author

Jacob Klinkhamer

1738–1817

An 18th-century Dutch minister and writer, he is remembered for religious works and for a lively life of Hugo Grotius that helped keep one of the Netherlands' great thinkers in the public imagination.

1 Audiobook

Het leven van Hugo de Groot

Het leven van Hugo de Groot

by Jacob Klinkhamer

About the author

Born in Hoorn on January 3, 1738, Jacob Klinkhamer studied theology at Leiden. He served briefly as a minister in Petten from 1761 to 1762, then spent most of his career in Wormerveer, remaining there until his retirement in July 1790.

Klinkhamer wrote both devotional and polemical works. Sources credit him with Korte handleiding tot verstand der voorbeeldige zinnebeeldige en propheetische godgeleerdheid (1775), De Kerk van Jesus gebouwd op het fundament der apostelen (1793, in two parts), and a controversial work published under the pseudonym Bibliophilus.

He is also known as the author of Het leven van Hugo de Groot, an 18th-century biography of Hugo Grotius that is still read in digital editions today. Klinkhamer died in Alkmaar on July 8, 1817.