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 tory which had not hitherto been printed. This work was published in 1653 as 'Decem Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptores.' Selden, by way of preface, composed and published his 'Judicium de Decem Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptoribus.' A discussion on the Culdees occurs in the section on Simeon of Durham, as well as observations on the 'Scotichronicon.' In other cases Selden confined himself more strictly to stating what was known about the author in question.

In 1652 Graswinckel, a Dutch jurist, published at The Hague 'Maris Liberi Vindiciæ adversus Petrum Baptistam Burgum Ligustici maritimi dominii assertorem.' Under colour of attacking Burgus and the question about the dominion of the Italian waters, the writer attacked Selden and the claim of Britain to dominion over the adjacent ocean; and he asserted that Selden had written his 'Mare Clausum' for the purpose of getting out of prison. To such allegations Selden replied in his latest book, 'Vindiciæ' (1653), in which he gave a full account of his imprisonments and of the writing and the publication of the 'Mare Clausum.' This book, like others in which Selden engaged in a hand-to-hand conflict with some antagonist, contrasts favourably as regards the directness and simplicity of its style with his more learned treatises.

Meanwhile, from his earliest years Selden had found time to combine with his legal studies voluminous researches in oriental learning. For use in his oriental studies Selden made a collection of manuscripts and printed books, most of which passed at his death into the Bodleian Library; he also had access to the manuscripts which Laud was procuring at great trouble and expense, and which were stored at Lambeth or presented to the university of Oxford. Selden's own collection is rich in Hebrew and Arabic works (some of the latter rare and unprinted to this day); the Persian, Turkish, and Chinese languages are also represented in it, besides western idioms. He first won fame in Europe as an orientalist by his treatise 'De Diis Syris,' published in London in 1617, but, according to the preface, finished twelve years before; parts of this subject had been already handled by the Toulouse professor, Peter Faber, in the third volume of his 'Semestria' (Leyden, 1595). The charge, however, levelled against Selden by his enemies of having plagiarised from Faber was unfounded. Selden's book attracted attention on the continent, and was reprinted in 1629 at Leyden by L. de Dieu, afterwards celebrated as a Semitic scholar, at the instance of Daniel Heinsius, to whom the edition was dedicated by Selden; in 1668 it was reprinted at Leipzig; use was also made of it by Vossius in his great treatise on idolatry. The material for a satisfactory treatment of Syrian mythology had not then come to light, and Selden's reasoning was vitiated by the prejudice current in his time (and long after) in favour of the antiquity of the Hebrew language and the traditional dates of the biblical books; but the book displays much philological acumen as well as erudition. Most of Selden's work as an orientalist consisted in the exposition of Jewish, or rather rabbinical, law. He published in 1631 'De Successionibus in bona defunctorum ad leges Ebræorum,' re-edited in 1636 with another treatise 'De Successione in Pontificatum Ebræorum,' and dedicated to Laud; in 1640 'De Jure Naturali et Gentium juxta Disciplinam Ebræorum;' in 1644 'De Anno Civili et Calendario Veteris Ecclesiæ seu Reipublicæ Judaicæ;' in 1646 'Uxor Ebraica seu de Nuptiis et Divortiis Veterum Ebræorum libri tres;' in 1650 'De Synedriis Veterum Ebræorum,' a work of which the second part appeared in 1653, and the unfinished third part posthumously. All these works were reprinted during the author's lifetime (except the last) at Leyden or Frankfort-on-the-Oder, and the treatise 'De Jure Naturali et Gentium' contained much that was interesting to others besides specialists in Hebrew law, although its defects, lucidly pointed out by Hallam, did not escape Selden's contemporaries. The acquaintance with the original of the Old Testament and the ancient versions and commentaries which all these works display is very great. Their author's familiarity with rabbinical literature was such as has been acquired by few non-Israelite scholars; and many details of oriental civilisation and antiquities were certainly brought to the knowledge of Europeans for the first time in them. We may instance the Copto-Arabic system of notation (in the calendar reproduced in the third volume of the 'De Synedriis'), and the distinction between the tenets of the Rabbanite and Karaite Jews (in the treatise 'De Anno Civili'). Their extraordinary erudition won much praise, and, as Selden rarely if ever attacked other writers, they offended few susceptibilities; but severe critics complained with justice of their discursiveness and occasional obscurity, and still more of the uncritical use made by Selden of documents of very unequal value; and indeed Selden's statements about Jewish law are more often based on comparatively modern compilations than on the original sources, to some of which perhaps he had not access; and in accepting the rabbinical tra-