Gudius, Marquard

, a learned critic, was of Hoistein, in Germany, but we know nothing of his parents, nor in what year he was born. He laid the foundation of his studies at Rensburg, under Jonsius, and went afterwards to Jena, where he was in 1654. He continued some years in this city, manifesting a strong inclination for letters, and making diligent search after ancient inscriptions. He was at Francfort in July 1658, when the emperor Leopold was crowned; and went thence to Holland, where John Frederic Gronovius recommended him to Nicolas Heinsius, as a young man of uncommon parts and learning, who had already distinguished himself by some publications, and from whom greater things were to be expected. His parents in the mean time wanted to have him at home, and offered at any price to procure him a place at court, if he WQuld but abandon letters, which they considered as | a frivolous and unprofitable employment. But he remained inexorable preferring a competency with books to any fortune without them and above all, was particularly averse from a court, where “he should,” he said, “be constantly obliged to keep the very worst of company.”

His learned friends all this while were labouring to serve him. Grttviiis tried to get him a place at Duisbnrg, but could not succeed. The magistrates of Amsterdam soon after offered him a considerable sum to digest and revise Blondel’s “Remarks upon Baron ius’s Annals,” and gave him hopes of a professorship; but receiving a letter from Gronovius, which proposed to him a better offer, he declined the undertaking. Gronovius proposed to him the making the tour of France, Italy, and other countries of Europe, in quality of tutor to a rich young gentleman, whose name was Samuel Schas; and this proposal he readily embraced, though he had another letter from Alexander Moms, with the offer of a pension of Saumur, and a lodging in the house of the celebrated professor Amyrault, if he would read lectures upon ancient history to some French noblemen.

He set out with Schas in November 1659; and in April

1660, arrived at Paris, where he found Menage employed in editing Diogenes Laertius, and communicated to him some observations of his own. He easily found admittance to all the learned wherever he came, being furnished from Holland with instructions and recommendations for that purpose. The two travellers arrived at Toulouse, October

1661, where they both were attacked with a dangerous illness; but recovering, they went to Italy, where they remained all 1662, and part of 1663. At Rome, at Florence, and at Capua, they were introduced to Leo Ailatius, Carolus Dati, and other men of talents. In 1663, they returned to France, and continued there the remaining part of the year. Gudius. who seems to have been a provident man, had desired his friends at parting, to watch for some place of settlement for him at his return: and accordingly Heinsius, Gronovius, and Graevius, were very attentive to his interest. But his pupil Schas wished to make another tour, and Gudius preferred accompanying him, as Schas was a lover of letters, and, though immensely rich, resolved to spend his life in studious pursuits. He was also very partial to Gudius, whom he dissuaded from accepting any place; and pressed to accompany him through | &e libraries of Germany, as he had already done through those of France and Italy.

Before they set out for Germany, Isaac Vossius, jealous at seeing in the hands of Gudius so many valuable monuments of literature, whidrthey had collected in their first tour, is said to have acted a part, neither becoming a scholar nor an honest man. On the one hand, he affected to hold them light when he talked with Gudius; whom also he did not scruple to treat with an air of contempt, even in the presence of his friend Gronovius, saying, that Gudius had never collated any ms. but always used a copyist for that purpose, and that he did not know the value of them, but was ready to sell them for a trifle to the first purchaser. On the other hand, when he talked to Schas, he represented to him what an estimable treasure he was in possession of, exhorted him not to be the dupe of Gudius, but invited him to join his Mss. with his own; alleging, that they would enjoy them in common during their lives, and after their deaths bequeath them to the public; which unusual act of generosity would gain them great honour. But Vossius did not know that Schas loved books, and understood Mss. perhaps as well as Gudius: and Grsevius, in the preface to his edition of “Florus,” makes his acknowledgments to Schas, whom he calls rir exiniius, for having collated three Mss. of that author in the king of France’s library. Vossius used other ungenerous and dishonest means to set Gudius and Schas at variance; and besides causing a quarrel between Schas and his brother, by insinuating, that Gudius had too great a share in the possessions as well as the affections of Schas, he did what he could to ruin Gudius’s character with the States of Holland, although here too he failed.

Gudius and Schas set out for Germany, July 1664; but their excursion was short, for they returned to the Hague in December. They went over to England, some time before they went to Germany: but no particulars of this journey are recorded. Gudius continued at the Hague till 1671, refusing to accept any thing, though two professorships were offered him; and then went to settle in his own country, yet without disuniting himself from his pupil, with whom he had lived long as an intimite friend. Heinsius tells Ezekiei Spanheim in a letter, August 1671, that Gudius was made librarian and counsellor to the duke of Holstein; and in another to Fulconieri, June 1672, that | he was married. In 1674 he was sent by tbat prince to the court of Denmark and, December 1675, was informed at the Hague, that Schas was dead at Holstein, and had left his estate to Gudius, with legacies to Graevius, Gronovius, Heinsius, and other learned men: which legacies, however, were revoked in a codicil. The will was contested by the relations of Schas; but Gudius carried the estate, and, as Heinsius relates in a letter, 1676, from that time is said to have discontinued his correspondence with his learned friends in Holland, which we cannot be surprized at, if it be true, as suspected, that he had some hand in the will by which Schas left him his estate. Graevius remarks that he was not only expert at explaining old manuscripts, but also in making new ones.

In 1678, he was irretrievably disgraced with his prince, which created him much affliction, as his learning had not freed his mind from avarice and ambition. However, he was a little comforted afterwards, by being made counsellor to the king of Denmark. He died, somewhat immaturely, in 1689 Burman calls his death immature; and it is certain he could not be old. Though it was constantly expected from him, yet he never published any thing of consequence. At Jena, in 1657, came out a thesis of his, “De Clinicis, sive Grabatariis veteris Ecclesise:” and in 1661, when he was at Paris, he published “Hippolyti Martyris de Antichristo librum, Grace,” a piece never printed before. His Mss. however, with his own collations, he communicated to Gronovius, Graevius, Heinsius, and others, who all considered him as excellent in philology and criticism. “Ingenio & doctrina recondita in primis hujus saeculi conspicuus Marquardus Gudius,” are the words of Graevius, in his preface to “Florus:” and Burman, who was far from being lavish of praise, speaks of him in the highest terms, in the preface to “Phaedrus,” which he published at Amsterdam in 1698, merely for the sake of Gudius’s notes. To this edition are added four new fables, which Gudius extracted from a ms. at Dijon, Burman had published in 4to, the year before, at Utrecht, “A Collection of Epistles of Gudius and his Friends/* whence these memoirs of him are taken: and, in 1731, came out” Antiquae Inscriptiones, cum Graecae torn Latinae, olim a Marquardo Gudio collectae, nuper a Joanne Koolio digestae, hortatu consilioque Joamiis Georgii Graevii; nunc a Francisco Hesselio edit*, cum annotationibus | eofum," Leuwardiae, folio. About the beginning of the last century, the duke of Wolfenbutel purchased Gudius’s manuscripts, and employed Leibnitz in making the bargain, as well as in transporting them to his library. They consisted of a vast number of early Mss. of Greek and Latin authors, many of which had never been used. ¹