Willem Pluygers

Willem George Pluygers (1812–1880) was a Dutch classical scholar, university professor and librarian.

Biography Pluygers was born the son of a minister in Zwolle, the Netherlands, and studied in Voorschoten before reading classics at Leiden University. A member of the Leidse Jagers - a student military unit - he fought in the 1831 Ten days' campaign to subdue the rebellious Belgians. After obtaining a Leiden doctorate in 1836 he became a classics teacher and deputy headmaster, first at the gymnasium in Delft and later, from 1838 to 1859, in Leiden. In 1859, Pluygers succeeded Jacob Geel as the Leiden university librarian, modernized its workings, and continued up to 1879. Collaborating with Dutch architect Jan Willem Schaap, Pluygers studied 17 or 30 foreign European library buildings, such as the Reading Room of the British Museum, before designing the new Leiden university library at Rapenburg, which was completed in 1862, with modern iron stairs and floors. All 40,000 books had to be re-catalogued and relocated by curator P.A. Tiele, an operation completed in 1864. From 1862 to 1879 Pluygers taught classical archeology (Latin and Greek antiquities) at Leiden University.

Pluygers became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1864, but resigned in 1867.

Publications in Latin Doctoral thesis on Demades, Leiden University, Leiden. 77 pages.

in Dutch

Secondary literature