SCRIMZEOR or SCRIMGEOUR (Henry), an eminent restorer of learning, was born at Dundee in the year 1506. He traced his descent from the ancient family of the Scrimgeours of Didepe, who obtained the office of hereditary standard-bearers to the kings of Scotland in 1557.
At the grammar-school of Dundee our author acquired the Greek and Latin languages to an uncommon degree of perfection, and that in a shorter space of time than many scholars before him. At the university of St Andrew's his successful application to philosophy gained him great applause. The next scene of his studies was the university of Paris, and their more particular object the civil law. Two of the most famous civilians of that age, Eguinard Baron and Francis Duaren (A), were then giving their lectures to crowded circles at Bourges. The fame of these professors occasioned his removal from Paris; and for a considerable time he prosecuted his studies under their direction.
At Bourges he had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the celebrated James Amiot, Greek professor in that city, well known in the learned world by his translation of Plutarch's Lives, and distinguished afterwards by his advancement to great honours in the church, and finally to the rank of cardinal.
Through the recommendation of this eminent person, Mr Scrimzeor engaged in the education of two young gentlemen of the name of Bucherel, whom he instructed in the belles lettres, and other branches of literature, calculated to accomplish them for their station in life.
This connection introduced him to Bernard Borne-tel bishop of Rennes, a person famed in the political world for having served the state in many honourable embassies. Accepting an invitation from this prelate to accompany him to Italy, Mr Scrimzeor greatly enlarged the sphere of his literary acquaintance, by his conversation and connection with most of the distinguished scholars of that country. The death of Francis Spira (B) happened during his visit at Padua; and as the character and conduct of this remarkable person at that time engaged the attention of the world, Mr Scrimzeor is said to have collected memoirs of him in a publication entitled, "The Life of Francis Spira, by Henry of Scotland." This performance, however, does not appear in the catalogue of his works.
After he had stored his mind with the literature of foreign countries, and satisfied his curiosity as a traveller,
(A) "Francis Duaren was the first of the French civilians who purged the chair in the civil law schools from the barbarisms of the Glossaries, in order to introduce the pure sources of the ancient jurisprudence. As he did not desire to share that glory with any one, he looked with an envious eye on the reputation of his colleague Eguinard Baron, who also mixed good literature with the knowledge of the law. This jealousy put him upon composing a work, wherein he endeavoured to lessen the esteem that people had for his colleague. The maxim, 'Pajitur in vivis liber; poët fata quisicit,' was verified remarkably in him; for after the death of Baron, he showed himself most zealous to eternalize his memory, and was at the expense of a monument to the honour of the deceased." From the Translation of Bayle's Dict. of 1710, p. 1143-4.
(B) Francis Spira was a lawyer of great reputation at Cittadella in the Venetian state, at the beginning of the 16th century. He had imbibed the principles of the Reformation, and was accused before John de la Cafa, archbishop of Benevento, the pope's nuncio at Venice. He made some concessions, and asked pardon of the papal minister for his errors. But the nuncio insisted upon a public recantation. Spira was exceedingly averse to this measure; but at the pressing instances of his wife and his friends, who represented to him that he must lose his practice and ruin his affairs by persisting against it, he at last complied. Shortly after he fell into a deep melancholy, lost his health, and was removed to Padua for the advice of physicians and divines; but his disorders augmented. The recantation, which he said he had made from cowardice and interest, filled his mind with continual horror and remorse; inasmuch that he sometimes imagined that he felt the torments of the damned. No means being found to restore either his health or his peace of mind, in 1548 he fell a victim to his miserable situation. See Collyer's Dict.—Spira. Immediately on his arrival at Geneva, 1563, he was earnestly solicited by the magistrates to resume the chair of philosophy. Notwithstanding his compliance, and in consequence of it the dedication of much of his time to the study of physics, he, two years afterwards, instituted a course of lectures in the civil law, and had the honour of being its first founder and professor at Geneva.
As soon as he was settled again in this city, he hoped, amidst his other occupations, to prosecute the great object of his literary fame, the printing of his various works. But a suspicion which Henry Stephens entertained, that it was his intention to set up a rival press at Geneva, occasioned great dissensions between them. The result of the quarrel was, that the republic of letters, during Mr Scrimzeor's life, was deprived of his valuable productions. They fell most of them at his death into the hands of Isaac Casaubon, who has been accused of publishing considerable portions of them as his own.
Some account of Mr Scrimzeor's several performances will give an idea of his extensive erudition.
He wrote critical and explanatory notes upon Athenaeus's (d) Deipnosophists, or Table-conversations of Philosophers and Learned Men of Antiquity; having first collated several manuscripts of his author. This work Casaubon published at Leyden in 1600; but without distinguishing his own notes from those of Scrimzeor.
A Commentary and Emendations of the Geography of Strabo were among our author's literary remains. These were published in Casaubon's Parisian edition of Strabo, 1620. Henry Stephens, from an idea of justice due to Scrimzeor's literary fame, notwithstanding the violent animosity which had subsisted betwixt them, reproaches Casaubon for adopting our Scottish critic's lucubrations on Strabo without acknowledgment.—Dempster affirms us, that Scrimzeor, in his manuscript letters, mentions his design of publishing this performance; whence, it is probable, that his work appeared to himself of considerable consequence, and had taken up much of his attention. Although Casaubon, in his ample notes exhibited at the foot of Strabo's text, makes no confession of having derived anything from Scrimzeor, it must not be concealed, that in an epistle to Sir Peter Young, our critic's nephew, through whom the Commentary and Emendations of Strabo came into his hands, Casaubon acknowledges how very useful to him they might be made; for speaking thereof of his intended edition of Strabo, he says, "It cannot be expressed how much assistance I may obtain from your notes of Scrimzeor."
