Volume 45, Number 17 · November 5, 1998
Believe It or Not
By Anthony Grafton
A Collector's Cabinet 17-November 1, 1998.
exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., May, Catalog of the exhibition by Wheelock, Arthur K. Jr.
National Gallery of Art, 78 pp., $17.00
Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150-1750
by Lorraine Daston, by Katharine Park
Zone Books, 511 pp., $34.00
Special Cases: Natural Anomalies and Historical Monsters
by Rosamond Purcell
Chronicle Books, 159 pp., $24.95
In the summer and early fall of 1593, the Dutch scholar Joseph Scaliger made a triumphal progress north toward Leiden, the Dutch city where he would spend the years until he died in 1605. Leiden University was the Duke of its day: a hard-driving, ambitious institution, wealthy, aggressive, and dedicated to taking its place on the cutting edge of science and scholarship. Scaliger, for his part, was a great academic celebrity who made a splendid catch for the university's dedicated, ambitious curators. The most erudite scholar in Europe's great age of erudition, he had recreated the calendars and histories of ancient nations from Mesopotamia to Mexico, using both texts and astronomical evidence with dazzling virtuosity. A brilliant researcher, Scaliger detested both the pomposity of teachers and the drudgery their calling required. He accepted the professorship in Leiden only on condition that he would not have to teach. Amazingly, he received this unheard-of privilege, along with a huge salary and many other privileges: clear evidence of the esteem he enjoyed, his employer's readiness to innovate, and the value of chutzpah in the academic life.
Review, 5630 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |