Scheffer, John

, a learned German, was born at Strasburg in 1621, and probably educated there. He applied himself principally to the study of Greek and Latin antiquities, and of history; and made himself a tolerable verbal critic upon Latin and Greek authors. He was driven out of his own country by the wars; and, as Christina of Sweden was at that time the general patroness of all men of letters, he withdrew into her kingdom in 1648. He was made, the same year, professor of eloquence and politics | at Upsal afterwards, honorary professor, royal of the law of nature -and nations, andassessor of the royal college of antiquities; and, at length, librarian of the university of Upsal. He died in 1679, after havingpublished a great number of works. Many of his pieces relate to Qreek and Roman antiquities, and are to be found in. the collection of Qrseyius and Gronovius. He wrote notes uppn many ancient authors upon Ælian, Phaedrus, “Arrianl Tactica,” of which last he made also a Latin version Petronius, Hyginus, Julius Obsequens, Justin, &c. He was one of those who stoutly defended the authenticity of that fragment of Petronius, pretended to have been fou.nd at Trau which, however, is generally judged to be a forgery, and accordingly rejected by Burman and other critics. ¹