SCALIGER, Jumrs aT:SAR, one of the most famous men of letters that have appeared since their revival, was born in 1484. In after-life he created for himself a noble pedi gree, and made out that he was descended from the princely family of the Scalas of Verona, and that his birthplace was the castle of Riva, on the banks of the Lago di Guarda. According to his own account, he was educated first under the famous condo; was afterward attached as a page to the emperor Maximilian, whom he attended for 17 years in peace and war; was next made a pensioner of the duke of Ferrara; there after studied at Bologna; commanded a troop of cavalry at Turin under the French viceroy; prosecuted his studies there in philology, philosophy, and medicine; and in 1525 went to Agen,-in France, with the bishop of that diocese, a member of the Rovere family, to whose household he became physician. Tiraboschi's account, however, which is the more probable, represents him as having been born at Padua, the son of Benedict Bordoni, who was a geographer and miniature-painter of that city, and who, either from the sign of his shop or the name of the street he lived in, assumed the surname Della Scala. Up to his 42d year, young Giulio Bordoni resided chiefly in Venice or Padua, engaging in the study and practice of medicine, and appearinn. under his true name as an author. In 1525 he withdrew to Agen, either from some advantageous offer, or with a view to promote his fortune, and there fixed his abode. He became physician to the bishop of the diocese, and in that capacity sought in marriage Andietta de Rogues Lobejac, a young lady only 16 years of age, and of noble and rich parentage. An obsta
cle was thrown in the way of this alliance; and probably with the purpose of improving his position, and lessening the disparity in station between himself and the object of his affections, he procured, in 1528, letters of naturalization as a French subject, under the name of Jules-Cesar de Lescalle de Bordonis. This was probably the occasion when be added Ctesar to his baptismal name of Julius. The marriage took place in 1529, and was both happy and fruitful. He died in 1558 leaving behind him a mass of publications on various subjects. and a reputation for extent and depth of learning, which, considering the ripe age at which he made the majority of his acquirements, redounds to the credit of his vigorous understanding and extraordinary memory. As a thinker, be was more independent than sound; and as a man, was of violently irritable temper and excessive vanity. His best known publications are'—Comrnentarii in Ilippocratis Librum de Insom.. nii (Nmmentaries on the Hippocratic Treatise on Dreams); De Causis Linguce Latina[ Libra %vIIL, celebrate&as the first considerable work written in the Latin language in modern times, and not without value even yet; his Latin translation of Aristotle's Hiit tory of Animals; his Faercitationum Exotertcarum liber quintus decimus de Subtilitate ad Hieronym. Cardanum; his seven books of Poetics (also in Latin, and on the whole his best work); his Commentaries on Aristotle and Theophrastus; his two orations against Erasmus; his Latin poems, etc.