Philip Numan


Philip Numan was a lawyer and humanist from the Low Countries, and a writer in prose and verse, sometimes under the pen name Hippophilus Neander.

Life

Numan was appointed city secretary of Brussels in 1583, and planned the joyous entries into the city of Archduke Ernest of Austria in 1594 and of Albert VII, Archduke of Austria in 1596.
His account of the miracles attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of Scherpenheuvel was published in Dutch and French, and soon translated into Spanish and English.
He translated a number of Latin and Spanish works into Dutch. When he was translating Diva Virgo Hallensis by Justus Lipsius, Lipsius wrote to him on 9 April 1605 that he should not translate too literally, but in his own natural style, because "each language has its own character and as it were its own genius, which cannot be conveyed in another language". In preliminary verses to Richard Verstegan's Neder-duytsche epigrammen Numan wrote in praise of the "genius" of Dutch as a literary language.

Works

As author

'. Antwerp, Hans Coesmans, 1583.Den Strijt des gemoets inden wech der deuchden. Brussels, Jan Mommaert, 1590.Descriptio Spectaculorum et Ludorum in adventu Sereniss. Principis Ernesti Austriaci Bruxellis editorum. Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, 1595. This work on a Joyous Entry of Archduke Ernest of Austria to Brussels was illustrated by Johannes Bochius and Joos de Momper.Panegyricus in adventum serenissimorum principum, Alberti et Isabellae, Archiducum Austriae, Ducum Brabantiae, in civitatem Bruxellensem. Brussels, Jan Mommaert, 1599.
  • '. 2nd edition. Leuven, Jan Baptist Zangre, 1604. Further edition Brussels, Rutger Velpius, 1606. .Histoire des Miracles advenuz n'agueres a l'intercession de la Glorieuse Vierge Marie, au lieu dit Mont-aigu, prez de Sichen, au Duché de Brabant. 2nd edition. Brussels, Rutger Velpius, 1605. Augmented edition 1613. On the Marian cult of the Basilica of Our Lady of Scherpenheuvel.
  • *Spanish translation as Historia de los Milagros que en Nuestra Señora de Monteagudo çerca de Sichen, en el Ducado de Brabante, nuestro Señor ha sido servido de obrar by Cæsar Clement. Brussels, Rutger Velpius, 1606.
  • *English translation as Miracles lately wrought by the intercession of the Glorious Virgin Mary at Mont-aigu, nere unto Sichen in Brabant, by Robert Chambers '. Brussels, Hubert Anthoon, 1617.
  • '. Brussels, Hubert Anthoon, 1617.Autres Miracles de Nostre Dame au Mont-Aigu. Brussels, Hubert Anthoon, 1618.

As translator