Samuel Ampzing was a Dutch minister, poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and purist

Linguistic purism

Linguistic purism or linguistic protectionism is the practice of defining one variety of a language as being purer than other varieties. The ideal of purity is often opposed in reference to a perceived decline from an "ideal past" or an unwanted similarity with other languages, but sometimes simply...

.

Biography

Born to the minister Johannes Ampzing in Haarlem

Haarlem

Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, the northern half of Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic...

, in 1616 Samuel became a minister himself at Rijsoord

Rijsoord

Rijsoord is a village in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is located about 10 km southeast of the city of Rotterdam, in the municipality of Ridderkerk....

 in Strevelshoek

Strevelshoek

Strevelshoek is a hamlet in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is located about 1 km northwest of the village of Rijsoord, on the south bank of the small Waal River. The hamlet is not mentioned on recent topographical maps....

, and in 1619 at the Sint-Bavokerk

Sint-Bavokerk

The Grote Kerk or St.-Bavokerk is a Protestant church and former Catholic cathedral located on the central market square in the Dutch city of Haarlem...

 in Haarlem.

Beschrijvinge ende lof der stad Haerlem in Holland

In 1617, he began writing a description of Haarlem in poetic form, aided by Petrus Scriverius

Petrus Scriverius

Petrus Scriverius, the Latinized form of Peter Schrijver or Schryver was a Dutch writer and scholar on the history of Holland and Belgium....

. Its poetry was printed and published in 1628. This history of the city was not superseded until Pieter Langendijk

Pieter Langendijk

Pieter Langendijk was a damask weaver, city artist, dramatist, and poet.-Life:Pieter was the son of Arend Kort, a mason born in Langedijk. His father died when he was young so he and his mother began a textile business. In 1695, they moved to the Hague, then Amsterdam...

's nearly a century later. As a foreword to this book, Ampzing wrote a dissertation on the Dutch language, in which he also wrote about the rules of rhetoric; this foreword was also sold separately in 1628 under the title ""Taelbericht der Nederlandsche spellinge" ("Treatise on Dutch spelling"). Later he also wrote an extra "Laurel Wreath to Laurens Janszoon Koster" at the end of it. The book includes some plates by Pieter Saenredam and Jan van de Velde

Jan van de Velde

Jan van de Velde the younger was a Dutch Golden Age painter and engraver of animal, landscape and still-life subjects. He was the son of Jan van de Velde the Elder and the father of the still life painter Jan Jansz van de Velde.-Biography:Van de Velde was born in either Delft or Rotterdam...

:

Legacy

Apart from the historical importance of his writing, his poetry was not considered quite lyrical, but it was striking in its groomed linguistic usage. Ampzing was notably and carefully different from his contemporaries in his choice of words, and fervently opposed to using words from different languages, such as Latin and French, in Dutch texts. He considered the influence of these languages as pernicious, and as polluting the pure Dutch language. One suspects that he was also driven to this point of view since these languages were being used by his 'religious competitors'.

Ampzing's lingual struggle was reignited in 1999 by the foundation of the Ampzing Society, whose members fight - like Ampzing - against the superfluous use of English loan-words in the contemporary Dutch language. On Sunday, 26 November 2006, on the Oude Groenmarkt at Haarlem, they unveiled a bust of Ampzing.

Works

• Bijbel-poezije (1624) - the Bible translated into poetry
• Rijm-catechism
  Catechism
  A catechism , i.e. to indoctrinate) is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching from New Testament times to the present...
  
  us (1624) - the catechism translated into poetry
• Beschrijvinge ende lof der stad Haerlem in Holland: in Rym bearbeyd (1628) - Description and praise of the city Haarlem in Holland in poetry, available in Google books.
• Taelbericht der Nederlandsche spellinge (1628)
• Eerverdediginge tegen de Arminiaensche grimmigheijd (1629) - Apologia against the Arminian
  Arminianism
  Arminianism is a school of soteriological thought within Protestant Christianity based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic followers, the Remonstrants...
  
   heretics
• Naszousche lauren-kranze (1629) - laurel wreath
• Westindische triumphbazuin op de verovering van de zilveren vloot (1629) - west Indies triumphal ode on the defeat of the silver fleet

External links

• Ampzing Society
• Samuel Ampzing in the DBNL
  DBNL
  DBNL can refer to*Drebrin-like, a human gene.*Digital library for Dutch literature , abbreviated as dbnl, a website with the complete texts of a large number of Dutch books and other literature in Dutch language....