Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/401

Vossius a private tutor whom he shared with his younger brother Gerard (Gerardi Vossii Epistolæ, 1690, p. 140). He early displayed quickness of apprehension and a wonderful memory, and decided to consecrate the whole of his life to letters. When twenty-one he published an edition of the ‘Periplus’ of Scylax (Amsterdam, 1639, 4to), with a Latin translation and notes. To the fragment attributed to Scylax was appended an anonymous ‘Periplus Ponti Euxini e Bibliotheca C. Salmasii,’ showing that the young scholar had already attracted the notice of the great Salmasius (Saumaise). When, however, in 1632 Salmasius was chosen to occupy the chair at Leyden that Scaliger had vacated as long ago as 1609, a coolness sprang up between him and the Vos family. The geographical notes and fragments by Vossius were afterwards collected in the ‘Geographia Antiqua’ (1697, 4to) of Gronovius. In 1640 some notes by Isaac Vossius enriched the Elzevir edition of the ‘Justini historiarum ex Trogo Pompeio Libri xliv.’ (Leyden, 12mo, frequently reprinted). Two years later from his letters to Nicolas Heinsius, it appears that he made a journey to Rome, where he complains of the obstacles put in the way of the student, and the difficulty of obtaining entrance to the libraries. He found the means nevertheless, as he was on his way back from Italy, to prepare an edition of seven (henceforth known as ‘The Vossian’) ‘Epistles of Saint Ignatius,’ based upon a precious manuscript preserved in the Medicean Library at Florence (Amsterdam, 1646, 8vo; London, 1680). This contained, together with the Greek text of seven (out of the twelve) epistles in a briefer form than that previously promulgated, a Latin translation attributed to Robert of Lincoln, and some notes which were reproduced in ‘Patres Apostolici’ (Amsterdam, 1724, fol.); the publication served to confirm Ussher's view that certain of the twelve epistles were authentic, although disguised by interpolations. Upon his return he is said to have visited the libraries of France, and even to have crossed over into England in his quest of manuscripts. In 1648 he was invited by Queen Christina to come and throw the lustre of his erudition upon Stockholm, while early in the following year he was offered the reversion of his father's professorship at Amsterdam. The university went so far as to promise an increased stipend. Vossius parried both of these offers at first, but before the end of 1649 he went to Stockholm, whence for the next three years his letters to Heinsius are dated. He taught Christina Greek, and undertook to collect a royal library worthy of her capital, a task for which his bibliographical and linguistic gifts admirably fitted him. He sold to the queen his own, or rather his father's, library in 1650 for twenty thousand florins, reserving to himself the superintendence, and receiving five thousand florins a year besides board and lodging. In 1653 four large rooms would not hold the library (, Christina, pp. 168 seq.). Meanwhile Saumaise had come to Stockholm, and acquired a predominant influence over Christina. Frequent mention is made both of him and his ‘Xanthippe’ in the letters to Heinsius. Relations soon became strained between the two savants. Vossius was imprudent enough to lend money to a spendthrift son of his rival, and Saumaise refused to recognise the debt. The queen listened to Saumaise's version of affairs, and when Vossius returned to Sweden (bringing with him Samuel Bochart and Pierre Daniel Huet) in 1652, he was denied an audience, and ordered to apologise to Saumaise. He promptly withdrew from Sweden. In spite of the disgrace which she had thus inflicted upon him, Christina did not cease to correspond with her former tutor. Vossius on his side continued to speak of the queen with respect, and when they met in Holland it was upon friendly terms. These facts seem to negative the imputation that he carried off ‘rich but scandalous spoils’ from the royal library, though it may have been that in buying books for the queen he was not backward in charging commission (the imputation is made by Catteau-Calleville in his ‘Histoire de Christine,’ 1815, i. 330, but no document is cited in its support). Vossius was no less forbearing in regard to Saumaise. He made no formal attack upon him during his lifetime, and it was only in 1658, in some notes to an edition of ‘Pomponius Mela’ (The Hague, 4to; in French, 1701), that he pointed out some grave geographical errors in the French scholar's ‘Exercitationes Plinianæ in Solinum.’

Instigated no doubt by the reputation gained among scholars by the work of Ussher, Vossius began about this time to give his attention to chronology. Adopting as his basis the Septuagint scheme of chronology, he published in 1659 ‘Dissertatio de vera ætate mundi, qua ostenditur natale mundi tempus annis minimum 1440 vulgarem æram anticipare’ (The Hague, 4to). A defence of the original Hebrew text and computation was at once undertaken by George Horn, whose treatise elicited ‘I. Vossii Castigationes ad scriptum G. Hornii’ (The Hague, 4to). Other tracts on the same subject followed, and the views of Vossius were further