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I am transferring from your user talk page to here our previous exchange regarding this page, with this diff as an initial pointer to all the references you had added there.
Starting today, and using these references of yours there, and additional references I have, I will start rewriting, consolidating, and improving the page. Once I am done with all the initial additions and improvements (which, I am estimating, should take two to three weeks), I am also hoping you can help me wikify all the bibliographic references and inline notes on the page. But we'll see how I progress in this task one step at a time I guess.
Just one note for you before I start. Most of the refs you used when you created and developed this page came from Richard H. Popkin. Popkin really "discovered" the person Petrus Serrarius coming from his philosophical/historical research into the philosophy of Benedict de Spinoza. However, once he realized how important Serrarius was for the biography of the philosopher Spinoza, he also realized that some research on Serrarius himself had already been done by the Leiden University professor Johann van den Berg. Popkin then, in a way that was also very characteristic to his long and widespread academic activity, went and met van den Berg, and found out that the latter had a student finishing her Ph. D. dissertation specifically on Petrus Serrarius. This student was Ernestine G. E. van der Wall, who finished her dissertation in Dutch at Leiden in 1987.
So, my rewriting of the page will start from the research of van den Berg and van der Wall, and will then also recognize all the additions made to his biography by Richard H. Popkin. But as I progress in my task, we'll have the opportunity to discuss these issues a little more in detail, if you want to. Thanks a lot again for all your help with this research and this task so far. warshy (¥¥) 19:52, 16 November 2019 (UTC)
The Amsterdam municipal archives are mining their extensive notaries' archives with lots of volunteers for transcription ( "Amsterdamse Akten", 1578-1915), and many Serrarii (Serruriers, lock makers?) can already be found there: these archives (looking for Serrurier, Pieter). Hansmuller ( talk) 10:08, 23 May 2020 (UTC)
@Warshy Thanks, both texts are cute legalese about Serrurier's daughter Judith, the second contains her estate inventory, funny to see all her household stuff listed... poor girl and father.
@Warshy Dear Warshy, If anyone knows it should be you... Where can we find the correspondence of Pieter Serrurier with Benedictus de Spinoza? The foremost Dutch website doesn't show these letters...it is spinozaweb.org/letters, which is down today, it appears. www.earlymoderntexts.com offers pdf's (Letters 1-84) but no Serrarius there, it seems. Cheerio (that's very old fashioned?), Hansmuller ( talk) 16:31, 22 May 2020 (UTC)
@Warshy Dear Warshy, Thanks. (In a historical novel the text of the missing correspondence between S. and S. might be reconstructed...) Can you specify Serrarius' correspondence in the article text? By the way, you still think Spinoza was not a Dutch philosopher? :-) Thanks again, Hansmuller ( talk) 12:17, 4 June 2020 (UTC)
Thanks for all the work you have been doing here. I will try to ask a couple of questions about the notarial records, and then I will try to answer some of your other questions about Spinoza's life and his correspondence, his cultural milieu, etc.
1) Does Ernestine G(esine) E(verdine) ever mention Pieter Serrarius (Serrurier) having a daughter named Judith anywhere in her dissertation? If not, and if these records indeed refer to our Pieter Serrarius, then at this point, with your additions, Wikipedia currently knows more about Pieter Serrarius than any other book or record in the world? The only fact that may throw some doubt about it is your own note that the mentioned executors of the estate of Judith Serrurier were Louis and Joseph Serrurier, and not her father Pieter Serrurier? Are Louis and Joseph Serrurier indeed related in some manner to Pieter Serrarius? We would have to confirm all that.
2) I also know that van den Berg (EGE's teacher and dissertation advisor) mentions his marriage and the name of the wife. I don't know if EGE also mentions that in the dissertation.
3) Bendictus de Spinoza was Dutch, no doubt about that, and that should be the name of the article as far as I am concerned. He was Dutch in the sense of the culture where he operated and geographical place where he lived his entire life. But he was also a Portuguese and Marrano immigrant in his origins and his cultural roots. And, up to the age of 22 or 23 in 1656, the year he broke off and separated himself from the Amsterdam Portuguese (Jewish) community, he was also a student and part of that community. What I believe happened in 1656 is that he finally decided to separate himself from that community and become an independent person that did not belong to any church or religious community, and to become an independent thinker and philosopher. The example of the Collegiants and their colleges and his friends in that milieu, such as Pieter Serrarius, helped give him the model of a person without a religious church, and helped shelter him for a number of years, until he could establish himself as precisely that: an independent and religiously unaffiliated citizen of the Republic and an independent thinker and philosopher called Benedictus de Spinoza.
4) Pieter Serrarius was one of his Collegiant close friends, supporters, and admirers that knew Benedictus before he broke off with the Portuguese (Jewish) community, from the time he was still Benedito Spinoza, the son of newly arrived Portuguese immigrants and merchants. Serrarius was one of the people who helped the young Benedito make that unheard of transition to becoming an independent citizen, not religiously affiliated with any community, and an independent thinker and philosopher. Serrarius was also a wealthy merchant, and he was one of the friends of the young Benedito who used his financial means to help him make that transition and establish himself as the independent Latin thinker and philosopher Benedictus de Spinoza.
This is what I think happened and how the young Benedito finally became the famous international Latin philosopher Benedictus de Spinoza in a few short sentences. Thank you, warshy (¥¥) 18:21, 4 June 2020 (UTC)