[970] The list of books printed in Scotland before 1550, which I have given on p. 167, on the authority of Herbert, appears not to be quite accurate. Pinkerton’s Scottish Poems (1786), i. 104; (1792), i. 22.
Latin little used in writing. 52. The Latin language was by no means so generally employed in England as on the Continent. Our authors have from the beginning been apt to prefer their mother-tongue, even upon subjects which, by the usage of the learned, were treated in Latin; though works relating to history, and especially to ecclesiastical antiquity, such as those of Parker and Godwin, were sometimes written in that language. It may be alleged that very few books of a philosophical class appeared at all in the far-famed reign of Elizabeth. But probably such as Scot’s Discovery of Witchcraft, Roger’s Anatomy of the Mind, and Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity would have been thought to require a learned dress in any other country. And we may think the same of the great volumes of controversial theology; as Jewel’s Defence of the Apology, Cartwright’s Platform, and Whitgift’s Reply to it. The free spirit, not so much of our government, as of the public mind itself, and the determination of a large portion of the community to choose their religion for themselves, rendered this descent from the lofty grounds of learning indispensable. By such a deviation from the general laws of the republic of letters, which, as it is needless to say, was by no means less practised in the ensuing age, our writers missed some part of that general renown they might have challenged from Europe; but they enriched the minds of a more numerous public at home; they gave their own thoughts with more precision, energy, and glow; they invigorated and amplified their native language, which became in their hands more accommodated to abstract and philosophical disquisition, though, for the same reason, more formal and pedantic than any other in Europe. This observation is as much intended for the reigns of James and Charles as for that of Elizabeth.
Sect. II.
Principal Writers—Manutius, Sigonius, Lipsius—Numismatics—Mythology—Chronology of Scaliger.
Early works on antiquities. 53. The attention of the learned had been frequently directed, since the revival of letters, to elucidate the antiquities of Rome, her customs, rites, and jurisprudence. It was more laborious than difficult to commonplace all extant Latin authors; and, by this process of comparison, most expressions, perhaps, in which there was no corruption of the text, might be cleared up. This seems to have produced the works already mentioned, of Cælius Rhodiginus and Alexander ab Alexandro, which afford explanations of many hundred passages that might perplex a student. Others had devoted their time to particular subjects, as Pomponius Lætus, and Raphael of Volterra, to the distinctions of magistrates; Marlianus, to the topography of ancient Rome; and Robortellus, to family names. It must be confessed that most of these early pioneers were rather praiseworthy for their diligence and good-will, than capable of clearing away the more essential difficulties that stood in the way: few treatises, written before the middle of the sixteenth century, have been admitted into the collections of Grævius and Sallengre. But soon afterwards an abundant light was thrown upon the most interesting part of Roman antiquity, the state of government and public law, by four more eminent scholars than had hitherto explored that field, Manutius, Panvinius, and Sigonius in Italy, Gruchius (or Grouchy) in France.
P. Manutius on Roman Laws. 54. The first of these published in 1558 his treatise De Legibus Romanorum; and though that De Civitate did not appear till 1585, Grævius believes it to have been written about the same time as the former. Manutius has given a good account of the principal laws made at Rome during the republic; not many of the empire. Augustinus, however, archbishop of Tarragona, had preceded him with considerable success; and several particular laws were better illustrated afterwards by Brisson, Balduin, and Gothofred. It will be obvious to any one, very slightly familiar with the Roman law, that this subject, as far as it relates to the republican period, belongs much more to classical antiquity than to jurisprudence.
Manutius, De Civitate. 55. The second treatise of Manutius, De Civitate, discusses the polity of the Roman republic. Though among the very first scholars of his time, he will not always bear the test of modern acuteness. Even Grævius, who himself preceded the most critical age, frequently corrects his errors. Yet there are marks of great sagacity in Manutius; and Niebuhr, who has judged the antiquaries of the sixteenth century as they generally deserve, might have found the germ of his own celebrated hypothesis, though imperfectly developed, in what this old writer has suggested; that the populus Romanus originally meant the inhabitants of Rome intra pomœria, as distinguished from the cives Romani, who dwelt beyond that precinct in the territory.[971]
[971] The first paragraph of the preface to Niebuhr’s history deserves to be quoted. “The History of Rome was treated, during the first two centuries after the revival of letters, with the same prostration of the understanding and judgment to the written letter that had been handed down, and with the same fearfulness of going beyond it, which prevailed in all the other branches of knowledge. If any one had asserted a right of examining the credibility of the ancient writers and the value of their testimony, an outcry would have been raised against his atrocious presumption. The object aimed at was, in spite of all internal evidence, to combine what was related by them; at the utmost, one authority was in some one particular instance postponed to another as gently as possible, and without inducing any further results. Here and there, indeed, a free-born mind, such as Glareanus, broke through these bonds; but infallibly a sentence of condemnation was forthwith pronounced against him; besides, such men were not the most learned, and their bold attempts were only partial, and were wanting in consistency. In this department, as in others, men of splendid talents and the most copious learning conformed to the narrow spirit of their age; their labours extracted from a multitude of insulated details what the remains of ancient literature did not afford united in any single work, a systematic account of Roman antiquities. What they did in this respect is wonderful; and this is sufficient to earn for them an imperishable fame.”
Panvinius—Sigonius.