[905] Niceron (vol. xxvi.) contends that the supposed second edition differs only by a change in the title-page, wherein we find rather an unhappy attempt at wit, in the following distich aimed at Scapula:
Quidam επιτεμνων me capulo tenus abdidit ensem: Æger eram a scapulis; sanus at huc redeo.
But it seems that Stephens, in his Palæstra de Lipsii Latinitate, mentions this second edition, which is said by those who have examined it, to have fewer typographical errors than the other, though it is admitted that the leaves might be intermixed without inconvenience, so close is the resemblance. Vid. Maittaire, p. 356-360. Brunet, Man. du Libr. Greswell, vol. ii. p. 289.
[906] Maittaire says that Scapula’s lexicon is as perfidious to the reader as its author was to his master, and that Dr. Busby would not suffer his boys to use it, p. 358. But this has hardly been the general opinion. See Quarterly Review, ubi suprâ.
[907] Casaubon writes frequently to Scaliger about the strange behaviour of his father-in-law, and complains that he had not even leave to look at the books in the latter’s library, which he himself scarce ever visited. Nôsti hominem, nôsti mores, nôsti quid apud eum possim, hoc est, quam nihil possim, qui videtur in suam perniciem conspirâsse. Epist. 21. And, still more severely, Epist. 41. Nam noster, etsi vivens valensque, pridem numero hominum, certe doctorum, eximi meruit; ea est illius inhumanitas, et quod invitus dico, delirium; qui libros quoslibet veteres, ut Indici gryphi aurum, aliis invidet, sibi perire sinit, sed quid ille habeat aut non, juxta scio ego cum ignavissimo. After Stephens’s death, he wrote in kinder terms than he had done before: but regretting some publications, by which the editor of Casaubon’s letters thinks he might mean the Apologie pour Herodote, and the Palæstra de Justi Lipsii Latinitate; the former of which, a very well-known book, contains a spirited attack on the Romish priesthood, but with less regard either for truth or decorum in the selection of his stories than became the character of Stephens; and the latter is of little pertinence to its avowed subject. Henry Stephens had long been subject to a disorder natural enough to laborious men, quædam actionum consuetarum satietas et fastidium, Maittaire, p. 248.
Robert Stephens had carried with him to Geneva in 1550, the punches of his types, made at the expense of Francis I., supposing, perhaps, that they were a gift of the king. On the death, however, of Henry Stephens, they were claimed by Henry IV., and the senate of Geneva restored them. They had been pledged for 400 crowns, and Casaubon complains as of a great injury, that the estate of Stephens was made answerable to the creditor, when the pledge was given up to the king of France. See Le Clerc’s remarks on this in Bibliothèque Choisie, vol. xix. p. 219. Also a vindication of Stephens by Maittaire from the charge of having stolen them (Vitæ Stephanorum, i. 34), and again in Greswell’s Parisian Press, i. 399. He seems above the suspicion of theft; but whether he had just cause to think the punches were his own, it is now impossible to decide.
Hellenismus of Caninius. 17. The Hellenismus of Angelus Caninius, a native of the Milanese, is merely a grammar. Tanaquil Faber prefers it not only to that of Clenardus, but to all which existed even in his own time. It was published at Paris in 1555. Those who do not express themselves so strongly, place him above his predecessors. Caninius is much fuller than Clenardus; the edition by Crenius (Leyden, 1700), containing 380 pages. The syntax is very scanty; but Caninius was well conversant with the mutations of words, and is diligent in noting the differences of dialects, in which he has been thought to excel. He was acquainted with the digamma, and with its Latin form. |Vergara’s grammar.| I will take this opportunity of observing that the Greek grammar of Vergara, mentioned in the first volume of this work (p. 488), and of which I now possess the Paris edition of 1557, printed by William Morel (ad Complutensem editionem excusum et restitutum) appears superior to those of Clenardus or Varenius. This book is doubtless very scarce; it is plain that Tanaquil Faber, Baillet, Morhof, and, I should add, Nicolas Antonio, had never seen it,[908] nor is it mentioned by Brunet or Watts.[909] There is, however, a copy in the British Museum. Scaliger says that it is very good, and that Caninius has borrowed from it the best parts.[910] Vergara had, of course, profited by the commentaries of Budæus, the great source of Greek philology in western Europe; but he displays, as far as I can judge by recollection more than comparison, an ampler knowledge of the rules of Greek than any of his other contemporaries. This grammar contains 438 pages, more than 100 of which are given to the syntax. A small grammar by Nunez, published at Valencia in 1555, seems chiefly borrowed from Clenardus or Vergara.
[908] Blount, Baillet.
[909] Antonio says it was printed at Alcala, 1573; deinde Parisiis, 1550. The first is of course a false print; if the second is not so likewise, he had never seen the book.
[910] Scaligerana Secunda. F. Vergara, Espagnol, a composé une bonne grammaire Grecque, mais Caninius a pris tout le meilleur de tous, et a mis du sien aussi quelque chose dans son Hellenismus. This, as Bayle truly observes, reduces the eulogies Scaliger has elsewhere given Cannius to very little. Scaliger’s loose expressions are not of much value. Yet he who had seen Vergara’s grammar, might better know what was original in others, than Tanaquil Faber, who had never seen it.