Utrecht University

Graduate Student, Philosophy

About

I studied classics at Leiden University and did a minor editing and publishing at the University of Amsterdam. I specialised in Neo-Latin and wrote my master's thesis under the supervision of Prof. Karl Enenkel on Joannes Meursius' Rerum Belgicarum liber unus, in quo Induciarum historia (1612) about the negotiations for the Twelve Years’ Truce.

Currently I am preparing a PhD thesis in the history of philosophy within the NWO-project ‘Descartes and his network’ supervised by Prof. Theo Verbeek. My thesis aims at providing a comprehensive study of life and work of the first Utrecht professor of philosophy Henricus Reneri (1593-1639).

Reneri chiefly taught physics and logic, and worked on a logical method of his own in the Ramist tradition. One of the focuses of my research is the content of Reneri’s classes in philosophy, in particular physics, and the intellectual background of his ideas about method.

Moreover, Reneri was one of the best friends of the French philosopher René Descartes and a great admirer of his philosophy. Particular consideration is hence given to Reneri’s role in the formation of Descartes’ network and to Cartesian influences in the work of Reneri.

Furthermore, my research focuses on Reneri's experiments and inventions in the fields of optics, thermometers and natural magic.

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