Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors][merged small]

Maximilian, on whom he attended seventeen years in peace and war, then became a pensioner of the duke of Ferrara, studied at Bologna, commanded a troop of horse under the French viceroy at Turin, engaged in the study of physic; and in 1525 accompanied to Agen, in France, the bishop of that diocese, one of the Rovere family, and there fixed his abode in 1529; he obtained for a wife Andietta de Roques, a young woman of a noble and opulent family in Agen, and had fifteen children by her, seven of whom survived him. After his settlement at Agen, he began to apply himself seriously to those general studies which made him most known in the literary world. He learned the French tongue at his first coming, which he spoke perfectly well in three months; and then made himself master of the Gascon, Italian, Spanish, German, Hungarian, and Sclavonian. He made himself famous by various writings, which placed him high among the literary characters of his time, though, from the boastful arrogance displayed in them, they raised him many enemies. He continued to practise physic, by which he accumulated considerable wealth; and from the representations of his son, he seems to have opened his house to a great number of visitors of all ranks, and to have maintained a dignified station in society. The freedom of his writings caused him to fall under some suspicion as to his orthodoxy; but he died like a good catholic, in 1558, in his 75th year, and was interred in the Augustine church of Agen.

Julius C. Scaliger was certainly a man of extraordinary endowments, both natural and acquired. He had a strong memory, and a vigorous understanding, and thought freely, though not always justly. Of his moral qualities, his son dwells particularly upon his strict regard to truth, but this must be understood with an exception of the interests of his vanity. His treatise " De ArtePoetica," 1651, fol. gained him great reputation, and was undoubtedly the most learned work of the kind that had hitherto appeared; yet it displays rather the grammarian than the true poetical critic, and contains many instances of singular and dogmatical judgment. His own poems are by no means excellent; and his letters are often obscure and inflated.

ADRIAN, a learned Carthusian, who, like Petrarch, wrote an admired treatise, called "De Remediis utriusque Fortunæ." HENRY BEBELE, a native of Justingen in Suabia, was the son of a labourer. He was professor of eloquence in the university of Tubingen. Germany is indebted to him for good Latinity. The emperor Maximilian I., honoured him with the poetical crown in 1501.

PETER AVOGADRO, who lived at Verona, about 1490. He was the author of "Literary Memories of the Illustrious Men of his Country," an essay on the origin of Mont-de-Piete,

1

Italy, and another " De Origine gentis Rizzona." The marquis Alaffei speaks in high praise of this author in his " Verona Illustrata."

FRANCIS SYLVIUS, professor of eloquence, was born at Amiens. His family name was Du Bois, which he Latinized, according to the custom of the age. He corrected the barbarous method of reading Latin, and recommended Cicero as a model for style. He published many learned commentaries, and a work on oratory, and died in 1530. He was brother to James the physician.

JOHN GROLLIER, a patron of learned men, was born at Lyons, in 1479. He was grand treasurer to Francis I., who sent him on an embassy to Rome. He made a large collection of valuable books; and settled pensions on many eminent scholars. He died in 1565.

JOHN PARERE, the oldest dramatic writer of England, but of whom nothing is recorded, except that he wrote a piece, entitled " Candlemas Day; or the Killing of the Children of Israel;" a mystery, 1552; republished in Mrs. Hawkins's Collection of Old Plays, in 1773.

ROBERT WHITTINGTON, a learned teacher, born at Lichfield, and educated at Oxford. He published several tracts in Latin, on philology. He died in 1530.

JOHN RIGHTWISE, or RITWYSE, a grammarian, was native of Saul, in Norfolk, and educated at Eton, from whence he removed to King's college, Cambridge. He became usher to William Lilye, of St. Paul's school, and succeeded him in the mastership in 1522. He died in 1532. Rightwise was the author of a Latin tragedy, entitled "Dido;" and published an improved edition of Lilye's grammar.

