SCALES OF NOTATION 



SCALIGER 



191 



in terras of this sexagesimal notation. A few ex- 

 amples will suffice. Thus we find 



<<< J f ?T (({;;; given as the square of <<< T | T 



Le, 48 x 60 + 36 = 2916 = (54)'. 



We may most simply exhibit the Babylonian 

 method by using heavy figures for the tens and 

 light figures for the units. Thus the above example 

 would be translated 4836 = square of 54- Others 

 from the table of Senkereh are 



12153 = cube of 17 

 (lx60" + 21x60 + 53 = 4913 = 17' ) 



73 = cube of 3 (i.e. thirty). 



This last must mean 7 x 60 2 + 30 x 60, although 

 there is nothing in the notation to show what 

 place in the sexagesimal representation is to lie 

 occupied by the 3 (or thirty). The example is 

 instructive as showing how far short the Accadians 

 and Assyrians fell of our modern cipher system. 

 It is clear, however, that they were in possession 

 of a sexagesimal scale as true and as complete 

 as the much later Alexandrians. It was nsed 

 probably only for purposes of calculation ; for in 

 simply representing numbers the Assyrians, if not 

 the earlier Accadians, used another scale, in which 

 a 8(>ecial symbol for the hundred was introduced. 

 In this scale, however, the sexagesimal symbolism 

 for 60, 70, 80, and 90 was retained. In the later 

 cuneiform inscriptions of the Persians all trace of 

 the sexagesimal scale is obliterated. 



Kcaliger (Ita). Delia Scala, Fr. De 1'Escale), 

 Ji'i.irs C.KiAR, according to the account given of 

 him by the famous son Joseph Scaligcr, was born 

 in 1484 in the castle of Ripa, at the head of the Lago 

 di Garcia, in the north of Italy. On tlio same author- 

 ity we are told that Julius was the second son of 

 Benedetto della Scala, a descendant of the princely 

 family of Verona of that name, which had been 



of its territory by the republic of 

 Venice. In all probability this genealogy is a 

 pare fiction, as in Julius' letters of naturalisation 

 as a French citizen he is styled simply ' a native 

 of the town of Verona in Italy.' If we may trust 

 his son's further account of him, Julius was 

 bred to the profession of arms along with other 

 noble youths under the immediate supervision of 

 his kinsman the Emperor Maximilian, whom he 

 subsequently served in his wars in different parts 

 of Europe. The son of a fallen house, he was at 

 one time so hopeless of his future that like other 

 noble youths ot Italy in similar circumstances he 

 seriously thought of entering the brotherhood of 

 St Francis. With this object he proceeded to the 

 university of Bologna, where he devoted himself 

 mainly to the study of Duns Scotus. His zeal for 

 a monastic life, however, soon cooled, and ' to the 

 last day of his life he would never willingly inter- 

 change a word with any Franciscan.' Returning 

 to his former profession of arms, he took service in 

 the French armies then attempting the conquest 

 of Italy, and distinguished himself alike by his 

 marvellous feats of strength and his adventurous 

 courage. Having gained the command of a troop 

 of light horse, he behaved with such gallantry 

 a* to win for him the special notice of King 

 Francis himself. Notwithstanding his restless 

 life Scaliger never neglected his studies, and to 

 other attainments he added a knowledge of medicine 

 and Creek. Such is the account of Julius Scaliger 

 np to this point in his life which is given l>\ his 

 Mm in the epistle entitled ' De Vetustate et Splen- 

 doreGi'iitis Sraligerne et Jul. Cies. Scaligeri Vita.' 

 An account more likely to be true is that Julius 

 was the son of a sign-painter of Verona, byname 

 Benedetto liordone, and that he studied at Padua, 

 where he took the degree of doctor of medicine. 



