HOLSTENIUS (Lucas), an ingenious and learned German, born at Hamburg in 1596, was bred a Lutheran; but being converted to popery by father Sirmond the Jesuit, he went to Rome, and attached himself to cardinal Francis Barberini, who took him under his protection. He was honoured by three popes; Urban VIII. gave him a canonry of St Peter's; Innocent X. made him librarian of the Vatican; and Alexander VII. sent him in 1655 to queen Christina of Sweden, whose formal profession of the Catholic faith he received at Inspruck. He spent his life in study, and was very learned both in sacred and profane antiquity. He died in 1661; and though he was not the author of any great works, his notes and dissertations on the works of others have been highly esteemed for the judgment and precision with which they are drawn up.