HEEMSKERK, JOHAN VAN Dutch poet, born at The Hague on Feb. 27, 1597. He was educated at Bayonne, and at the university of Leyden in 1617. In 1621 he went abroad. He settled in 1640 in Amsterdam where he died on Feb. 27, 1656. For the last 12 years of his life he sat in the upper house of the States-general. Heemskerk published volumes of poems—Minne kunst (1622), Minnepfligt (1625), and Minnekunde (1628); but he is famous as the author of Batavische Arcadia which introduced the Italian pastoral romance into Holland.