JOHN BATMANSON, prior of the Carthusian monastery, in the suburbs of London. He was sometime a student at Oxford, and was intimately acquainted with Edward Lee, archbishop of York, at whose request he wrote againt Erasmus and Luther. He died in 1531, and was buried in the chapel belonging to the monastery. Bale says he was a proud forward person; and that Erasmus, in a letter to the bishop of Winchester, calls him an ignorant fellow. But Pits gives him the character of a man of genius, zeal, piety, and learning. He published several works.

MICHAEL AMBOISE, a miscellaneous French author, who assumed the title of Signior de Chevillon, was the illegitimate son of Chaumont d' Amboise, admiral of France, and lieutenant-general in Lombardy. He was born at Naples, and educated with his father's legitimate son. The father died suddenly, in 1511, without making any provision for Michael. He repaired to Paris, and was designed for the profession of the law, but he could not be prevailed on to study it, and his

friends abandoned him. He committed great imprudence in his marriage, disappointments and distresses followed, which shortened his days. He died in 1547.

PAUL BOMBASIUS, a native of Bologna, gained esteem by the profession of philology. He taught Latin and Greek at Naples, and was professor of Greek at Bologna. His abilities induced cardinal Pueci to make him his secretary, with a good salary. He lived very easy at Rome with the cardinal till that city was plundered under Clement VIII., when he was killed, while endeavouring to get into the castle of St. Angelo. He was an intimate friend and correspondent of Erasmus, who has preserved some of his letters, and gave him a good cha

racter.

GROVITA RAPICIO, an Italian man of letters, was born about the year 1483, at Chiari, in the territory of Brescia. Devoting himself to the instruction of youth in literature, he first opened a school at Bergamo, where he wrote a Latin treatise on the education of youth, which was afterwards printed at Venice. He next taught at Vicenza, and various other cities in Italy, and was for many years employed at Venice in instructing in polite literature, the youths destined for public life, and among others, the care and instruction of the sons of cardinal Bembo devolved upon him. Cardinal Pole, in one of his letters, speaks of Rapicio in high terms of commendation. He died at Venice in 1553. He was author of various harangues, poems, and epistles, but his chief work was entitled "De numero Oratorio," in five books, printed at Venice in 1544. "In this," says his biographer, "he minutely investigates the principles of writing the Latin language with sweetness and harmony, and he replies to Melancthon's assertion, that rules of this kind are rendered useless by our ignorance of the ancient pronunciation."

NICHOLAS CLENARD, a native of Diest, who, after teaching ethics at Louvain, travelled into France, Spain, Portugal, and Africa, and died at Grenada, in 1542. He left some curious letters in Latin, concerning his travels, printed in 1606, 8vo; a Greek grammar, of which Vossius published an edition at Amsterdam, 1650, 8vo; a Hebrew grammar, printed at Louvain, 1529; and other works.

LEWIS HETZER, a native of Germany, who translated the Bible into his native language; but the version being suppressed, it is now become scarce. It was printed at Worms, 1529, folio. He died about 1540.

JOHN COTTA, an elegant Italian scholar, was born of a mean family near Verona, about 1483. He became eminent in classical and mathematical knowledge, travelled through various parts of Italy, taught pupils for a time at Lodi, and attached himself to the Venetian commander Alviano. In his suite he

was taken by the French at the battle of Giara d'Adda, in 1509, and lost part of his writings. He was afterwards sent to the pope at Viterbo, where he died of a pestilential disease in 1510 or 1511, in his twenty-eighth year. Few writers have obtained a higher reputation by so small a number of productions. His poems were published at Venice in 1548.

FRANCIS RABELAIS, a French writer, famous for his facetiousness, was born at Climou, in Touraine, about 1483. He was first a Franciscan friar, but quitting his religious habit, studied physic at Montpellier, where he took his degree of M.D. Some time after he came to Rome as physician in ordinary to cardinal John du Bellay, archbishop of Paris. On a second journey to Rome, he obtained, in 1536, a brief to qualify him for holding ecclesiastical benefices; and, by the interest of cardinal Du Bellay, was received as a canon in the abbey of St. Maur, near Paris. His knowledge in physic renders him doubly useful; but as he was a man of wit and humour, many ridiculous things are reported of him. He published several works; but his chief performance is a strange incoherent romance, called the History of Gargantua and Pantagmel, being a satire upon priests, popes, fools, and knaves of all kinds. He died about 1553.

