Primary Contributors:
Paul Botley and Máté Vince
Isaac Casaubon, by an unknown artist. Late-sixteenth or early seventeenth century. Oil on panel. (National Portrait Gallery, London; NPG 1776)
Isaac Casaubon (1559–1614)
Born in Geneva in 1559, Casaubon was the son of Arnaud Casaubon (1525–1586), a Huguenot pastor, and his wife, Jeanne (née Rousseau; d. 1607). He was appointed professor of Greek at the University of Geneva in 1582 at the age of just twenty-three, despite his preference for theological studies. In 1596, he took up the position of ‘professeur stipendié aux langues et bonnes lettres’ to the University of Montpellier, before moving to Paris four years later at the invitation of Henri IV. In 1605 he became keeper of the Royal Library.
Casaubon was married twice: first in 1583 to Marie Prolyot (d. 1585), and secondly in 1586 to Florence Estienne (d. 1636), the daughter of the philologist, lexicographer, and printer Henri Estienne the younger [Henricus Stephanus] (d. 1598), with whom he had seventeen children, at least eight of whom did not survive to adulthood. The couple supplemented Casaubon’s income by taking in lodgers, including Edward Herbert, later Lord Herbert of Cherbury. Throughout the decade Casaubon worked in Paris, numerous rumours circulating that he had converted to Catholicism, a situation that distressed him greatly, as did the conversion of his own son Jean in 1610.
In the aftermath of Henri IV’s assassination on 14 May 1610, Casaubon feared a massacre of protestants might occur and, upon receipt of an official invitation from England issued by the archbishop of Canterbury Richard Bancroft, he crossed the Channel the following October. Although it was intended to be no more a brief visit, Casaubon spent the remainder of his life in England. When he died in London four years later, he was regarded widely as the most learned man in Europe.
Partners and Additional Contributors
Metadata describing the letters written during Casaubon’s sojourn in England were provided by Paul Botley, University of Warwick and are based on the volumes co-edited with Máté Vince and published by in Geneva by Librairie Droz in 2018. Paul Botley would like to thank the Leverhulme Trust, the generous grant from which made possible this landmark edition of the correspondence of Isaac Casaubon from his final years in London, 1610–1614, as well as the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance at the University of Warwick. The metadata provided to EMLO were prepared for upload to the union catalogue by the Cultures of Knowledge research project with funding from the Humanities Packard Institute.
In addition to this correspondence conducted during Casaubon’s years in England, EMLO contains records for earlier letters both to and from the scholar in the catalogues of Hugo de Groot [Grotius] (1583–1645), contributed by the Circulation of Knowledge project from the ePistolarium database; Amandus Polanus of Polansdorf (1561–1610), contributed by Iva Lelková; Johannes Isacius Pontanus (1571–1639), contributed by the Cultures of Knowledge project; Johann Wilhelm Stucki (1542–1607), contributed by Marc Kolakowski; and Richard Thomson (c. 1569–1613), contributed also by Paul Botley. The greatest number of letters in Casaubon’s correspondence written before he arrived in London, however, is made up of those exchanged with the eminent scholar Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540–1609). Metadata for the letters between these two friends have come, once again, from Paul Botley, this time through the impressive edition he co-edited with Dirk van Miert that was published, also by Librairie Droz, in 2012. Finally, Cultures of Knowledge is delighted to have added metadata for three additional letters located in the Stuart State Papers at The National Archives, Kew, that surfaced during work on the Networking Archives project.
Key Bibliographic Source(s)
The Correspondence of Isaac Casaubon in England, ed. Paul Botley and Máté Vince, 4 vols (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 2018)
Contents
The curated metadata for letters that cover the period Casaubon spent in England are taken from the Botley and Vince edition (see the bibliographic details provided above). The edition includes critical texts for all the surviving letters between Casaubon’s arrival in England in 1610 until his death on 1 July 1614 and, in four volumes, it contains 731 letters, of which 312 are published for the first time. While almost all of the letters (90%) are in Latin, the remainder were written in French, Greek, Italian, or Hebrew. Each letter record provides information on the author, recipient, date, and place sending and receiving, the available sources, and incipit. For a summary in English, the full text, and all the critical apparatus with footnotes, and contextual and philological information, users are encouraged to consult the edition.
As is explained both in the edition and on the editorial project website (for details, please see the ‘Further Resources’ section below) the earliest printed collection of Casaubon’s letters was censored silently in the seventeenth century, and the new edition restores a large number of previously unknown passages. The letters enable historians to observe a significant scholar at work during a remarkable period in his life, ‘as he reoriented his profound learning to serve the confessional politics of his day’.
For further details of the edition, see the Librarie Droz website.
Further resources
The Isaac Casaubon Project website on the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, University of Warwick.
Isaac Casaubon on The Isaac Casaubon Project website on the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, University of Warwick.
J. Considine, ‘Casaubon, Isaac (1559–1614), classical scholar and ecclesiastical historian’ on Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (please note that access via a subscribing institution is required).
The Correspondence of Isaac Casaubon in England, ed. Paul Botley and Máté Vince, 4 vols (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 2018).
The Correspondence of Joseph Justus Scaliger, ed. Paul Botley and Dirk van Miert, 8 vols (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 2012).
