Nikolaus Beckmann (1634–1689)

Nikolaus Beckmann was born in 1634 in Heide in Dithmarschen. He studied philology and law starting in 1655 in Königsberg, and other places, and subsequently relocated to Stockholm and to Helmstedt in 1662. In 1666, he received his doctorate from the law faculty in Orléans, returned to Sweden the following year and was appointed professor of Roman law at the newly established University of Lund. Similar to Grotius and Pufendorf, he bridged the Scandinavian and Central European legal systems through his educational and teaching endeavors.

Portrait of Nickolaus Beckmann (1634–1689), copperplate engraving, 1676, unknown artist; source: Beckmann, Nicolaus: Doctrina Juri, Nuremberg 1676, digital copy: Universitätsbibliothek Augsburg, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:384-uba001750-5.