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SCALIGER
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SCALIGER , the Latinized name of the See also:great Della Scala See also:family (see See also:VERONA). It has also been See also:borne by two scholars of extraordinary See also:eminence. 1. See also:JULIUS See also:CAESAR SCALIGER (1484-1558), SO distinguished by his learning and talents that, according to A. de See also:Thou, no one of the ancients could be placed above him and the See also:age in which he lived could not show his equal, was, according to his own See also:account, a See also:scion of the See also:house of La Scala, for a See also:hundred and fifty years princes of Verona, and was See also:born in 1484 at the See also:castle of La Rocca on the Lago de See also:Garda. At the age of twelve his kinsman the See also:emperor See also:Maximilian placed him among his pages. He remained for seventeen years in the service of the emperor, distinguishing himself as a soldier and as a See also:captain. But he was unmindful neither of letters, in which he had the most eminent scholars of the See also:day as his instructors, nor of See also:art, which he studied with considerable success under Albrecht Diirer. In 1512 at the See also:battle of See also:Ravenna, where his See also:father and See also:elder See also:brother were killed, he displayed prodigies of valour, and received the highest honours of See also:chivalry from his imperial See also:cousin, who conferred upon him with his own hands the spurs, the See also:collar and the See also:eagle of See also:gold. But this was the only See also:reward he obtained. He See also:left the service of Maximilian, and after a brief employment by another kinsman, the See also:duke of See also:Ferrara, he decided to quit the military See also:life, and in 1514 entered as a student at the university of See also:Bologna. He determined to take See also:holy orders, in the expectation that he would become See also:cardinal, and then See also:pope, when he would wrest from the Venetians his principality of Verona, of which the See also:republic had despoiled his ancestors. But, though he soon gave up this See also:design, he remained at the university until 1519. The next six years he passed at the castle of See also:Vico Nuovo, in See also:Piedmont, as a See also:guest of the family of La Rovere, at first dividing his See also:time between military expeditions in the summer, and study, chiefly of See also:medicine and natural See also:history, in the See also:winter, until a severe attack of rheumatic See also:gout brought his military career to a See also:close. Henceforth his life was wholly devoted to study. In 1525 he accompanied M. A. de la Rovere, See also:bishop of See also:Agen, to that See also:city as his physician. Such is the outline of his own account of his See also:early life. It was not until some time after his See also:death that the enemies of his son first alleged that he was not of the family of La Scala, but was the son of Benedetto See also:Bordone, an illuminator or school-See also:master of Verona; that he was educated at See also:Padua, where he took the degree of M.D.; and that his See also:story of his life and adventures before arriving at Agen was a See also:tissue of fables. It certainly is supported by no other See also:evidence than his own See also:state-ments, some of which are inconsistent with well-ascertained facts (see below ad fin.). The remaining See also:thirty-two years of his life were passed almost wholly at Agen, in the full See also:light of contemporary history. They were without See also:adventure, almost without incident, but it was in them that he achieved so much distinction that at his death in 1J58 he had the highest scientific and See also:literary reputation of any See also:man in See also:Europe. A few days after his arrival at Agen he See also:fell in love with a charming See also:orphan of thirteen, Andiette de Roques Lobejac. Her See also:friends objected to her See also:marriage with an unknown adventurer, but in 1528 he had obtained so much success as a physician that the objections of her family were overcome, and at See also:forty-five he married Andiette, who was then sixteen. The marriage proved a See also:complete success; it was followed by twenty-nine years of almost uninterrupted happiness, and by the See also:birth of fifteen See also:children. A See also:charge of See also:heresy in 1538, of which he was acquitted by his friendly See also:judges, one of whom was his friend Arnoul Le Ferron, was almost the only event of See also:interest during these years, except the publication of his books, and the quarrels and criticisms to which they gave rise. In 1531 he printed his first oration against See also:Erasmus, in See also:defence of See also:Cicero and the Ciceronians. It is a piece of vigorous invective, displaying, like all his subsequent writings, an astonishing command of Latin, and much brilliant See also:rhetoric, but full of vulgar abuse, and completely missing the point of the Ciceronianus of Erasmus. The writer's indignation at finding it treated with silent contempt by the great See also:scholar, who thought it was the See also:work of a See also:personal enemy—Meander—caused him to write a second oration, more violent, more abusive, with more self-glorification, but with less real merit than the first. The orations were followed by a prodigious quantity of Latin See also:verse, which appeared in successive volumes in 1533, 1534, 1539, 1546 and 1547; of these, a friendly critic, See also:Mark See also:Pattison, is obliged to approve the See also:judgment of See also:Huet, who says, " See also:par ses poesies brutes et informes Scaliger a deshonore le Parnasse "; yet their numerous See also:editions show that they commended themselves not only to his contemporaries, but to succeeding scholars. A brief See also:tract on comic metres (De comicis dimensionibus) and a work De causis linguae Latinae—the earliest Latin See also:grammar on scientific principles and following a scientific method—were his only other purely literary See also:works published in his lifetime. His Poetice appeared in 1561 after his death. With many paradoxes, with many criticisms which are below contempt, and many indecent displays of personal animosity--especially in his reference to See also:Etienne See also:Dolet, over whose death he gloated with brutal malignity—it yet contains acute See also:criticism, and showed for the first time what such a See also:treatise ought to be, and how it ought to be written. But it is as a philosopher and a man of See also:science that J. C. Scaliger ought to be judged. Classical studies he regarded as an agreeable relaxation from severer pursuits. Whatever the truth or See also:fable of the first forty years of his life, he had certainly been a close and accurate observer, and had made himself acquainted with many curious and little-known phenomena, which he had stored up in a most tenacious memory. His scientific writings are all in the See also:form of commentaries, and it was not until his seventieth See also:year that (with the exception of a brief tract on the De insomniis of See also:Hippocrates) he See also:felt that any of them were sufficiently complete to be given to the See also:world. In 1556 he printed his See also:Dialogue on the De plantis attributed to See also:Aristotle, and in 1557 his Exercitatioizes on the work of See also:Jerome See also:Cardan, De subtilitate. His other scientific works, Commentaries on See also:Theophrastus' De causis plantarum and Aristotle's History of Animals, he left in a more or less unfinished state, and they were not printed until af ter his death. They are all marked by arrogant dogmatism, violence of See also:language, a See also:constant tendency to self-glorification, strangely combined with extensive real knowledge, with acute reasoning, with an observation of facts and details almost unparalleled. But he is only the naturalist of his own time. That he anticipated in any manner the inductive See also:philosophy cannot be contended; his botanical studies did not See also:lead him, like his contemporary Konrad von See also:Gesner, to any See also:idea of a natural See also:system of See also:classification, and he rejected with the utmost arrogance and violence of language the discoveries of See also:Copernicus. In See also:metaphysics and in natural history Aristotle was a See also:law to him, and in medicine See also:Galen, but he was not a slave to the See also:text or the details of either. He has thoroughly mastered their principles, and is able to see when his masters are not true to themselves. He corrects Aristotle by himself. He is in that See also:stage of learning when the See also:attempt is made to harmonize the written word with the actual facts of nature, and the result is that his works have no real scientific value. Their interest is only See also:historical. His Exercitaliones upon the De subtilitate of Cardan (1557) is the See also:book by which Scaliger is best known as a philosopher. Its numerous editions See also:bear See also:witness to its popularity, and until the final fall of Aristotle's physics it continued a popular text-book. We are astonished at the encyclopaedic See also:wealth of know-ledge which the Exercilaliones display, at the vigour of the author's See also:style, at the accuracy of his observations, but are obliged to agree with G. See also:Naude that he has committed more faults than he has discovered in Cardan, and with See also: But the companionship of his father was See also:worth more to Joseph than any See also:mere instruction. He learned from him to be not a mere scholar, but something more—an acute observer, never losing sight of the actual world, and aiming not so much at correcting texts as at laying the See also:foundation of a science of historical criticism.
