_The Scaligers_ (Vol. iii., p. 133.).--Everything relating to this family
is interesting, and I have read with pleasure your correspondent's
communication on the origin of their armorial bearings. I am, however,
rather surprised to observe, that he seems to take for granted the
relationship of Julius Caesar Scaliger and his son Joseph to the Lords of
Verona, which has been so convincingly disproved by several writers. The
world has been for some time pretty well satisfied that these two
illustrious scholars were mere impostors in the claim they made, that
Joseph Scaliger's letter to Janus Dousa was a very impudent affair. If your
correspondent has met with any new evidence in support of their claim, it
would gratify me much if he would make it known. Who would not derive
pleasure from seeing the magnificent boast of Joseph proved at last to have
been founded in fact:
"Ego sum septimus ab Imperatore Ludovico et Illustrissima Hollandiae
comite Margareta: septimus item a Mastino tertio, ut et magnus Rex
Franciscus, literarum parcus."
and Scioppius's parting recommendation--
"Quid jam reliquum est tibi, nisi ut nomen commutes et ex Scalifero
fias Furcifer?"--_Scaliger Hypobolimaeus. Mogunt._, 1607, 4to., p. 74.
b.
deprived of its force and stringency? I fear, however, that this is not to
be expected.
It is impossible to read Joseph Scaliger's defence of his own case in the
rejoinder to Scioppius, _Confutatio fabulae Burdonum_, without observing
that the author utterly fails in connecting Niccolo, the great-grandfather
of Joseph, with Guglielmo della Scala, the son of Can Grande Secundo. And
yet such is the charm of genius, that the _Confutatio_, altogether
defective in the main point as a reply, will ever be read with delight by
succeeding generations of scholars.