GIULIO CESARE SCALIGERO — Philologist, philosopher, and scientist, born at Riva del Garda on 23 April 1484 to the cartographer Benedetto Bordoni, died at Agen on 21 October 1558. He took the name “Scaligero,” claiming descent from the noble Veronese family. He studied medicine and natural history at Bologna (1514–19). After a time spent in military service, he settled at Agen on the Garonne as physician to Bishop Angelo della Rovere and devoted himself exclusively to study. He engaged in two lively controversies, one with G. Cardano and the other with Erasmus (v.).
A creationist, he yet inclined to identify God with nature, understood as the nexus of effects and causes (Exerc., 77, sect. 3, pp. 120–21). This nexus is necessary and tends toward the Supreme Good (Poet., III, 1, p. 81). Man, whose intellect has a twofold function—“ad faciendum et cognoscendum” (Exerc., 256, pp. 330–331)—must likewise strive for the good. This good is threefold: natural, as an intrinsic attribute of beings; relative, arising from the congruence of two beings; and moral, defined as “perfectus actus cum recta ratione” (Exerc., 307, sect. 7, pp. 412–414). Knowledge, both sensory and intellectual (De causis, pp. 113–117), has beatitude as its end (Poet., III, 1, pp. 80–83).
His Poetics enjoyed some renown; in it the canons of classical aesthetics are expounded according to an exceedingly minute logical schematism, a position later contested by G. B. Vico (v.). Notable is the observation that the poet, besides being an imitator, is also a creator (I, 1, p. 2), and that poetic activity must have a moral end (pp. 4–5).
Principal works: Adversus Des. Erasmus (Paris 1531); De causis linguae latinae (Lyon 1540); Exoterica exercitationes de subtilitate contra H. Cardanum (Paris 1557); Poetics II. VII (Lyon 1561); Animadversiones in IV libros De causis plantarum Theophrasti (ibid. 1566).