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Isaac Casaubon | |
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| Born | 18 February 1559 |
| Died | 1 July 1614 (aged 55) |
| Occupation | Classicalscholar,philologist |
| Alma mater | University of Geneva |
Isaac Casaubon (/kəˈsɔːbən/;[1]French:[kazobɔ̃]; 18 February 1559 – 1 July 1614) was aclassical scholar andphilologist, first in France and then later in England.
His sonMéric Casaubon was also a classical scholar.
He was born inGeneva to two FrenchHuguenot refugees.[citation needed] The family returned to France after theEdict of Saint-Germain in 1562, and settled atCrest inDauphiné, where Arnaud Casaubon, Isaac's father, became minister of a Huguenot congregation. Until he was nineteen, Isaac had no education other than that given him by his father. Arnaud was away from home for long periods in theCalvinist camp, and the family regularly fled to the hills to hide from bands of armedCatholics who patrolled the country. It was in a cave in the mountains of Dauphiné, after theSt Bartholomew's Day's Massacre, that Isaac received his first lesson inGreek, based onIsocrates'Ad Demonicum.[2]
At the age of nineteen Isaac was sent to theAcademy of Geneva, where he read Greek underFranciscus Portus, aCretan. Portus died in 1581, recommending Casaubon, then only twenty-two, as his successor. He remained at Geneva as professor of Greek until 1596. There he married twice, his second wife being Florence Estienne, daughter of the scholar-printerHenri Estienne. At Geneva, Casaubon lacked example, encouragement and assistance and struggled against the troops of the Catholic dukes ofSavoy, but became a consummate Greek and classical scholar. He spent all the money he could spare on books, including copying classics that were not then in print. Even though Henri Estienne,Theodore de Beza (rector of the university and professor of theology), and Jacques Lect (Lectius), were men of superior learning, they often had no time for Casaubon.[2]
Casaubon sought help by cultivating the acquaintance of foreign scholars, as Geneva, the metropolis ofCalvinism, received a constant stream of visitors. He eventually metHenry Wotton, a poet and diplomat, who lodged with him and borrowed his money. More importantly, he metRichard Thomson ("Dutch" Thomson), fellow ofClare College, Cambridge, and through Thomson came to the attention ofJoseph Scaliger. Scaliger and Casaubon first exchanged letters in 1594. They never met, but kept up a lengthy correspondence that shows their growing admiration, esteem and friendship. Influential French men of letters, theProtestantJacques Bongars, the CatholicJacques de Thou, and the Catholic convertPhilippe Canaye (sieur deFresnes) endeavoured to get Casaubon invited to France.[3]
In 1596, they succeeded, and Casaubon accepted a post at theUniversity of Montpellier, with the titles ofconseiller du roi (king's advisor) andprofesseur stipendié aux langues et bonnes lettres (salaried professor of languages and literatures). He stayed there for only three years, with several prolonged absences. He was badly treated and poorly paid by the university authorities. Casaubon began to see the editing of Greek books as a more suitable job for him. At Geneva he had produced some notes onDiogenes Laërtius,Theocritus and theNew Testament. He debuted as an editor with a complete edition ofStrabo (1587), of which he was so ashamed afterwards that he apologized to Scaliger for it. This was followed by the text ofPolyaenus, aneditio princeps, 1589; a text ofAristotle, 1590; and a few notes contributed to Estienne's editions ofDionysius of Halicarnassus andPliny'sEpistolae. His edition ofTheophrastus'sCharacteres (1592), is the first example of his peculiar style of illustrative commentary, at once apposite and profuse. When he left for Montpellier he was already engaged upon hismagnum opus, his editing of and commentary onAthenaeus.[4]
In 1598 Casaubon was atLyon, overseeing the printing of hisAthenaeus. Here he lived in the house ofMéric de Vicq,surintendant de la justice (Superintendent of Justice), a liberal-mindedCatholic. Accompanied by de Vicq, Casaubon briefly visited Paris, where he was presented to KingHenry IV of France. The king said something about employing Casaubon's services in the "restoration" of the fallenUniversity of Paris. In January 1599, he received a summons to return to Paris, but the terms of the letter were so vague that Casaubon hesitated to act on it. However, he resigned his chair at Montpellier. He stayed another year atLyon with de Vicq, where he hoped to meet the king, who was expected to visit the south. Nothing more was heard about the professorship, but instead De Vicq summoned him to Paris for important business: theFontainebleau Conference. Casaubon was persuaded to sit as a referee on the challenge sent toDu Plessis Mornay byCardinal Duperron. By so doing he placed himself in a false position, asJoseph Scaliger said:[4]
"Non debebat Casaubon interesse colloquio Plessiaeano; erat asinus inter simias, doctus inter imperitos."[5]
"Casaubon ought not to have been involved in the conference about Du Plessis; he was a donkey among monkeys, a learned man among the ignorant."
