Flemish humanist. Bruges, 15 November 1545 - 29 September 1619. From a prominent Bruges family, he studied at the University of Louvain, and went to France (Paris) c. 1565. Back in the Netherlands (mentioned in 1570), but in 1571 anew abroad until 1574 (in France and Italy). Magistrate in Bruges from 1576 until the capitulation of Bruges to the Spanish armies in 1584. In September 1587, when returning from a trip to Lille, he was taken prisoner by soldiers of the Ostend garrison and remained in their custody (first in Ostend, later at London) until finally in 1592 a ransom was paid. Cf. Biographie Nationale [de Belgique], 11, 1890-91, Columns 631-638; H. van Crombruggen, Janus Lernutius (1545-1619). Een biografische studie, Brussels, 1955 (Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse der Letteren, no. 23).