After his father's death, he spent four years at the university of See also:Paris, where he began the study of See also:Greek under See also:Turnebus. But after two months he found he was not in a position to profit by the lectures of the greatest Greek scholar of the time. He determined to See also:teach himself. He read See also:Homer in twenty-one days, and then went through all the other Greek poets, orators and historians, forming a grammar for himself as he went along. From Greek, at the See also:suggestion of G. Postel, he proceeded to attack See also:Hebrew, and then Arabic; of both he acquired a respect-able knowledge, though not the See also:critical mastery which he possessed in Latin and Greek. . The name of Jean See also:Dorat then stood as high as that of Turnebus as a Greek scholar, and far higher as a See also:professor. As a teacher he was able not only to impart knowledge, but to kindle See also:enthusiasm. It was to Dorat that Scaliger owed the home which he found for the next thirty years of his life. In 1563 the professor recommended him to See also: A close friendship sprang up between the two young men, which remained unbroken till the death of Louis in 1595. The travellers first went to See also:Rome. Here they found Marc See also:Antoine See also:Muretus, who, when at Bordeaux and See also:Toulouse, had been a great favourite and occasional visitor of Julius Caesar at Agen. Muretus soon recognized Scaliger's merits, and introduced him to all the men that were worth knowing. After visiting a large See also:part of See also:Italy, the travellers passed to See also:England and See also:Scotland, taking as it would seem La Roche Pozay on their way, for Scaliger's See also:preface to his first book, the Conjectanea in Varronem, is dated there in See also:December 1564. Scaliger formed an unfavourable See also:opinion of the See also:English. Their inhuman disposition, and inhospitable treatment of foreigners,especially impressed him. He was also disappointed in finding few Greek See also:manuscripts and few learned men. It was not until a much later See also:period that he became intimate with See also:Richard See also:Thompson and other Englishmen. In the course of his travels he had become a See also:Protestant. On his return to See also:France he spent three years with the Chastaigners, accompanying them to their different chateaux in See also:Poitou, as the calls of the See also:civil See also:war required. In 1570 he accepted the invitation of See also:Cujas, and proceeded to See also:Valence to study See also:jurisprudence under the greatest living jurist. Here he remained three years, profiting not only by the lectures but even more by the library of Cujas, which filled no fewer than seven or eight rooms and included five hundred manuscripts. The See also:massacre of St See also:Bartholomew—occurring as he was about to accompany the bishop of Valence on an See also:embassy to See also:Poland—induced him with other See also:Huguenots to retire to See also:Geneva, where he was received with open arms, and was appointed a professor in the See also:academy. He lectured on the See also:Organon of Aristotle and the De finibus of Cicero with much See also:satisfaction to the students but with little to himself. He hated lecturing, and was bored with the importunities of the fanatical preachers; and in 1574 he returned to France, and made his home for the next twenty years with Chastaigner. Of his life during this period we have interesting details and notices in the Letires francaises in Mites de Joseph Scaliger, edited by M Tamizey de Larroque (Agen, 1881). Constantly moving through Poitou and the See also:Limousin, as the exigencies of the civil war required, occasionally taking his turn as a guard, at least on one occasion trailing a See also:pike on an expedition against the Leaguers, with no See also:access to See also:libraries, and frequently separated even from his own books, his life during this period seems most unsuited to study. He had, how-ever, what so few contemporary scholars possessed—leisure, and freedom from pecuniary cares. It was during this period of his life that he composed and published the books which showed that with him a new school of historical criticism had arisen. His editions of the Catalecla (1575), of See also:Festus (1575), of See also:Catullus, See also:Tibullus and See also:Propertius (1577), are the work of a man who not only writes books of instruction for learners, but is determined himself to discover the real meaning and force of his author. He was the first to See also:lay down and apply See also:sound rules of criticism and emendation, and to See also:change textual criticism from a See also:series of haphazard guesses into a " rational See also:procedure subject to fixed See also:laws " (Pattison). But these works, while proving Scaliger's right to the foremost See also:place among his contemporaries as Latin scholar and critic, did not go beyond mere scholarship. It was reserved for his edition of See also:Manilius (1579), and his De emendatione temporum (1583), to revolutionize all the received ideas of See also:ancient See also:chronology—to show that ancient history is not confined to that of the Greeks and See also:Romans, but also comprises that of the Persians, the Babylonians and the Egyptians, hitherto neglected as absolutely worthless, and that of the See also:Jews, hitherto treated as a thing apart, and that the historical narratives and fragments of each of these, and their several systems of chronology, must be critically compared, if any true and See also:general conclusions are to be reached. It is this which places Scaliger on so immeasurably higher an eminence than any of his contemporaries. Yet, while the scholars of his time admitted his pre-eminence, neither they nor those who immediately followed seem to have appreciated his real merit, but to have considered his emendatory criticism, and his skill in Greek, as constituting his claim to See also:special greatness. His commentary on See also:Manlius is really a treatise on the See also:astronomy of the ancients, and it forms an introduction to the De emendatione temporum, in which he examines by the light of modern and Copernican science the ancient system as applied to epochs, calendars and computations of time, showing upon what principles they were based.
In the remaining twenty-four years of his life he at once corrected and enlarged the basis which he had laid in the De emendatione. With incredible See also:patience, sometimes with a happy audacity of conjecture which itself is almost See also:genius, he succeeded in reconstructing the lost See also:Chronicle of Eusebiusone of the most See also:precious remains of antiquity, and of the highest value for ancient chronology. This he printed in 1606 in his
See also:Thesaurus temporum, in which he collected, restored and arranged every See also:chronological relic extant in Greek or Latin. When in 1590 See also:Lipsius retired from See also:Leiden, the university and its protectors, the states-general of See also: He would be in all respects the master of his time. This offer Scaliger provisionally accepted. About the See also:middle of 1593 he started for Holland, where he passed the remaining thirteen years of his life, never returning to France. His reception at Leiden was all that he could wish. A handsome income was assured to him. He was treated with the highest See also:consideration. His See also:rank as a prince of Verona was recognized. Placed midway between The See also:Hague and See also:Amsterdam, he was able to obtain, besides the learned circle of Leiden, the advantages of the best society of both these capitals. For Scaliger was no See also:hermit buried among his books; he was fond of social intercourse and was himself a See also:good talker. For the first seven years of his See also:residence at Leiden his reputation was at its highest point. His literary dictatorship was unquestioned. From his See also:throne at Leiden he ruled the learned world; a word from him could make or See also:mar a rising reputation; and he was surrounded by young men eager to listen to and profit by his conversation. He encouraged See also:Grotius when only a youth of sixteen to edit See also:Capella; the early death of the younger Douza he wept as that of a beloved son; See also:Daniel See also:Heinsius, from being his favourite See also:pupil, became his most intimate friend. But Scaliger had made numerous enemies. He hated See also:ignorance, but he hated still more See also:half-learning, and most of all dishonesty in See also:argument or in See also:quotation. Himself the soul of See also:honour and truthfulness, he had no See also:toleration for the disingenuous arguments and the mis-statements of facts of those who wrote to support a theory or to defend an unsound cause. His pungent sarcasms were soon carried to the persons of whom they were uttered, and his See also:pen was not less See also:bitter than his See also:tongue. He resembles his father in his arrogant See also:tone towards those whom he despises and those whom he hates, and he despises and hates all who differ from him. He is conscious of his See also:power, and not always sufficiently cautious or sufficiently See also:gentle in its exercise. Nor was he always right. He trusted much to his memory, which was occasionally treacherous. His emendations, if frequently happy, were some-times absurd. In laying the See also:foundations of a science of ancient chronology he relied sometimes upon groundless, sometimes even upon absurd hypotheses, frequently upon an imperfect See also:induction of facts. Sometimes he misunderstood the astronomical science of the ancients, sometimes that of Copernicus and Tycho See also:Brahe. And he was no mathematician. But- his enemies were not merely those whose errors he had exposed and whose hostility he had excited by the violence of his language. The results of his system of historical criticism had been adverse to the See also:Catholic controversialists and to the authenticity of many of the documents upon which they had been accustomed to rely. The See also:Jesuits, who aspired to be the source of all scholarship and criticism, perceived that the writings and authority of Scaliger were the most formidable barrier to their claims. It was the day of conversions. Muretus in the latter part of his life professed the strictest orthodoxy; J. Lipsius had been reconciled to the See also: C. Scaligeri vita. In 1607 Gaspar Scioppius, then in the service of the Jesuits, whom he afterwards so bitterly libelled, published his Scaliger hypobolimaeus (" The Supposititious Scaliger "), a See also:quarto See also:volume of more than four hundred pages, written with consummate ability, in an admirable and incisive style, with the entire disregard for truth which Scioppius always displayed, and with all the power of his accomplished See also:sarcasm. Every piece of See also:scandal which could be raked together respecting Scaliger or his family is to be found there. The author professes to point out five hundred lies in the Epistola de