[1031] Andrès, xix. 166. Castalio, according to Simon (Hist. Critique du V. T., p. 363), affects politeness to an inconceivable degree of bad taste, especially in such phrases as these in his translation of the Canticles:—Mea columbula, ostende mihi tuum vulticulum; fac ut audiam tuam voculam, &c. He was, however, Simon says, tolerably acquainted with Hebrew, and spoke modestly of his own translation.
Versions into modern languages. 58. The new translations of the Scriptures into modern languages were naturally not so numerous as at an earlier period. Two in English are well known; the Geneva Bible of 1560, published in that city by Coverdale, Whittingham, and other refugees, and the Bishop’s Bible of 1568. Both of these, or at least the latter, were professedly founded upon the prior versions, but certainly not without a close comparison with the original text. The English Catholics published a translation of the New Testament from the Vulgate at Rheims in 1582. The Polish translation, commonly ascribed to the Socinians, was printed under the patronage of Prince Radzivil in 1563, before that sect could be said to exist, though Lismanin and Blandrata, both of heterodox tenets, were concerned in it.[1032] This edition is of the greatest rarity. The Spanish bible of Ferrara, 1553, and the Sclavonian of 1581, are also very scarce. The curious in bibliography are conversant with other versions and editions of the sixteenth century, chiefly of rare occurrence.[1033]
[1032] Bayle, art. Radzivil.
[1033] Brunet, &c.
CHAPTER XII.
HISTORY OF SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY FROM 1550 TO 1600.
Aristotelian Philosophers—Cesalpin—Opposite Schools of Philosophy—Telesio—Jordano Bruno—Sanchez—Aconcio—Nizolius—Logic of Ramus.
Predominance of Aristotelian philosophy. 1. The authority of Aristotle, as the great master of dogmatic philosophy, continued generally predominant through the sixteenth century. It has been already observed that, besides the strenuous support of the Catholic clergy, and especially of the Sorbonne, who regarded all innovations with abhorrence, the Aristotelian philosophy had been received, through the influence of Melanchthon, in the Lutheran universities. The reader must be reminded that, under the name of speculative philosophy we comprehend not only the logic and what was called ontology of the schools, but those physical theories of ancient or modern date, which, appealing less to experience than to assumed hypotheses, cannot be mingled, in a literary classification, with the researches of true science, such as we shall hereafter have to place under the head of natural philosophy.
Scholastic and genuine Aristotelians. 2. Brucker has made a distinction between the scholastic and the genuine Aristotelians; the former being chiefly conversant with the doctors of the middle ages, adopting their terminology, their distinctions, their dogmas, and relying with implicit deference on Scotus or Aquinas, though, in the progress of learning, they might make some use of the original master; while the latter, throwing off the yoke of the schoolmen, prided themselves on an equally complete submission to Aristotle himself. These were chiefly philosophers and physicians, as the former were theologians; and the difference of their objects suffices to account for the different lines in which they pursued them, and the lights by which they were guided.[1034]
[1034] Brucker, Hist. Philos. iv. 117, et post.