The issue was contrived that the Protestant party (Du Plessis Mornay) could not fail to lose. By concurring with this decision, Casaubon confirmed the Protestants' suspicions that, like his friend and patron, Philippe Canaye, he was contemplatingabjuration. From then on, he became the object of the hopes and fears of the two religions; the Catholics lavishing promises and plying him with arguments; the Protestant ministers insinuating that he was preparing to forsake a losing cause, and only haggling about his price. Neither side could understand that Casaubon's reading of theChurch Fathers led him to adopt an intermediate position between GenevanCalvinism andUltramontanism.[4]
Meanwhile, the king repeated his invitation to Casaubon to settle in Paris, and gave him a pension. No more was said about the university. The recent reform of the University of Paris closed its doors to all but Catholics; and though the chairs of theCollège de France were not governed by the statutes of the university, public opinion ran so violently against Protestants, that Henry IV dared not appoint a Calvinist to that position. When the king's sub-librarian Jean Gosselin died of extreme old age in 1604, Casaubon succeeded him, with a salary of 400livres in addition to his pension.[4]
Casaubon remained in Paris until the assassination of Henry IV in 1610. These ten years were the brightest period of his life. He had attained the reputation of being a learned man, in an age in which learning formed the sole standard of literary merit. He had money, the ability to worship as a Huguenot (though he had to travel to Hablon, ten miles from the center of Paris, orCharenton to worship), and the society of men of letters, both domestic and foreign. Above all, he had ample facilities for using Greek books, both printed and in manuscript, the want of which he had felt painfully at Geneva and Montpellier, and which only Paris could supply at that time.[4]
Despite all these advantages, Casaubon considered many schemes for leaving Paris and settling elsewhere. Offers came to him from various quarters, includingNîmes,Heidelberg andSedan, France. His friends Lect andGiovanni Diodati wished, rather than hoped, to get him back to Geneva. In Paris, Casaubon was still uneasy about his religion: the life of a Parisian Huguenot was always insecure, for the police were likely not strong enough to protect them against a sudden mob uprising. Since the Fontainebleau Conference, an impression prevailed that Casaubon was wavering. The Catholics told him he could gain a professorship only if he renounced Protestantism. When it became clear that Casaubon could not be bought, Henry IV, who liked Casaubon personally, took it upon himself to try to convert him. (Henry himself had converted to Catholicism in order to rule France.) The king's cardinal Duperron, in his capacity ofaumonier, argued with Casaubon in the king's library. On the other hand, the Huguenot theologians, especiallyPierre du Moulin, chief pastor of the church of Paris, accused Casaubon of conceding too much, and of having departed already from the lines of strict Calvinistic orthodoxy.[6]
When the assassination of Henry IV gave full rein to theUltramontane party at court, Duperron became more importunate, even menacing. Casaubon began to pay attention to overtures from the bishops and the court of England. In October 1610 he came to England in the suite of the ambassador,Lord Wotton of Marley (brother of Casaubon's early friend Henry Wotton), an official invitation having been sent him byRichard Bancroft,Archbishop of Canterbury. He had the most flattering reception from KingJames I, who often sent for him to discuss theological matters. The Englishbishops were delighted to find that the great French scholar was a ready-madeAnglican, who had arrived, by independent study of the Fathers, at the veryvia media (middle way) betweenPuritanism andCatholicism which was becoming the fashion in the English Church. Casaubon, though a layman, was collated to aprebendal stall in Canterbury, and a pension of £300 a year was assigned him from the exchequer.[7] King James insisted that "I will have Mr Casaubon paid before me, my wife, and my barnes." Casaubon still retained his appointments in France, and his office as librarian: he had obtained leave of absence for the visit to England, where he was not supposed to settle permanently. In order to retain their hold on him, the queen regent,Marie de Medici refused to allow his library to be sent over. It required a specific request from James himself to allow Madame Casaubon to bring him a part of his most necessary books. Casaubon continued to speak of himself as the servant of the regent, and to declare his readiness to return when summoned to do so.[8]
Casaubon found great success in England. English BishopJohn Overall received him and his whole family into the deanery of St Paul's, and entertained him there for a year.Lancelot Andrewes, thenBishop of Ely, also became Casaubon's friend, taking him to Cambridge, where he met with a most gratifying reception from the notabilities of the university. They went on together to the Bishop's Palace atLittle Downham nearEly,[9] where Casaubon spent six weeks of the summer of 1611, in which year he became naturalized.[8] He accompanied the bishop on visits to nearby towns includingDoddington andWisbech.[10]In 1613 he was taken toOxford bySir Henry Savile, where, amid the homage and feasting of which he was the object, his principal interest was for the manuscript treasures of theBodleian Library. He declined the honorary degree which was offered him.[8]
