- First name
- Daniel Georg
- Last name
- Morhof
- Date of Birth
- 1639
- Date of Death
- 1691
- Born in
- Wismar
- Died in
- Lübeck
Daniel Georg Morhof read law and classical literature in Rostock. He held the chair of eloquence and poetry at Kiel University (1665). A prolific writer, Morhof’s magnum opus is particularly considered Polyhistor sive de notitia et rerum commentarii … (Lübeck, 1688–92), a critical presentation of universal literature, philosophy, civil customs, and applied science. In the latter work (in the chapter ‘De libris damnatis’, p. 74), he states:
Which of the books by Benedictus de Spinoza is pestilent? And are these still celebrated everywhere. Is it his ‘Tractatus theologico-politicus’ that erodes all sacred books on divine faith? Does it reject and hiss out all miracles.
In a letter to Mauritius in October 1671, Morhof says:
Regarding the author of “Tractatus theologico-politicus” people tend to believe him to be an excommunicated Jew, named Spinoza; this is what Lipstorp has assured me.
Source: Leibniz, 1745, vol. 2, pp. 1350–1.
See: Kern, 1928; Tolomio, 1993; Wacquet, 2000.