page_title: Joseph Justus Scaliger
section_title: University and travels
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph Justus Scaliger / Biography / University and travels
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Josephus Justus Scaliger, geschilderd door de derde Bibliothecaris van de Universiteit Leiden, Paulus Merula, 1597. Icones Leidenses, 28 English: Josephus Justus Scaliger, painted by the 3rd Librarian of Leiden University, Paulus Merula, 1597. Icones Leidenses 28
context_page_description: Joseph Justus Scaliger was a French religious leader and scholar, known for expanding the notion of classical history from Greek and ancient Roman history to include Persian, Babylonian, Jewish and ancient Egyptian history. He spent the last sixteen years of his life in the Netherlands.
context_section_description: After his father's death he spent four years at the University of Paris, where he began the study of Greek under Adrianus Turnebus. But after two months he found he was not in a position to profit from the lectures of the greatest Greek scholar of the time. He read Homer in twenty-one days, and then went through all the other Greek poets, orators and historians, forming a grammar for himself as he went along. From Greek, at the suggestion of Guillaume Postel, he proceeded to attack Hebrew, and then Arabic; of both he acquired a respectable knowledge.
  His most important teacher was Jean Dorat. He was able not only to impart knowledge, but also to kindle enthusiasm in Scaliger. It was to Dorat that Scaliger owed his home for the next thirty years of his life, for in 1563 the professor recommended him to Louis de Chastaigner, the young lord of La Roche-Posay, as a companion in his travels. A close friendship sprang up between the two young men, which remained unbroken till the death of Louis in 1595. The travellers first went to Rome. Here they found Marc Antoine Muret, who, when at Bordeaux and Toulouse, had been a great favourite and occasional visitor of Julius Caesar Scaliger at Agen. Muret soon recognized the young Scaliger's merits, and introduced him to many contacts well worth knowing.
  After visiting a large part of Italy, the travellers moved on to England and Scotland, passing as it would seem La Roche-Posay on their way. Scaliger formed an unfavourable opinion of the English. Their inhuman disposition and inhospitable treatment of foreigners especially made a negative impression on him. He was also disappointed in finding only a few Greek manuscripts and few learned men. It was not until a much later period that he became intimate with Richard Thomson and other Englishmen. In the course of his travels he had become a Protestant.
caption: Josephus Justus Scaliger, painted by Paullus Merula, 3rd librarian of Leiden University, 1597.
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