Julius Caesar Scaliger - Biography

Biography

Scaliger's father, Benedetto Bordone, was a miniaturist and illuminator. Scaliger himself was known in his youth by the family name Bordone, but later insisted that he was a scion of the house of La Scala, for a hundred and fifty years lords of Verona. He was, yes, born in 1484 at the Rocca di Riva, on Lake Garda.

On his own account

When he was twelve, his kinsman the emperor Maximilian placed him among his pages. He remained for seventeen years in the service of the emperor, distinguishing himself as a soldier and as a captain. He studied art under Albrecht Dürer.

In 1512 at the Battle of Ravenna, where his father and elder brother were killed, he displayed valour, and received the highest honours of chivalry from his imperial cousin, who conferred upon him with his own hands the Order of the Golden Spur, augmented with the collar and the eagle of gold. But this was the only reward he obtained.

He left the service of Maximilian, and after a brief employment by another kinsman, the duke of Ferrara, he decided to quit the military life, and in 1514 entered as a student at the University of Bologna. He decided to take holy orders, in the expectation that he would become cardinal, and then pope, when he would wrest from the Venetians his duchy of Verona, of which the republic had despoiled his ancestors. He soon gave up this plan, but remained at the university until 1519.

The next six years he passed at the castle of Vico Nuovo, in Piedmont, as a guest of the Della Rovere, at first dividing his time between military expeditions in the summer, and study, chiefly of medicine and natural history, in the winter, until a severe attack of rheumatic gout brought his military career to a close.

Henceforth his life was wholly devoted to study. In 1525 he accompanied Antonio della Rovera, bishop of Agen, to that city as his physician. Such is the outline of his own account of his early life.

Later account

It was not until some time after his death that the enemies of his son first alleged that he was not of the family of La Scala, but was the son of Benedetto Bordone, an illuminator or schoolmaster of Verona; that he was educated at Padua, where he took the degree of M.D.; and that the story of his life and adventures before arriving at Agen was a tissue of fables. It certainly is supported by no other evidence than his own statements, some of which are inconsistent with well-ascertained facts.

Life at Agen

The remaining thirty-two years of his life were passed almost wholly at Agen, in the full light of contemporary history. They were without adventure, almost without incident, but he achieved so much distinction that at his death in 1558 he had the highest scientific and literary reputation of any man in Europe. A charge of heresy in 1538, of which he was acquitted by his friendly judges, one of whom was his friend Arnoul Le Ferron, was almost the only event of interest during these years, except the publication of his books, and the quarrels and criticisms to which they gave rise. Scaliger died at Agen in 1558.