R. Kelley: ''Fortunes of history. Historical inquiry from Herder to Huizinga''. New Haven, Yale University Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0-300-09578-3}}
* ''Johan Huizinga 1872-1972. Papers delivered to the Johan Huizinga Conference Groningen 11-15 december 1972''. Ed. by W.R.H. Koops ... [et al.] The Hague, Nijhoff, 1973. {{ISBN|90-247-1609-8}}
* Sean Farrell Moran "Johan Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages, and the Writing of History," Michigan Academician XLII (2016): 410-22
“Text and Subtext in Johan Huizinga’s Writings on America.”
	From the Halve Maen to KLM. 400 Years of Dutch-American Exchange.
	Eds. Margriet Bruijn Lacy, Charles Gehring, Jenneke Oosterhof. [Studies in Dutch Language and Culture vol. 2]. Münster (Germany): Nodus Publikationen, 2008, 311-320.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Johan Huizinga}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [https://huizinga-online.nl/ Huizinga Online] (life, work, papers) [[Leiden University Library|Leiden University Libraries]]
* [https://digitalcollections.universiteitleiden.nl/view/collection/huizinga Huizinga Papers: Archive of the Dutch historian and professor Johan Huizinga (1872-1945)] Digital Collections [[Leiden University Library|Leiden University Libraries]]
* [https://collectionguides.universiteitleiden.nl/resources/ubl057 Inventory Johan Huizinga archive] [[Leiden University Library|Leiden University Libraries]]
* [http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/history/historian/Johan_Huizinga.html Johan Huizinga The Waning of the Middle Ages]
* {{Gutenberg author |id=6957| name=Johan Huizinga}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Johan Huizinga}}
* {{Librivox author |id=14717}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080603182043/http://www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org/huizingaj.htm Johan Huizinga] at ''The Dictionary of Art Historians''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140111210138/http://bc.ub.leidenuniv.nl/bc/tentoonstelling/huizinga/huizinga.htm Online version Exhibition Johan Huizinga in University Library Leiden, 1998]
* [https://rkd.nl/en/artists/88436 Portraits of Huizinga in database of Netherlands institute for art history]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huizinga, Johan}}
[[Category:1872 births]]
[[Category:1945 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Dutch historians]]
[[Category:20th-century Dutch philosophers]]
[[Category:Historians of the Netherlands]]
[[Category:People from Groningen (city)]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Leiden University]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of Teylers Tweede Genootschap]]
[[Category:Dutch Mennonites]]