GRONOVUS, James, son of the preceding, and one of the most laborious philologists of the seventeenth century, was born at Deventer on the 20th of October 1645. At an early age he had read all the masterpieces of antiquity, and appreciated their beauties; but this precocious discernment was not so much the result of natural genius as of obstinate perseverance. Having resolved to travel through part of Europe to acquire knowledge, and visit the old friends of his father, he came over to England, where he remained several months, during which he occupied himself in collating the manuscripts in the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge. He then returned to Leyden, and there published, in the year 1670, an edition of Polybius, with notes, amongst which he inserted those that Casaubon had on his death-bed bequeathed to him. This first editorial effort did him much honour, and well merited the offer, which was in consequence made him, of a chair in the academy of Deventer. But entertaining the intention of continuing his travels, he declined the proffered situation, and almost immediately set out for Paris, where he met with a most distinguished reception. The death of his father obliged him to return a second time to Leyden; but as soon as he had arranged his affairs, he again set out, along with M. Paats, ambassador of the states-general, to Spain; and having seen all that is curious or interesting in that country, he embarked for Italy. The Grand Duke of Tuscany retained him in his states by appointing him professor in the university of Pisa; and Gronovius profited by the facility he had of visiting Florence, to form a connection with Magliabechi, who placed at his disposal all the treasures of the Medicean library. At the end of two years he prevailed on the grand duke to accept his resignation; visited Venice and Padua; and traversed Germany on his way to Deventer, where it was his intention to settle. But scarcely had he arrived in that city when the curators of the university of Leyden tendered him a chair, and pressed their offer so urgently that he was induced to accept. His opening discourse increased the high idea which had been formed of his knowledge; and the curators, to testify their desire of retaining him, immediately raised his salary to four hundred florins. Gronovius was very sensible of this mark of esteem, and constantly refused the propositions which were made to draw him to Kiel, to Padua, and to other universities of Germany and Italy. If he inherited the erudition of his father, he had neither his gentleness nor his moderation. Never was there a man fonder of disputation, or more unjust towards the adversaries whom, for the most part, he raised up against himself by his asperity and haughtiness. It would be tedious, if not disgusting, to enter into details respecting the quarrels he had to maintain with Fabretti on the sense of some passages in Livy; with Feller and Perizonius as to the manner of Judas's death; with Vossius on Pomponius Mela; with Bentley and John Leclerc on the corrections of Menander; with Kuster on Suidas, &c. The scurrility he indulged in these discussions, which did not always terminate to his advantage, and his exorbitant vanity, caused him to be compared to Scioppius, and procured for him the unenviable distinction of a place in the work of Mencken on the Empiricism of the Learned. But though the temper of Gronovius was thus violent, his heart was sound, and he loved his children with so much tenderness that the grief occasioned by the loss of his daughter accelerated his own death, which took place at Leyden on the 21st of October 1716, in the seventy-first year of his age. In the Memoirs of Nicéron will be found a notice of his life, followed by a catalogue of his
works, forty-six in number. The most celebrated, as well as the most important, of these, is the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Græcarum, Leyden, 1697 and the following years, in 13 vols. folio. For this invaluable collection he adopted the plan traced out by Grævius in the Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanarum, Utrecht, 1694, in 12 vols. folio. Both works ought to be united; and, to form a complete collection of antiquities, there should be added, 1. Nova Thesaurus Antiquitatum Romanarum, by Sallengre, Hague, 1716, in 3 vols. folio; 2. Utriusque Thesauri Nova Supplementa, by Polleni, Venice, 1737, in 5 vols. folio; 3. Inscriptiones Antiquæ totius Orbis Romani, by Gruter, Amsterdam, 1707, in 4 vols. folio; 4. Lexicon Antiquitatum Romanarum, by Pitiscus, Leuwarden, 1713, in 2 vols. folio. Gronovius published new editions of several authors already commented on by his father, such as Seneca the tragic poet, Aulus Gellius, Phædrus, and others; and he also edited Macrobius, Polybius, Tacitus, Pomponius Mela, Cicero, Ammianus Marcellinus, Quintus Curtius, Sætonius, Arrian, Minutius Felix, Herodotus, Cebes, and some ancient geographers; the poem of Manetho on the stars; the Dactylothece of Gorlaeus; the Lexicon of Harpocraton, &c. the greater part of which, enriched with corrections and notes, form part of the Variorum collection, though, in general, not held in much estimation. The other productions of Gronovius consist of Theses, Discourses, and Diatribes, of which a list will be found in the Memoirs of Nicéron, and also in the Biblioth. Erud. Præcocium of Klefer. (A.)