PERIZONIUS, JACOB, a learned Dutchman, was born at Dam, in the province of Groningen, in 1651; studied at Deventer, and afterwards at Leyden. He applied himself with great ardour to philology and history; and in 1674 was appointed rector of the gymnasium at Delft. In 1681 he removed to the academy of Franeker as professor of eloquence and history, and accepted the chair of history, eloquence, and the Greek language in the university of Leyden. During his whole life he plied his pen with great industry in connection with his favourite pursuits. But his assiduous and uninterrupted labours at length undermined his health, which was naturally delicate, and after languishing for some time in a hopeless condition, he died at Leyden on the 6th of April 1715.
Perizonius, though a man of an amiable and obliging disposition, was nevertheless sensitive, and fond of disputation. He engaged in several keen controversies, particularly with Ulrich Huber, professor of law at Franeker, on the sense of a passage in the Epistle of St Paul to the Philippians; with Francius, professor of eloquence at Amsterdam; with James Gronovius on the death of Judas Iscariot; with John Leclerc, on the subject of Quintus Curtius; and with Kuster on the ae graec of the ancients.
The works of Perizonius all display erudition, but are deficient in order and method. Besides good editions of various authors, he wrote Animadversiones Historicae, Amsterdam, 1685, in 8vo; Q. Curtius Rufus in integrum restitutus, vindictus, Leyden, 1703, in 8vo; De Doctrina Studii, nuper post depulsum barbarorum diligentissime de novo cultis et desideratis, nunc vero rursus neglectis fere et contemptis, Leyden, 1708, in 8vo; Rerum per Europam saeculo XVI. maxime petarum Commentarii Historici, ibid. 1710, in 8vo; Origines Dalmatice et Egyptiacae, Leyden, 1711, 2 vols. 8vo,—a work full of curious and interesting remarks on the chronology of Egypt, in opposition to Marsham, Usher, Capell, Pezron, and some other chronologists; Opuscula Minora, Orationes atque Disquisitiones variis et prostantioris argumenti, Leyden, 1740, 2 vols. 8vo, preceded by a Life of Perizonius, and a catalogue of the manuscripts which he bequeathed to the library of Leyden. Amongst the works edited by this able scholar may be mentioned the History of Alhaz, 1701, in 2 vols. 8vo; and the Minerva of Sanctius, 1714, in 8vo.