Merula, Paul

, or Van Merle, a very learned Hollander, was born at Dort, Aug. 19, 1558; and went to France and Geneva, to study the law. Afterwards he traTelled to Italy, Germany, and England; and, having been absent nine years, returned to Dort. Here he frequented the bar four years, and then quitted it for the professorship of history, which was vacated by the cession of Justus Lipsius in 1592. It has been thought a sufficient encomium on him that he was doemed worthy to succeed so great a man. In 1598, the curators of the university of Leyden joined to his professorship the office of public librarian, vacant by the death of the younger Dousa. He married in 1589, and had several children. He hurt his constitution so much by an overstrained application to books, that he died July 20, 1607, when he was no more than forty-nine. Merula was the author or editor of several works, some of the principal of which are, 1. “Q. Ennii annalium librorum xviii. fragmenta collecta & commentariis illustrata,” L. Bat. 1595, 4to. 2. “Eutropii Historiae Rom an Sb, libri x.” 1592, 8vo; but more complete with the entire notes of Glareanus and Merula, Leyden, 1594, 8vo. 3. “Urbi$ Romae delineatio & methodica ex variis authoribus descriptio,” 1599. 4. “Vita Desiderii Eras on ex ipsius manu fideliter representata. Additi sunt epistolarum ipsius libri duo,” 1607, 4to. 5. “Cosmographiae generalis libri tres. Item geographies particularis libri quatuor, quibus Europa in genere, speciatim Hispania, Galiia, Italia describuntur, cum tabuiis geographicis,” 1605, 4to. This work went through many editions; but its use is now superseded by the more accurate labours of subsequent geographers. Merula published several other works enumerated in our authorities. ²