Claudius Salmasius is the
Latin name of
Claude Saumaise (
April 15, 1588 -
September 3, 1653), a
French classical scholar.
He was born at
Semur-en-Auxois in
Burgundy. His father, a counsellor of the parlement of
Dijon, sent him, at the age of sixteen, to Paris, where he became intimate with
Isaac Casaubon. In 1606, he went to the
University of Heidelberg, where he devoted himself to the classics. Here he embraced
Protestantism, the religion of his mother; and his first publication (1608) was an edition of a work by
Nilus Cabasilas, archbishop of
Thessalonica, in the
14th century, against the primacy of the
pope (
De primatu Papae), and of a similar tract by the
Calabrian monk Barlaam (d. c. 1348). In
1609 he brought out an edition of
Florus.
In
1606 or
1607 Salmasius had discovered, in the library of the Counts Palatine in
Heidelberg, the only surviving copy of
Cephalas's early unexpurgated copy of the
Greek Anthology, including the 258-poem anthology of homoerotic poems by
Straton of Sardis that would eventually become known as the notorious Book 12 of the Greek Anthology. The newly discovered poems in the Palatine version were copied out by Salmasius, and he began to circulate clandestine manuscript copies of them as the
Anthologia Inedita. His copy was later published: first in 1776 when
Richard François Philippe Brunck included it in his
Analecta; and then the full Palatine Anthology was published by
F. Jacobs as the
Anthologia Graeca (13 vols.
1794-1803; revised
1813-1817). The remains of Straton's anthology became Book 12 in Jacob's standard critical
Anthologia Graeca edition. It was only in
2001 that a full Greek-to-English translation of Book 12 was issued, by Princeton University Press.
Returning to
Burgundy, Salmasius qualified for the succession to his father's post, which he eventually lost on account of his religion. In
1620 he published Casaubon's notes on the
Augustan History, with copious additions of his own. In
1623 he married Anne Mercier, a
Protestant lady of a distinguished family; the union was by no means a happy one, his wife being represented as a second
Xanthippe. In
1629 Salmasius produced his
magnum opus as a critic, his commentary on
Solinus's Polyhistor, or rather on
Pliny, to whom Solinus is indebted for the most important part of his work. Greatly as this commentary may have been overrated by his contemporaries, it is a monument of learning and industry. Salmasius learned
Arabic to qualify himself for the botanical part of his task. After declining overtures from
Oxford, Padua and
Bologna, in
1631 he accepted the professorship formerly held by
Joseph Scaliger at
Leiden. Although the appointment in many ways suited him, he found the climate trying; and he was persistently attacked by a jealous clique, led by
Daniel Heinsius. who as university librarian refused him access to the books he wished to consult.
Shortly after his removal to the
Netherlands, he composed at the request of Prince
Frederick Henry of Nassau, his treatise on the military system of the
Romans (
De re militari Romanorum), which was not published until 1657. Other works followed, mostly philological, but including a denunciation of
wigs and hair-powder, and a vindication of moderate and lawful interest for money, which, although it drew down upon him many expostulations from
lawyers and
theologians, induced the
Dutch Reformed Church to admit money-lenders to the sacrament. His treatise
De primatu Papae (
1645), accompanying a republication of the tract of
Nilus Cabasilas, excited a warm controversy in France, but the government declined to suppress it.
In November
1649 appeared the work by which Salmasius is best remembered, his
Defensio regia pro Carolo I. His advice had already been sought on English and Scottish affairs, and, inclining to
Presbyterianism or a modified
Episcopacy, he had written against the Independents. It does not appear by whose influence he was induced to undertake the
Defensio regia, but
Charles II defrayed the expense of printing, and presented the author with £100. The first edition was anonymous, but the author was universally known. A French translation which speedily appeared under the name of Claude Le Gros was the work of Salmasius himself.
This celebrated work, today principally remembered for the reply it provoked from
John Milton, Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio, even in its own time added little to the reputation of the author. His reply to Milton, which he left unfinished at his death, and which was published by his son in 1660, is insipid as well as abusive. Until the appearance of Milton's rejoinder in March 1651 the effect of the
Defensio was no doubt considerable; and it probably helped to procure him the flattering invitation from
Queen Christina which induced him to visit
Sweden in 1650. Christina loaded him with gifts and distinctions, but upon the appearance of Milton's book was unable to conceal her conviction that he had been worsted by his antagonist.
Milton, addressing Christina herself, ascribes Salmasius's withdrawal from
Sweden in 1651 to mortification at this affront, but this appears to be negatived by the warmth of Christina's subsequent letters and her pressing invitation to return. The claims of the University of Leiden and dread of a second Swedish winter seem fully adequate motives. Nor is there any foundation for the belief that Milton's invectives hastened his death, which took place on the September 3, 1653, from an injudicious use of the
Spa waters.
As a commentator and verbal critic, Salmasius is entitled to very high rank. His notes on the
Historia Augusta and Solinus display not only massive erudition but sound good sense as well; his perception of the meaning of his author is commonly very acute, and his corrections of the text are frequently highly felicitous. His manly independence was shown in many circumstances, and the bias of his mind was liberal and sensible. He was accused of sourness of temper; but the charge, if it had any foundation, is extenuated by the wretched condition of his health.
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