vetustate of Scaliger, but the See also:main argument of the book is to show the falsity of his pretensions to be of the family of La Scala, and of the narrative of his father's early life. " No stronger See also:proof," says Mark Pattison, " can be given of the inpressions produced by this powerful philippic, dedicated to the See also:defamation of an individual, than that it has been the source from which the See also:biography of Scaliger, as it now stands in our See also:biographical collections, has mainly flowed. To Scaliger the See also:blow was crushing. Whatever the See also:case as to Julius, Joseph had undoubtedly believed himself a prince of Verona, and in his Epistola had put forth with the most perfect good faith, and without inquiry, all that he had heard from his father. He immediately wrote a reply to Scioppius, entitled Confutatio fabulae Burdonum. It is written, for Scaliger, with unusual moderation and good See also:taste, but perhaps for that very See also:reason had not the success which its author wished and even expected. In the opinion of the highest authority, Mark Pattison, " as a refutation of Scioppius it is most complete "; but there are certainly grounds for dissenting, though with diffidence, from this judgment. Scaliger undoubtedly shows that Scioppius committed more blunders than he corrected,' that his book literally bristles with pure lies and baseless calumnies; but he does not succeed in adducing a single proof either of his father's descent from the La Scala family, or of any single event narrated by Julius as happening to himself or any member of this family See also:prior to his arrival at Agen. Nor does he even attempt a refutation of the See also:crucial point, which Scioppius had proved, as far as a negative can be proved—namely, that William, the last prince of Verona, had no son See also:Nicholas, the alleged grandfather of Julius, nor indeed any son who could have been such grandfather. But whether complete or not, the Confutatio had no success; the attack of the Jesuits was successful, far more so than they could possibly have hoped. Scioppius was wont to boast that his book had killed Scaliger. It certainly embittered the few remaining months of his life, and it is not improbable that the See also:mortification which he suffered may have shortened his days. The Confutatio was his last work. Five months after it appeared, " on the 21st of See also:January 1609, at four in the See also:morning, he fell asleep in Heinsius's arms. The aspiring spirit ascended before the See also:Infinite. The most richly stored See also:intellect which had ever spent itself in acquiring knowledge was in the presence of the Omniscient " (Pattison). Of Joseph Scaliger the only biography in any way adequate is that of See also:Jacob See also:Bernays (See also:Berlin, 1855). It was reviewed by Mark Pattison in the Quarterly See also:Review, vol. cviii. (186o), since reprinted in the Essays, i. (1889), 132-195. Pattison had made many See also:manuscript collections for a life of Joseph Scaliger on a much more extensive See also:scale, which he left unfinished. In See also:writing the above See also:article, Professor See also:Christie had access to and made much use of these See also:MSS., which include a life of Julius Caesar Scaliger. The fragments of the life of Joseph Scaliger have been printed in the Essays, i. 196-243. For the life of Joseph, besides the letters published by M. Tamizey de Larroque (Agen, 1881), the two old collections of Latin and See also:French letters and the two Scaligerana are the most important See also:sources of See also:information. For the life of Julius Caesar the letters edited by his son, those subsequently published in 162o by the See also:President de Maussac, the Scaligerana, and his own writings, which are full of autobiographical See also:matter, are the chief authorities. M. de Bourousse de Laffore's Etude sur Jules Cesar de Lescale (Agen, 186o) and M. Magen's Documents sur Julius Caesar Scaliger et sa famille (Agen, 1873) add important details for the lives of both father and son. The lives by Charles Nisard—that of Julius in See also:Les Gladiateurs de la republique See also:des lettres, and that of Joseph in Le Triumviral litthraire au seizibme sibcle—are equally unworthy of their author and their subjects. Julius is simply held up to ridicule, while the life of Joseph is almost wholly based on the book of Sciop- Eius and the Scaligerana. A complete See also:list of the works of Joseph will be found in his life by Bernays. See also J. E. See also:Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship, ii. (1908), 199-204. (R. C. C.; J. E. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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