JOACHIM VADIANUS, was born in 1484, at St. Gall in Switzerland, where his father, Leonard Von Watt, was a senator. Having studied at Vienna, he was chosen professor of the Belles Lettres, and rector of the university. In 1514 he was honoured at Lintz, by the emperor Maximilian, with the poetical laurel. In his subsequent travels, he applied to the study of geography, and in 1518 having taken the degree of M. D. at Vienna, he returned to St. Gall, and devoted himself to the practice of physic, to which he joined theology upon the principles of the reformers, whose cause he promoted as a senator, and also by his discourses and writings. Having been honoured eight times with the office of consul, he died in 1551, and bequeathed his library to his fellow-citizens. On the various subjects of mathematics, geography, antiquities, medicine, and theology, he published works, as well as several Latin poems. Scaliger regarded Vadianus as one of the most learned men in Germany; and on account of his able conduct in public affairs, Thuanus presents him to notice, as an example, that philosophers and men of letters are not, as such, disqualified for business.

RHENANUS BEATUS, a learned man, whose father Anthony Bilde, assumed the name Rhenanus from Rheinach, the place of his birth, was born at Schletstad in Alsace, in 1485. He pursued his studies at Paris and Strasburg, and from thence proceeded to Basil, where, in 1514, he formed an intimate acquaintance with Erasmus, and applied to the Greek

language under J. Conon, of Nuremberg, and became a corrector of the press to the celebrated Frobenius. At the age of 35 he returned to Schletstad. He first published the two books of the "History of Velleius Paterculus," and first caused the works of Tertullian to be printed from two MSS. which he borrowed from two monasteries in Germany. His notes to Tertullian were censured by the Spanish inquisition, and placed in the Index of prohibited books, because they contained some free reflections on the sensuality of the clergy in his time. Rhenanus was a man of extensive learning, particularly in the Greek language, church history, and the antiquities of Germany. Scaliger says, that he contributed greatly to revive ancient literature, and Scioppius bears very honourable testimony to his talents as a critic. Towards the close of his life he was afflicted with a diabetes, and obtaining no relief from the baths of Baden in Switzerland, he died at Strasburg in 1547. He was no less distinguished by his integrity and modesty, and his mild and conciliating temper, than by his great learning. He professed great regard for Luther, and detested the tyranny which the clergy exercised at that period; but he never openly declared in favour either of Luther or any other reformer. Although he was no less displeased than Erasmus with the errors that had blended themselves with religion, he was an enemy of schism, and wished, by prudent reformation, to preserve the unity of the Christian church.

HENRY CORNELIUS AGRIPPA, a native of Cologne, 1486, descended from a noble family. He was in the armies of the emperor Maximilian, and distinguished himself so much by his abilities, that he was knighted after seven years' service in Italy. Eager to add to his laurels the honours of learning, he applied himself to the study of the more abstruse sciences, and took degrees in law and medicine. His writings, often severe, drew upon him the resentment of the monks, and though patronized by the great, he led a fugitive and solitary life. After reading lectures in several places in France and at Pavia, he retired to Metz by the solicitation of his friends; but his engaging in the puerile disputes about St. Anne, whether she had one or three husbands, rendered him so unpopular that he fled to Cologne, and afterwards to Switzerland. Francis I. granted him a pension, and he was made physician to the queenmother; but his unwillingness to apply his knowledge of astrology to foretel success to the arms of France, incensed the court, and he was dismissed in disgrace. He retired to Antwerp, and, under the protection of Margaret of Austria, governess of the Low Countries, and as historiographer to the emperor, he began the history of the government of Charles V. The death of his patroness occasioned a change in his affairs. After being persecuted and imprisoned at Brussels, and at

« ZurückWeiter »