Still, Casaubon gradually discovered the serious inconveniences of his position. Having been taken up by the king and the bishops, he had to share in their rising unpopularity. The courtiers were jealous of a foreign pensioner who was so close to the king. Casaubon was especially mortified by Sir Henry Wotton's behaviour towards him, so inconsistent with their former intimacy. His windows were broken by vandals, and his children were pelted in the streets. On one occasion he appeared atTheobalds with a black eye, having been assaulted in the street. These outrages seem to have arisen solely from the English antipathy to the Frenchman: Casaubon, though he could read an English book, could not speak English. This deficiency exposed him to insult and fraud, and restricted his social activity. It excluded him from the circle of the "wits"; and he was not accepted in the circle of the "antiquaries" likeWilliam Camden,Sir Robert Cotton andHenry Spelman.[8]
Although Sir Henry Savile ostensibly patronized him, Casaubon could not help suspecting that it was Savile who had persuadedRichard Montagu to forestall Casaubon's book onBaronius. An exception wasJohn Selden who was close enough to Casaubon to lend him money. Besides the jealousy of the natives, Casaubon had now to suffer the open attacks of theJesuit pamphleteers, who, after he committed to Anglicism, detested him. Not onlyJoannes Eudaemon,Heribert Rosweyd andScioppius (Gaspar Schoppe), but a respectable writer, friendly to Casaubon,Andreas Schott ofAntwerp, gave currency to the insinuation that Casaubon had sold his conscience for English gold.[8]
The most serious cause of discomfort in England was that his time was no longer his own. He was continually being summoned to one or other of James's hunting residences in order to converse. The king and the bishops compelled him to write pamphlets on the subject of the day, the royal supremacy. At last, ashamed of misappropriating Casaubon's stores of learning, they asked him to refute the popularAnnals of Baronius.[8]
In 1614 he publishedDe rebus sacris et ecclesiasticis exercitationes XVI which consisted of a philological analysis of theCorpus Hermeticum, a series of neo-platonic texts. He placed their origin in the third or fourth century AD, rather than in a much earlier "hermetic" period to which they had generally been ascribed.[11]
He died inLondon of a congenital malformation of the bladder; but his end was hastened by an unhealthy life of over-study, and by his anxiety to acquit himself creditably in his criticism on Baronius. He was buried inWestminster Abbey. The monument by which his name is there commemorated was erected in 1632 by his friendThomas Morton when Bishop ofDurham.[8]
Besides the editions already mentioned, Casaubon published and commented uponPersius,Suetonius,Aeschylus, and theScriptores Historiae Augustae. The edition ofPolybius, on which he had spent vast labour, he left unfinished. His most ambitious work was his revision of the text of theDeipnosophistae of Athenaeus, with commentary. TheTheophrastus perhaps exhibits his most characteristic excellences as a commentator. TheExercitationes in Baronium are but a fragment of the massive criticism which he contemplated; it failed in presenting the uncritical character of Baronius's history, and had only a moderate success, even among Protestants.[8] His analysis of theCorpus Hermeticum overturned the previous general opinion in Europe that these texts dated from almost the time ofMoses by locating them between 200 and 300AD.[citation needed]
His correspondence (inLatin) was finally collected byTheodorus Janssonius van Almeloveen (Rotterdam, 1709), who prefixed to the letters a careful biography of Casaubon. But Almeloveen was acquainted with Casaubon's diary only in extract.[8] More recently, a complete edition of all the letters written by and to Casaubon during his stay in England was published with extensive cultural-historical notes and introduction (Geneva, 2018).[12] Casaubon's diary,Ephemerides, whose manuscript is preserved in the chapter library of Canterbury, was printed in 1850 by theClarendon Press. It forms the most valuable record we possess of the daily life of a scholar, or man of letters, of the 16th century.[8]
Casaubon corresponded with scholars all over Europe, includingJohannes van den Driesche and, more surprisingly, one of the doctors of theAmbrosiana Library and eminent historian of Milan,Giuseppe Ripamonti.[13]
He also corresponded with the translators of theKing James Version of theBible and helped resolve issues in the translation.[14]
He also worked on Arabic and Turkish coins, one of the earliest Europeans to do so.[15]
The scholars inFoucault's Pendulum byUmberto Eco andMiddlemarch byGeorge Eliot are named Casaubon.Mary Gentle named a character in her novelsRats and Gargoyles and the Architecture of Desire Casaubon, as an homage to Isaac Casaubon.Ross King makes mention of Casaubon in his novelEx-Libris, where he is said to have debunked theCorpus Hermeticum as a forgery (which he probably took fromFrances Yates'Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition, published in 1964).
In their bookIsaac Casaubon, the Jews, and a Forgotten Chapter in Renaissance Scholarship,Anthony Grafton and Joanna Weinberg show that Casaubon was a Hebrew scholar too, taking serious interest in Jewish studies.
The Jewish bibliographer Isaac ben Jacob, in his BibliographyOtsar Hasefarim (1880), mentions notations onMichlol, the Hebrew book byDavid Kimhi on Hebrew grammar, which he attributes to one "Rabbi Isaac Casaubon".
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Pattison, Mark (1911). "Casaubon, Isaac". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 441–444.
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