VALCKENAER, LUDWIG KASPAR, one of the ablest scholars of the eighteenth century, was born at Leeuwarden in Friesland, in the year 1715. He prosecuted his academic studies at Franeker and Leyden, and at an early age distinguished himself by his uncommon skill in ancient literature. The first appointment which his learning procured for him was that of corrector of the gymnasium of Campen; and in 1741, after he had recommended himself by some very erudite publications, he succeeded Hemsterhusius in the Greek chair at Franeker. With this, in 1755, was united the professorship of Greek antiquities. In 1766 he was called to the University of Leyden; where, with the chair of the Greek language and Greek antiquities, he also held that of the history of his native country. In this honourable station he continued for nearly twenty years, in the enjoyment of a very high and well-earned reputation. He formed many excellent scholars, and eminently contributed to maintain the credit which the university had acquired as the first seminary of Greek literature. He died on the 15th of March 1785, in the seventieth year of his age.
Valckenaer possessed a masterly acquaintance with the entire compass of the Greek language and literature. He was an acute and sagacious critic, and he displayed no mean talents as a Latin orator. We subjoin a list of his principal works:—
De Ritibus in Jurando a veteribus Hebrais maxime ac Graecis observatis. Franeker, 1735, 4to. Specimina Academica. Fran. 1737, 4to. Anonimus de adfinium Vocabulorum Differentia. Accedit Opuscula nondum edita, &c. Lugd. Bat. 1759, 4to. Euripidis Phoenicorum. Fran. 1755, 4to. Euripidis Hippolytus, &c. Accedit Diatribae in Euripidis perditorum Dramatum Reliquiae. Lugd. Bat. 1768, 4to. The Diatribae, which is very able and elaborate, was published separately in 1767. Theocriti, Bionis, et Moschi Carmina Bucolica, Graece et Latine. Emendavit variisque lectionibus instruit. Lugd. Bat. 1779, 8vo. He had published ten idylls of Theocritus in 1773. Ti. Hemsterhusii Orationes, quarum prima est de Paulo Apostolo. L. C. Valckenari tres Orationes, quibus subiectum est Schediasma, Specimen exhibens Adnotationum Criticarum in Loca quondam Librorum Sacrorum Novi Foderis. Praefunguntur duae Orationes Joannis Chrysostomi in Laudem Pauli Apostoli, cum veteri versione Latina Antiani, ex. cod. MS. hic illic emendata. Lugd. Bat. 1784, 8vo. Schedius was the editor of his Observationes Academicae, quibus via manitur ad Origines Graecae investigandas, Lexicorumque Defectus reparandos. Traj. ad Rhem. 1790, 8vo. These observations are accompanied with the prelections of Van Iennep De Analogis Linguae Graecae. The following posthumous work of Valckenaer was published by his son-in-law Luzac: Callimachi Elegiarum Fragmenta, cum Elegia Catulli Callimachaea. Lugd. Bat. 1799, 8vo. J. A. H. Tittmann published Dionisi Rukkenii, L. C. Valckenari, et aliorum, ad Joh. Aug. Ernesti Epistolae. Accedit D. Rukkenii Observationes in Callimachum, et L. C. Valckenari Adnotationes ad Thomam Magistrum. Lipsiae, 1802, 2 tom. 8vo. Diatribae de Aristobulo Judaeo, Philosopho Peripatetico Alexandrino. Lugd. Bat. 1806, 4to. Opuscula Philologica, Critica, et Orationia, nunc primum conjunctim edita. Lipsiae, 1809, 2 tom. 8vo.