P. C. (Pieter Corneliszoon) Hooft

Born in Amsterdam in 1581, P. C. Hooft grew up in a prosperous, educated family and became one of the central figures of Dutch Renaissance literature. He is remembered as a poet, playwright, and historian, and many later readers saw him as one of the finest stylists in Dutch.

Travel in France and Italy helped shape his literary tastes, and he drew on classical and Renaissance models in his writing. Alongside poems and plays, he worked for many years on his Nederlandsche Historien, a major history of the Dutch revolt against Spain.

Hooft also served as the drost, or governor, of Muiden and lived at Muiderslot, where writers, scholars, and artists gathered around him. He died in The Hague in 1647, but his influence on Dutch literature and prose style lasted for centuries.