Nonius, Lewis

, a learned physician at Antwerp, who flourished in the seventeenth century, was the author of a curious treatise, entitled “Pieteticon, sive de Re cibaria;” containing several remarks illustrative of those passages in the Latin Roman poets, particularly Horace, Juvenal, and Persius, which relate to the luxury of the old Roman tables. It was published in 4to in 1646, at Antwerp. He renewed the opinion of the ancient physicians, who have written “De salubri Piscium alimento,” or the wholesomeness of a fish diet; and endeavoured to shew, that, according to them, fish is especially a proper aliment for sedentary persons, for the aged, sick, and such as are of a weak constitution, as it generates blood of a moderate consistence, which suits their habit. In this work Nonius complains of the Arabians, who, in translating the Greek physicians, have omitted all passages relating to fish; because the Arabs eat little of this kind of aliment, which in that hot and dry country is rarely to be met with. Nonius also printed a very large commentary in 1620, upon the Greek medals, and those of Julius Caesar, Augustus, and Tiberius, which had been engraved about fifty-five years before by Goltzius, and published in folio at that time by James de Bye, another celebrated engraver. Besides these, he wrote “Hispania; seu de Oppidis Fluminibusque Hispanise,” 1607, 8vo; “Icthyophagia, seu de Usu Piscium,” and “Epicaedium Justo Lipsio,” &c. ²