Jaap Mansfeld began his studies in 1954 at the
University of Utrecht, where he received his doctorate in 1964 with a thesis on
Parmenides.[2] From 1973 until his retirement in 2001 he was a professor of ancient philosophy, and subsequently professor of History of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, at Utrecht University.[2] He has been a full member of the
Academia Europaea since 1989.,[3] as well as a member of the board for several scholarly journals.[2] In 1991 he was elected a member of the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[4] A book was published in honour of his 60th birthday in 1996 by
Keimpe Algra,
Pieter Willem van der Horst, and
David T. Runia.[5] In 1998, Mansfeld was awarded the
Humboldt research award for his outstanding achievements in research and teaching.[2] Mansfeld was made an honorary citizen of the ancient city of Elea, the town of Parmenides, by the Eleatica conference in 2013.[6]
Mansfeld's focus is on
doxography, and he has had a thirty year collaboration with David Theunis Runia on the fragments and testimonia of the doxographer Aëtios.[7]
Select publications
Die Offenbarung des Parmenides und die menschliche Welt (PhD). University of Utrecht. 1964.
OCLC1329868.
The pseudo-Hippocratic tract Peri hebdomadōn. Ch. 1-11 and Greek philosophy. Assen: Van Gorcum. 1971.
ISBN9023207017.
Die Vorsokratiker : griech.-dt. / 1. Milesier, Pythagoreer, Xenophanes, Heraklit, Parmenides. - 1983. - 336 S. Stuttgart: Reclam. 1983.
ISBN3-15-007965-9.
Volume 3: Studies in the Doxographical Traditions of Ancient Philosophy. Leiden: E.J. Brill. 2010.
ISBN978-90-04-18041-3.
Volume 4: Towards an Edition of the Aëtian Placita: Papers of the Melbourne Conference, 1–3 December 2015. Leiden: E.J. Brill. 2018.
ISBN978-90-04-36145-4.
Volume 5: An Edition of the reconstructed text of the Placita with a commentary and a collection of related texts. Leiden: E.J. Brill. 2020.
ISBN978-90-04-42838-6.