I just finished reading the Autobiography of Joseph Scaliger, translated by George W. Robinson and published in English in 1927. The subtitle gives a good idea of what makes up the book in addition to the opening autobiography: with Autobiographical Selections from his Letters, His Testament, and the Funeral Orations by Daniel Heinsius and Dominicus Baudius.

Scaliger was born in 1540 in France and died in 1609 in the Netherlands, after working for several years at the University of Leiden. He was a consummate lover of books and learning, as well as a highly accomplished scholar and philologist. Today he is most remembered for having expanded what is considered relevant to ancient history, adding Babylonian, Egyptian, Persian, and Jewish history to Greek and Roman chronology.

I stumbled onto this book after coming across Scaliger’s name in an introduction to a collection of plays by Seneca. I was completely unaware of him, and grateful to have read this book. I would love to read more of his letters. Apparently, there are no English translations of his two massive endeavors of chronology: De Emendatione Temporum and the Thesaurus Temporum. 

“Know that in this old age nothing is dearer to me than to learn.”