VOSS, GERHARD JOHANN (fōs), usually styled Vossius, a Dutch philologist; born near Heidelberg, in 1577. In certain departments of archæophilology he made valuable original researches; and he was the first to indicate the historical evolution of the Latin language. Among his writings are: “Essays on Rhetoric; or, The Institutes of Oratory,” his greatest work (1606); “The Greek Historians” (1624); “The Latin Historians” (1627); “Aristarchus; or, On the Art of Grammar” (1635); “Of Errors of Speech and Latino-Barbarous Terms” (1640); “Heathen Theology” (1642); “The Times of the Ancient Poets” (1654); “Etymology of the Latin Language” (1662). The “Correspondence of Vossius with Eminent Men” was published in 1691. He died in Amsterdam, March 19, 1649.