GRONOVIVUS, the Latinized form of Gronov, JOHANN FRIEDRICH, a learned scholar and critic, was born at Hamburg on the 10th of September 1611. He went through his early studies with great distinction at Bremen, after which he studied law at Altdorf under the learned professors who had conferred celebrity on that school. To extend his knowledge by travel, and to converse with the learned and explore the libraries, he visited the principal
cities of Holland, England, and France. In 1658 he succeeded Daniel Heinsius, the celebrated professor of belles-lettres in the university of Leyden; and in that city he died on the 28th of December 1671. Gronovius was a man of equal learning and modesty; and, as he was naturally disinclined to controversy, he avoided those literary disputes by which so many then sought to obtain distinction. For a correct list of his numerous works, we refer to the Biblioth. Erudit. Præc. of Kiefker, and to the Dictionnaire of Chuffepé, and shall only mention the following:—
Diatriba in Stulti poetæ Sylvæ, Hague, 1637, in 8vo; De Sæterclis rive subitaneorum Pecunia veteris Græcæ et Romana libri iv., Deventer, 1643, in 4to; Observationum libri iv., Deventer, 1662, in 12mo; Laudatio funebris Joannæ Goldi, Leyden, 1668, in 8vo; De Musco Alexandrino Exercitationes Academice, inserted in the eighth volume of the Theſaurus Antiquitatum Græcarum; Lectiones Paulinæ, quibus non tantum fabula Paulina et Terentiana, verum etiam Caesar, Cicero, Livius illustrantur, Amsterdam, 1740, in 8vo; Notes on the Treatise of Grotius De Jure Belli et Pacis. Gronovius also revised the text, and published editions with notes, of Titus Livius, Statius, Pliny the Elder, Justin, Tacitus, the Seneca, Aulus Gellius, Phædrus, and Paulinus, almost all of which form part of the Variorum collection. (J. B.—K.)