It is only from his naturalisation as a French 

 citizen in 1528 that our knowledge of Scaliger is 

 drawn from authentic sources. In that year, on 

 the invitation of the Bishop of Agen, he settled in 

 that town as a physician, and remained there for 

 the rest of his life. Here he married a girl of nine- 

 teen, Andiette de Roques Lobejac, by whom he had 

 fifteen children. The best-known circumstance of 

 his Inter life is his attempt to gain notoriety by 

 an unscrupulous attack on Erasmus, the foremost 

 scholar and man of letters of the age. In ridicule 

 of the Latin stylists of Italy Erasmus had published 

 a satire entitled Ciceronianus. Construing this 

 satire as a censure of Cicero himself, Scaliger 

 attacked Erasmus ( 1531 ) in an oration which for 

 sheer wantonness of abuse is unparalleled even in 

 that age of unscrupulous controversy. As Erasmus 

 paid no heed to this attack, Scaliger produced a 

 second oration which in brutal scurrility surpassed 

 even his former effort, but before its publication 

 Erasmus was dead. Into all his work, much of 

 which was of undoubted value, Scaliger carried the 

 same coarse and jealous temper. Yet his son 

 Joseph, while frankly admitting his father's faults, 

 which, indeed, were largely his own, claimed for 

 him an essential nobility of character, and an 

 especial hatred of everything that suggested false- 

 hood or hypocrisy. Engaged to the last in his 

 labours as a scholar, Julius died in 1558, under 

 suspicion of decided leanings towards Ihe religious 

 teaching of Calvin. 



As a scholar Scaliger's fame has been over- 

 shadowed by that of hi- greater son. His vast 

 attainments, however, and Jus natural force of 

 mind have been admitted by every generation of 

 scholars. But what Leasing said regarding one 

 of his works (Pvetices libri septem ad Si/h-iiim 

 Ji/itim) is the accepted opinion regarding them all : 

 ' Scaliger's judgments as often show want of sanity 

 and taste as insight and good sense.' 



For the Life of Julias Scaliger, see the epistle of big 

 son above referred to ; Charles Nisard, Lei (tUuliateurt 

 de la ntpubliquedrt Lettret ( I860); Bourousse de Laffore, 

 tude turJnla Cetar de Letealc (Agen, I860); Magen, 

 Document* tur Juliui Cccmr Scaliger et la familte ( Agen, 

 1H73). Exclusive of his Latin poems, Scaliger's chief 

 works are De Caurit Linifua Latinre libri tredecim ; 

 Exotericarum Exercitationum liber quintut deeinau de 

 Subtilitale ad Hieronymum Curdaniim ; /'or t tret libri 

 teptem ad Siilrium; Commeittariiin tex librot de eaunt 

 Plantarum Theopltraiti : Animadversionuin Theophratti 

 Hutorial plantar urn ; A rittotelit Uittoria de A nimalibut, 

 J. C. Scaiigero interpret*, cum ejutdem Commentariit ; 

 Commentarii in Hippocratit Librum de Iruomniit. 



Scaliger, JOSEPH JUSTUS, the tenth child and 

 third son of the foregoing, was born at Agen, in the 

 district of France then known as Guyenne, in 1540. 

 At the age of eleven he was sent to the College de 

 Guyenne at Bordeaux, then, according to Montaigne 

 ( himself one of its scholars ), the best institution of 

 it kind in France. Owing to the outbreak of one 

 of the many plagues which then devastated that 

 part of the country, in 1555 he returned home, 

 where he remained till his father's death some 

 three years later. Julius Scaliger was too old to 

 give his son methodical instruction ; but indirectly 

 the boy profited by his father's attainments. In 

 accordance with the practice of almost all the 

 scholars of the 16th century, the elder Scaliger was 

 an indefatigable writer of Latin verse. Almost 

 daily he was in the habit of dictating from 80 to 

 200 lines of his own composing, which it was the 

 business of his son to copy. Daily also the boy 

 had to present to his father a Latin theme on any 

 subject which he himself might choose. Thus, 

 without the regular training of other lioys, Joseph 

 early acquired that mastery of the mechanism of 

 Latin prose and verse in which he surpassed all the 

 scholars of his time. 



