Jeremias de Dekker

Who was Jeremias de Dekker?

Jeremias de Dekker or Decker was a Dutch poet.

Dekker was born in Dordrecht. His father was a native of Antwerp, who, having embraced the reformed religion, had been compelled to take refuge in the Netherlands. Entering his father's business at an early age, Jeremias found leisure to cultivate his taste for literature and especially for poetry, and to acquire without assistance a competent knowledge of English, French, Latin and Italian. His first poem was a paraphrase of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, which was followed by translations and imitations of Horace, Juvenal and other Latin poets. The most important of his original poems were a collection of epigrams and a satire in praise of avarice. The latter is his best-known work. Written in a vein of light and yet effective irony, it is usually ranked by critics along with Erasmus's Praise of Folly. Dekker died at Amsterdam in November 1666.

A complete collection of his poems, edited by Brouerius van Nideck, was published at Amsterdam in 1726 under the title Exercices potiques.