HEINSIUS, NICOLAS, was the son of Daniel Heinsius, and obtained nearly equal eminence with his father as a scholar. He was born at Leyden in 1629, and was educated there by his father, as well as by Grotius, Gronovius, and other celebrated scholars. In 1642 he visited England previous to commencing a literary tour through France, Italy, and Sweden. In 1659, on the invitation of Queen Christina, he settled at Stockholm, and remained there till his father's
death in 1655 recalled him home. After his return to Sweden he was in 1667 sent as ambassador to the Czar of Moscow, from which he returned with broken health and spirits. The remaining ten years of his life he spent for the most part in Holland, and died at the Hague, October 7, 1681. His principal works were his Claudian, with notes, Leyden, 1650, in 12mo, and Amsterdam, 1665, in 8vo; Ovid, with notes, ibid., 1652, 1661, 1668, in three vols. 12mo; Virgil, without notes, Amsterdam, 1676, and Utrecht, 1704, in 12mo; Valerius Flaccus, without notes, Amsterdam, 1680, in 12mo; Remarks on Silius Italicus, Petronius, and Phædrus; A great number of Letters, which may be found in the Sylloge Epistolarum of Burmann, in 5 vols. 4to; Poemata, the best edition of which is that of Elzevir, Amsterdam, 1666, in 8vo, dedicated by the author to the Duke of Montausier. Peter Burmann the younger also published Nie. Heinsii Adversariorum, libri v., followed by the notes of Heinsius on Catullus and Properius; and the same author also cites inedited notes of Heinsius on Tacitus, on the dialogue De Claris Oratoribus, and on the Catalecta veterum Poetarum.