Proof of Nobility as a Personal and Generational Identity Crisis: An Apologia against Defamation by Professor Andreas Virginius of Academia Dorpatensis

Abstract

The article focuses on Andreas Virginius (1596–1664), a native of Pomerania who was invited to Livonia to become the first Vice Rector and Professor of theology at the university founded in Tartu in 1632. He was the only hereditary nobleman among the Tartu professors, but was soon accused of not being a real nobleman. In 1636, Virginius printed an apologia or treatise Nothwendige Vertheidigung against this accusation and slander, which has survived only as a manuscript transcription. The article presents the structure and content of this apologia, tracing the author’s argumentation with references to legal works and rhetorical devices such as proverbs. An analysis of the text reveals the typical intention of early modern nobles to defend their honour. Although Andreas Virginius succeeded in refuting the slander, his Livonian relatives faced a similar crisis about half a century later, when they had to prove their nobility once again.