VOSSIUS (John Gerard), one of the most learned and laborious writers of the 17th century, was of a considerable family in the Netherlands; and was born in 1577, in the Palatinate, near Heidelberg, at a place where his father, John Vossius, was minister. He became well skilled in polite literature, history, and sacred and profane antiquities, and was made director of the college of Dort. He was at length made professor of eloquence and chronology at Leyden, from whence he was called in 1633 to Amsterdam, to fill the chair of a professor of history. He died in 1649. He wrote many learned works, of which a complete edition has been printed at Amsterdam, in 9 vols folio.