DRAKENBORCH, ARNOLD, doctor of laws. This celebrated literary character was a native of Utrecht, and was born on the 1st of January 1684, and in which city he was afterwards professor of rhetoric and history. Grævinus and Burmann taught him the belles lettres, and Cornelius Van Eck was his preceptor while he devoted his attention to the law. He succeeded Professor Burmann in the year 1716, and terminated his mortal career in 1748, in the 64th year of his age. He was an author of very considerable eminence, as the following publications sufficiently evince. His dissertation entitled, Disputatio Philolog. Hist.
Draken- Hist. de praefectis urbis, in 4to, proves him to have
bozel been an able philologist, and gave flattering indica-
|| tions of future eminence. Its intrinsic merit caused
Dran. it to be reprinted at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, in 1750,
by Professor Uhl, accompanied with a life of its learn-
ed author. His next work, entitled Disputatio de offi-
cio praefectorum pratorio, was published in the year
1707; and ten years after his C. Silii Italici Punico-
rum, in 17 books, to render which perfect and complete,
nothing was omitted by this great man; many histor-
ical subjects being engraved for the purpose of elucid-
ating the text, to which his own copious and learned
annotations most powerfully contributed. His splendid
edition of Livy, with a life of that eminent historian,
will render his name immortal. It is entitled T. Livii
Patavini historiarum ab urbe condita libri, qui super-
sunt, omnes. Lugd. Batav. 1738 and 1746; 7 tom.
The preface to this work is very long, and replete with
erudition, giving a particular account of all the liter-
ary characters who have at different periods comment-
ed on the works of Livy. He took the edition of
Gronovius for his model, as being in his estimation
the most correct; but he made many important alter-
ations on the authority of manuscripts which it is prob-
able Gronovius had either never seen, or not taken
the pains to consult. Upon the whole, this edition of
Livy is at once the most elaborate, interesting, and in-
structive, ever given to the world, since into it he has
introduced the criticisms of Duchier, Gronovius, Pe-
rizonius, and Sigonius; in addition to his own, which
are certainly fraught with much literature and deep
discernment.