Beschrijving
Lithography of Johannes Pieter Arend
Dr. Johannes Pieter Arend was born in Amsterdam on 6 November 1796, to a middle-class family. He received his first education in his hometown. After school, he was first prepared for his fathers business, but after four years he changed jobs and became an office clerk at a German trading company, where he worked for seven years. During this time, he taught himself many languages, including French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Greek, and Latin, and he could read poets in all these languages.
Later he lived for two years in Hoorn, where he met learned men and continued his studies in classical languages. He also learned Danish. In 1823 he returned to Amsterdam and worked as a private teacher and as editor of a literary journal. In 1824 he became a lecturer in German, English, and basic mathematics in Deventer. He wrote many essays, translated Dantes Inferno, and learned even more languages. His language studies supported his plan to write a major history of poetry and literature.
Lithography by p. Blommers in The Hague
