SCALIGER, GIULIO CESARE. - Philologist, philosopher and scientist, b. at Riva del Garda on 23 Apr. 1484 to the cartographer Benedetto Bordoni, d. at Agen on 21 Oct. 1558. He took the name S., claiming descent from the noble Veronese family. He studied medicine and natural history at Bologna (1514-19). After following for some time the career of arms, he retired to Agen on the Garonne, as physician to Bishop Angelo della Rovere, and devoted himself exclusively to study. He had two lively polemics with G. Cardano and with Erasmus (v.).
A creationist, he nevertheless inclines toward the identification of God with nature, understood as the connection of effects and causes (Exerc., 77, sec. 5, pp. 120-21). This nexus is necessary and tends toward the Supreme Good (Poet., III, 1, p. 81). Man too, whose intellect has a twofold function, « ad faciendum et ad cognoscendum » (Exerc., 256, pp. 330-331), must tend toward the good. This is threefold: natural, as an intrinsic attribute of beings; relative, due to the compatibility of two beings; moral, defined as « perfectio actus cum recta ratione » (Exerc., 307, sec. 7, pp. 412-414). Knowledge, both sensory and intellectual (De causis, pp. 113-17), has beatitude as its end (Poet., III, 1, pp. 80-83).
His Poetica enjoyed a certain fame, in which the canons of classical aesthetics are set out according to a very meticulous logical schematism, against which G. B. Vico (v.) polemicized. Notable is the observation that the poet is not only an imitator but a creator (I, 1, p. 2) and that his activity must have a moral end (pp. 4-5).
Principal works: Adversus Des. Erasmus (Paris 1531); De causis linguae latinae (Lyons 1540); Exotericae exercitaciones de subtilitate contra H. Cardanum (Paris 1557); Poetices II, VII (Lyons 1561); Animadversiones in IV libros De causis plantarum Theophrasti (ibid. 1566).
Bibliography2 works
Enzo Maccagnolo