Edward Herriton, a Scottish author, in his Commentary on Plutarch's Book concerning the Inconstancies of the Stoics, informs us, that Scrimzeor collated different manuscripts of all the works of Plutarch. This undertaking appears sufficient to have occupied half the life of an ordinary critic. Everyone knows how voluminous an author was the philosopher, the historian, and orator of Chaeronea. Whether our learned critic
(c) They were ennobled by the emperor in 1510, under the title of Barons of Kirkberg and Weissenborn.
(d) Athenaeus was a grammarian of Naucrates in Egypt, and lived in the second century. His Deipnosophistæ is a very curious and learned work, in 15 books. It is full of interesting anecdotes and descriptions of ancient manners, and has preserved many relics of Grecian poetry not to be found elsewhere. critic had meant to publish an edition of Plutarch's works is not known; but such an intention should seem highly probable from this laborious enterprise of collating them.
The 10 books of Diogenes Laertius on the Lives, Opinions, and Apophthegms of the Philosophers, were collated from various manuscripts by Scrimzeor. His corrected text of this author, with notes full of erudition, came also into Caiusbon's possession, and is supposed to have contributed much to the value of his edition of the Grecian Biographer, printed at Paris in 1593.
The works of Phormutus and Palaeophatus were also among the collations of Mr Scrimzeor. To the latter of these authors he made such considerable additions, that the work became partly his own. These were two ancient authors who explain the fables of the heathen deities. The former wrote De Natura Diorum, seu de Fabularum Poeticarum Allegoris Speculatio, "On the Nature of the Gods, or the Allegorical Fictions of the Poets." The latter entitled his book Sive de falsis Narrationibus, "Things incredible, or concerning false Relations." These works were printed at Basel, 1570; whether in Greek or Latin is uncertain. They have been published since in both languages.
The manuscripts of them were for some time preserved in the library of Sir Peter Young, after that of his uncle Scrimzeor, which was brought into Scotland in 1573, had been added to it. What became of this valuable bequest at the death of the former, is uncertain.
Our learned philologer left also behind him in manuscript the orations of Demosthenes, Aeschines, and Cicero, and the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, all carefully collated.
Among his literary remains was a collection of his Latin epistles. The men of letters in the 15th and 16th centuries seem to have kept their republic, as it is called, more united and compact than it is at present, by an epistolary intercourse in the Latin language, then the universal medium of literature and science. This general spirit of communication could not but contribute greatly to the advancement of learning, as well as to the pleasure, and, we may add, to the importance, of those who were engaged in its pursuit. The intercourse and union of enlightened men, able and disposed to promote the happiness of their fellow-creatures, cannot be too close. From such intellectual combination alone it is, that uniformity of religious, moral, and political principles, to its greatest attainable degree, can ever be expected; or, in other words, the greatest possible benefit derived from the cultivation of letters.
Of the many performances which had exercised his pen, it does not appear that any were immediately published by himself but his Translation of Justinian's Novels into Greek. This was printed at Paris in 1558, and again with Holander's Latin version at Antwerp in 1575. This work has been highly extolled, both for the purity of its language and the accuracy of its execution, and is likely, according to some respectable opinions, to hold its estimation as long as any use or memory of the civil law shall exist.
A Latin translation of the Basilica, or Basilics, as they are called by our civilians, is the last we have to mention of this author's performances. This is a collection of Roman Laws, which the eastern emperors Basil and Leo, who reigned in the fifth century, commanded to be translated into Greek, and which preserved their authority till the dissolution of the eastern empire. The Basilics comprehend the institutes, digests, code, and novels, and some of the edicts of Justinian and other emperors. Of 60 original books, 41 only remain. Mr Scrimzeor collated them with various manuscripts, probably before he commenced his translation.
From the foregoing recital of the learned labours of this profound scholar and critic, it will be concluded, that almost the whole of his life, although long, was spent in his library, and that the biographer, having now terminated the catalogue of his writings, is probably not distant from the conclusion of his life. Different years have been assigned for the time of his death; but it appears most likely, from a comparison of the different accounts of this event, that it happened very near the expiration of 1571, or at the beginning of the succeeding year, about the 66th year of his age. He died in the city of Geneva.
The characteristic features of Scrimzeor are few, but they are prominent and striking, and remote posterity may regard him with no inferior degree of respect. His industry and perseverance in the pursuit of knowledge and erudition were equalled only by the exquisite judgment which he displayed in his critical annotations and commentaries on the errors and obscurities of ancient books and manuscripts.
His acquisitions in the Greek, Latin, and oriental languages, were reckoned much beyond those of most of the professed linguists of his time. The great Cujacius used to say, "That he never quitted Mr Scrimzeor's conversation without having learned something new." But that which lent peculiar grace to such superiority, was the amiable modesty which upon all occasions was observed to accompany it. From the commendation given him by the illustrious civilian just mentioned, it will be concluded, that he did not brood, with a jealous reserve, over unloosed treasures of erudition; but that, conscious of possessing stores too ample to be soon exhausted, at the same time that he avoided an ostentatious profusion of them, he obliged and delighted his friends by a liberal communication. From the period at which he lived, considered with the nature and extent of his studies, and his abilities in prosecuting them, he may deservedly be ranked among those eminent characters who have most successfully contributed their exertions to the revival of letters in Europe.