The Contents of the Letters

Apart from a small handful of prefatory letters, Scaliger did not write his letters with an eye to publication. Scaliger was certainly very concerned with his reputation. He ensured that portraits of himself and his father – of which there are a good number surviving – were widely distributed. But Scaliger clearly did not see his own letters as a significant contribution to this reputation. They are not an extension of his public work, or a controlled projection of his public image.
           
The contents of the letters is very varied. They are usually informal and some of them offer rare glimpses into the everyday life of the man. We have, for example, a letter from an ambassador who writes to thank him for a remedy for colic. We have one which accompanied the gift of some bottles of wine. We have a few lines from Scaliger declining a wedding invitation, and the following year Scaliger wrote an equally brief letter declining an invitation to the wedding of the same man’s brother. There is even a letter in which he complains that his teeth are falling out because of the Dutch climate.
           
More importantly, the letters allow us to see a great scholar as he goes about his work. Scaliger is usually very forthright in them about what he likes and what he does not: his enemies are roundly and regularly abused; great scholars are praised generously; and the diligence and industry of lesser talents are charitably assessed. There are letters which throw light on the internal politics of the University of Leiden. We have many letters of introduction, carried by promising young students on their way to some centre of learning: such students seem often to have acted as couriers in return for a reference. There are long letters on textual scholarship, most of which have been plundered by classicists long ago. The difficult progress through the press of several important editions can be traced through Scaliger’s correspondence with their editors. The letters throw light on the accessibility of contemporary libraries, and the circulation of printed books. In the extensive and nearly complete correspondence between Scaliger and Isaac Casaubon, we have a remarkable witness to a friendship between two men who never met. The letters are always very practical, even when discussing matters of profound scholarship. Scaliger never wastes time getting to his point. (PB).