GRONOVIUS, the Latinized form of Gronov, John Frederick, a learned scholar and critic, was born at Hamburg on the 10th of September 1611. His father, who was councillor to the Duke of Holstein, having been appointed syndic or town-clerk of Bremen, carried his son to that city, where he went through his early studies with great distinction. He then visited the universities of Leipsic and Iena, and proceeded to Altdorf, where he studied law under the learned professors who had conferred celebrity on that school. After the death of his father he returned to Bremen, and having settled his affairs, he, in 1634, repaired to Groningen to enjoy the benefit of the society and instructions of Antony Mathieu, a great jurisconsult, and the friend of his family. Here, however, he remained only a short time. For, being desirous to extend his knowledge by travel, he visited the principal cities of Holland, in order to converse with the learned and explore the libraries; passed, with the same design, into England in 1639; and the year following proceeded to France. He stopped several months at Paris; received the degree of doctor of law at Angers; and then travelled into Italy, whence he returned, through Switzerland and Germany, to Deventer, where he was offered the chair of literature and history. In 1658, he succeeded Daniel Heinsius, the celebrated professor of belles-lettres in the university of Leyden, and died in that city on the 28th of December 1671. Gronovius was a man of equal learning and modesty, and, as he was naturally disinclined to controversy, he avoided those literary disputes by which so many then sought to obtain distinction. For a correct list of his numerous works, we refer to the Bibliolh. ErudU. Proecoc. of Klefeker, and to the Diclionaire of Chauflepié, and shall only mention the following: 1. Diatribe in Statii poetse Sylvas, Hague, 1637, in 8vo; 2. De Sesterciis sive subsesivorum Pecuniae veteris Graecae et Roman« libri iv. Deventer, 1643, in 4to; 3. Observationum libri iv. Deventer, 1662, in 12mo; 4. Laudatio funebris Joannie Golii, Leyden, 1668, in 8vo; 5. De Musaeo Alexandrino Exercitationes Academic«, inserted in the eighth volume of the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Groecarum; 6. Lectiones Plautinae, quibus non tantum fabulae Plautin« et Teren-tianae, verum etiam C«sar, Cicero, Livius illustrantur, Amsterdam, 1740, in 8vo; 7. Notes on the treatise of Grotius De Jure Belli et Pacis. Gronovius also revised [7:10:780]the text, and published editions with notes, of Titus Livius, Statius, Pliny the Elder, Justin, Tacitus, the Senecas, Aulus Gellius, Phaedrus, and Paulinus, almost all of which form part of the Variorum collection. (a.) Gronovius, James, son of the preceding, and one of the most laborious philologers of the seventeenth century, was born at Deventer on the 20th of October 1645. At an early age he had read all the masterpieces of antiquity, and appreciated their beauties; but this precocious discernment was not so much the result of natural genius as of obstinate perseverance. Having resolved to travel through part of Europe to acquire knowledge, and visit the old friends of his father, he came over to England, where he remained several months, during which he occupied himself in collating the manuscripts in the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge. He then returned to Leyden, and there published, in the year 1670, an edition of Polybius, with notes, amongst which he inserted those that Casaubon had on his death-bed bequeathed to him. This first editorial effort did him much honour, and well merited the offer, which was in consequence made him, of a chair in the academy of Deventer. But entertaining the intention of continuing his travels, he declined the proffered situation, and almost immediately set out for Paris, where he met with a most distinguished reception. The death of his father obliged him to return a second time to Leyden; but as soon as he had arranged his affairs, he again set out, along with Μ. Paats, ambassador of the states-general, to Spain; and having seen all that is curious or interesting in that country, he embarked for Italy. The Grand Duke of Tuscany retained him in his states by appointing him professor in the university of Pisa; and Gronovius profited by the facility he had of visiting Florence, to form a connection with Magliabecchi, who placed at his disposal all the treasures of the Medicean library. At the end of two years he prevailed on the grand duke to accept his resignation; visited Venice and Padua; and traversed Germany on his way to Deventer, where it was his intention to settle. But scarcely had he arrived in that city when the curators of the university of Leyden tendered him a chair, and pressed their offer so urgently that he was induced to accept. His opening discourse increased the high idea which had been formed of his knowledge; and the curators, to testify their desire of retaining him, immediately raised his salary to four hundred florins. Gronovius was very sensible of this mark of esteem, and constantly refused the propositions which were made to draw him to Kiel, to Padua, and to other universities of Germany and Italy. If he inherited the erudition of his father, he had neither his gentleness nor his moderation. Never was there a man fonder of disputation, or more unjust towards the adversaries whom, for the most part, he raised up against himself by his asperity and haughtiness. It would be tedious, if not disgusting, to enter into details respecting the quarrels he had to maintain with Fabretti on the sense of some passages in Livy; with Feller and Perizonius as to the manner of Judas’s death; with Vossius on Pomponius Mela; with Bentley and John Leclerc on the corrections of Menander; with Küster on Suidas, &c. The scurrility he indulged in these discussions, which did not always terminate to his advantage, and his exorbitant vanity, caused him to be compared to Scioppius, and procured for him the unenviable distinction of a place in die work of Mencken on the Empiricism of the Learned. But though the temper of Gronovius was thus violent, his heart was sound, and he loved his children with so much tenderness that the grief occasioned by the loss of his daughter accelerated his own death, which took place at Leyden on the 21st of October 1716, in the seventy-first year of his age. In the Memoirs of Niceron will be found a notice of his life, followed by a catalogue of his works, forty-six in number. The most celebrated, as well as the most important, of these, is the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Grcecarum, Leyden, 1697 and the following years, in 13 vols. folio. For this invaluable collection he adopted the plan traced out by Graevius in the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanarum, Utrecht, 1694, in 12 vols. folio. Both works ought to be united; and, to form a complete collection of antiquities, there should be added, 1. Novus Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanarum, by Sallengre, Hague, 1716, in 3 vols. folio; 2. Utriusque Thesauri Nova Supplementa, by Polleni, Venice, 1737, in 5 vols. folio; 3. Inscriptiones Antiqua totius Orbis Romani, by Gruter, Amsterdam, 1707, in 4 vols. folio; 4. Lexico Antiquitatum Romanarum, by Pitiscus, Leuwarden, 1713, in 2 vols. folio. Gronovius published new editions of several authors already commented on by his father, such as Seneca the tragic poet, Aulus Gellius, Phaedrus, and others; and he also edited Macrobius, Polybius, Tacitus, Pomponius Mela, Cicero, Ammianus MarceDinus, Quintus Curtius, Suetonius, Arrian, Minutius Felix, Herodotus, Cebes, and some ancient geographers; the poem of Manetho on the stars; the Dactylotheca of Gorlaeus; the Lexico of Harpocration, &c. the greater part of which, enriched with corrections and notes, form part of the Variorum collection, though, in general, not held in much estimation. The other productions of Gronovius consist of Theses, Discourses, and Diatribes, of which a list will be found in the Memoirs of Niceron, and also in the Biblioth. Erudit. Pracocium of Klefeker. (λ.)