The University of Amsterdam began as the Athenaeum Illustre, a school of higher education founded by the city government in the Dutch Golden Age. Its first professors, Gerardus Vossius and Caspar Barlaeus, were distinguished humanists, and the school taught philosophy, history and later medicine, without the right to award degrees. The city was by then an important center of trade, and the school catered to the sons of merchants and regents. Only in the late nineteenth century did it receive full university status, and it was renamed the University of Amsterdam. Today it is one of the largest research universities in the Netherlands, with students from many countries, and many of its buildings are in the old city center.
Before and after
- 15 November 1630Death of Johannes Kepler
- from 20 May 1631 to 24 May 1631Sack of Magdeburg
- from 1632 to 1634Smolensk War
- 1632Founding of University of Tartu
- 1632Founding of University of Amsterdam
- 29 August 1632Birth of John Locke
- October 1632Birth of Johannes Vermeer
- 20 October 1632Birth of Christopher Wren
- 24 October 1632Birth of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
More in Society, economy & sport
- 8 February 1575Founding of Leiden University
- from 31 December 1600 to 1 June 1874Founding of East India Company
- August 1619The first enslaved Africans arrive in English Virginia
- November 1660Founding of Royal Society of London
- 1734Founding of University of Göttingen
- 14 November 1740Founding of University of Pennsylvania
The era
This moment belongs to the Early modern world (1500 CE to 1760 CE), voyages, printing and new ideas. You can also browse everything in the 17th century.