Paul Botley, Richard ‘Dutch’ Thomson, c. 1569–1613. The Life and Letters of a Renaissance Scholar (Leiden: Brill, 2014).
The following publications provided sources for the letters edited in the Casaubon in England edition:
D. Baudius, Epistolarum centuriae tres. Quarum tertia nunc in lucem emissa (Leiden: apud Godefridum Basson, 1620).
D. Baudius, Epistolarum centuriae tres. Ex recentissima editione Lugdunensi. Editio noviter revisa (Leipzig: apud Eliam Rehefeldium excudebat Gregorius Ritzsch, 1635).
D. Baudius, Epistolarum centuriae tres, lacunis aliquot suppletis. Accedunt eiusdem orationes. Editio auctior et castigator (Leiden: excudebat Georgius van der Marse, 1636).
D. Baudius, Epistolarum centuriae tres, lacunis aliquot suppletis. Accedunt eiusdem orationes. Editio auctior et castigator. Editio nova (Amsterdam: typis Ioannis Ianssonii, 1639).
D. Baudius, Epistolarum centuriae tres, lacunis aliquot suppletis. Accedunt eiusdem orationes. Editio nova (Amsterdam: typis Ioannis Ianssonii, 1642).
D. Baudius, Epistolarum semicenturiae auctae, lacunis aliquot suppletis. Accedunt eiusdem orationes et libellus de foenore (Leiden: typis Francisci Hackii, 1650).
D. Baudius, Epistolarum semicenturiae auctae, lacunis aliquot suppletis. Accedunt eiusdem orationes et libellus de foenore (Amsterdam: typis Ludovici Elzevirii sumptibus Societatis, 1654).
D. Baudius, Epistolarum semicenturiae auctae, lacunis aliquot suppletis. Accedunt eiusdem orationes et libellus de foenore (Amsterdam: typis Ioannis Ianssonii, 1660).
D. Baudius, Epistolarum semicenturiae auctae, lacunis aliquot suppletis. Accedunt eiusdem orationes et libellus de foenore (Amsterdam: typis Ludovici Elzevirii, sumptibus Societatis, 1662).
I. Casaubon, Ad Frontonem Ducaeum S. I. Theologum Epistola (London: excudebat Ioannes Norton, 1611).
I. Casaubon, Ad epistolam illust. et reverendiss. Cardinalis Perronii, responsio (London: excudebat Ioannes Norton, 1612).
I. Casaubon, De rebus sacris et ecclesiasticis exercitationes VXI. Ad Cardinalis Baronii Prolegomena in Annales, et primam eorum partem, de Domini Nostri Iesu Christi Navitate, Vita, Passione, Assumtione (London: ex officina Nortoniana apud Ioan. Billium, 1614).
I. Casaubon, Epistolae quotquot reperiri potuerunt, nunc primum iunctim editae. Adiecta est epistola de morbi eius mortisque causa; deque iisdem narratio Raphaelis Thorii (The Hague: ex officina Theodori Maire, 1638).
I. Casaubon, Epistolae. Editio secunda LXXXII epistolis auctior, et iuxta seriem temporum digesta, curante Iohanne Georgio Graevio (Magdeburg and Helmstadt: sumptibus Christiani Gerlachii et Simonis Beckensteinii; Braunschweig: excudit Andreas Dunckerus, 1656).
I. Casaubon, Epistolae, insertis ad easdem responsionibus, quotquot hactenus reperiri potuerunt, secundum seriem temporis accurate digestae. Accedunt huic tertiae editioni, praeter trecentas ineditas epistolas, I. Casauboni vita, eiusdem dedicationes, praefationes, prolegomena, poemata, fragmentum de libertate ecclesiastica. Item, Merici Casauboni, I. F. epistolae, dedicationes, praefationes, prolegomena, et tractatus quidam rariores. Curante Theodoro Ianson ab Almeloveen (Rotterdam: typis Casparis Fritsch et Michaelis Böhm, 1709).
Ephemerides Isaaci Casauboni cum praefatione et notis, ed. J. Russell, 2 vols (Oxford, 1850).
S. A. Gabbema, Epistolarum ab illustribus et claris viris scriptarum centuriae tres, quas passim ex autographis collegit ac edidit Simon Abbes Gabbema (Harlingen: ex officina Heronis Galama, 1663).
S. A. Gabbema, Epistolarum ab illustribus et claris viris scriptarum centuriae tres, quas passim ex autographis collegit ac edidit Simon Abbes Gabbema (Harlingen: ex officina Heronis Galama, 1664).
S. A. Gabbema, Epistolarum ab illustribus et claris viris scriptarum centuriae tres, quas edidit Simon Abbes Gabbema (Harlingen: ex officina Heronis Galama, 1665).
S. A. Gabbema, Illustrium et clarorum virorum epistolae selectiores superiore et hoc saeculo scriptae, distributae in centurias tres. In quibus multa theologica, politica, ecclesiastica, historica, philologica… quas passim ex autographis collegit ac edidit S. A. Gabbema, editio altera a … XX epistolis… aucta (Harlingen: ex officina Heronis Galama, 1669).
De Thou, Histoire universelle de Jacques-Auguste de Thou: depuis 1543 jusquen 1607. Traduite sur l’édition latine de Londres, 16 vols (Paris, 1734).
De Thou, Histoire universelle (1742).
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