Henric Laurenszoon Spieghel

Henric Laurenszoon Spieghel (born March 11, 1549, Amsterdam, Neth.—died Jan. 4, 1612, Alkmaar) was a poet of the northern Dutch Renaissance whose highly individual spiritual beliefs set him apart from his contemporaries. In Spieghel’s greatest work, Hertspiegel (1614; “Heart-Mirror”), a long, often allegorical poem written in hexametres, he set out his philosophical vision in simple, direct style. His strong religious faith is based on an amalgamation of Christian and Platonic ideas, together with an underlying...