SCALIGER (Joseph Justus)

, a celebrated French chronologer and critic, was the son of Julius Cæfar Scaliger, and born at Agen in France, in 1540. He studied in the college of Bourdeaux; after which his father took him under his own care, and employed him in transcribing his poems; by which means he obtained such a taste for poetry, that before he was 17 years old, he wrote a tragedy upon the subject of Oedipus, in which he introduced all the poetical ornaments of style and sentiment.

His father dying in 1558, he went to Paris the year following, with a design to apply himself to the Greek tongue. For this purpose he for two months attended the lectures of Turnebus; but finding that in the usual course he should be a long time in gaining his point, he shut himself up in his closet, and by constant application for two years gained a perfect knowledge of the Greek language. After which he applied himself to the Hebrew, which he learned by himself with great facility. And in like manner he ran through many other languages, till he could speak it is said no less than 13 ancient and modern ones. He made no less progress in the sciences; and his writings procured him the reputation of one of the greatest men of that or any other age. He embraced the reformed religion at 22 years of age. In 1563, he attached himself to Lewis Casteignier de la Roch Pazay, whom he attended in several journies. And, in 1593, the curators of the university of Leyden invited him to an honorary professorship in that university, where he lived 16 years, and where he died of a dropsy in 1609, at 69 years of age.

Scaliger was a man of great temperance; was never married; and was so close a student, that he often spent whole days in his study without eating: and though his circumstances were always very narrow, he constantly refused the presents that were offered him.

He was author of many ingenious works on various subjects. His elaborate work, De Emendatione Temporum; his exquisite animadversions on Eusebius; with his Canon Isagogicus Chronologiæ; and his accurate comment upon Manilius's Astronom con, sufficiently evince his knowledge in the astronomy, and other branches of learning, among the Ancients, and who, according to the opinion of the celebrated Vieta, was far superior to any of that age. And he had no less a character given him by the learned Casaubon.—He wrote Cyclometrica et Diatriba de Equinoctiorum Anticipatione. He wrote also notes upon Seneca, Varro, and Ausonius's Poems. But that which above all things renders the name of Scaliger memorable to posterity, is the invention of the Julian period, which consists of 7980 years, being the continued product of the three cycles, of the sun 28, the moon 19, and Roman indiction 15. This period had its beginning fixed to the 764th year before the creation, and is not yet completed, and comprehends all other cycles, periods, and epochas, with the times of all memorable actions and histories.—The collections intitled Scaligeriana, were collected from his conversations by one of his friends; and being ranged in alphabetical order, were published by Isaac Vossius.