Sanchez, Francis

, or Sanctius Brocensis, an eminent classical scholar of the sixteenth century, was born at Las Brocas, in the province of Estremaduras in Spain, in 1523. His principal residence appears to have been at Salamanca, where he was professor of rhetoric, and taught Greek and Latin with the highest reputation, derived from the originality of his criticisms and remarks on the classics. Justus Lipsius, Scioppius, and others, seem at a loss for language to express their admiration of his talents and learning. Lipsius bestows the epithets “divine” and “admirable;” and Scioppius says he ought to be considered as “com munis literatorum omnium pater et doctor.” Sanchez died in 1600, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. He published a great many works on subjects of classical criticism, and was the editor of Persius, Pomponius Mela, Politian’s “Sylvan,” Alciat’s emblems, Virgil’s Bucolics, and Horace’s Art of Poetry, He published also two Greek grammars, and some other pieces on grammar and rhetoric; but the work which has perpetuated his reputation is his “Minerva, de causis linguae Latinse,” Salamanca, 1587, 8vo, which was often reprinted. In more modem times, an edition was published at Amsterdam, in 1754, or 1761, 8vo, with a supplement by Scioppius, and notes by Perizonjus. This was reprinted with farther improvements by Scheidius, at Utrecht, in 1795, 8vo and again by Bauer, at Leipsic, in 1804, 2 vols. 8vo. ¹