Dirck Volckertsz Coornhert

As a child Coornhert spent some years in Spain and Portugal.
After learning Latin in 1552, Coornhert published Dutch translations from Cicero, Seneca and Boethius. His 1562 translation of the first twelve books of Homer's Odyssey is one of the first major works of Dutch Renaissance poetry. He was appointed secretary to the city of Haarlem (1562) and secretary to the burgomasters (1564).

Imprisoned at the Hague in 1568, he escaped to Cleves, where he maintained himself by his art. In 1572, he was for a short time secretary of state in the Dutch Republic. Inspired by his time in jail, he wrote a book "Boeventucht" on the causes of crime with ideas for more humane methods of punishment and correction.

Coornhert was famous as a politician, an engraver, and a theologian. He was both against Catholics and Reformers and strove in favor of tolerance, opposing capital punishment for heretics.

Coornhert also wrote a preface to the Dutch grammar published, and a number of poems. By the time he died in 1590, his Dutch translation of the New Testament (following the Latin version of Erasmus) was left unfinished. His collected works, in prose and verse, were published in 1630 in 3 volumes.

Isaac D'Israeli called him "one of the fathers of Dutch literature, and even of their arts."