- First name
- Albertus
- Last name
- Holten, von
- Date of Birth
- 1633
- Date of Death
- 1677
- Born in
- -
- Died in
- -
Albertus von Holten studied philology and theology in Rostock, Leipzig, Jena and Altdorf. He entered the service of Count Georg Philipp von Ortendorf in Stuttgart, and held chair of oriental languages in Tübingen (1671). His earliest correspondence with Leibniz dates from 1670. Two letters from their exchange survived. See: Tietz, 2008, p. 88.
On of these letters, he ends with a brief and brutal remark on Spinoza. The occasion of his reaction is unclear since all previous letters in the interchange are missing, but the intention of Von Holten’s vitriolic commentary leaves but little to imagination and makes it clear that the ‘Theological-Political Treatise’ and its author were his obvious targets of his aggressive outrage. Spinoza, he writes, deserves only the greatest contempt and should be solidly refuted by learned Hebraist scholars:
The Jew Spinoza, whose name is an evil omen and who dared to give the worst example, will be trashed by the learned as he deserves.
Leibniz, AA, 2:1, p. 303, no. 92. Cf. Parkinson, 1978, p. 75.