Author: SCALIGER. Jules César Scaliger;
Title: Julii Caesaris Scaligeri Exotericarum exercitationum liber quintus decimus, de subtilitate, ad Hieronymum Cardanum.
Description: Lutetiae Apud F. Morellum, 1557. FIRST EDITION. 4to, 217 x 147 mms., foliated, [iv], 476, [30 index, 31 printer's imprint], attractively bound in near contemporary light brown calf, ornamented with gold fleurs de lys, with in a gilt border, spine gilt in compartments to the same motif, red leather label, with the armorial bookplate of "John Marques[s] of Tweeddale, Earle of Gifford, Viscount Walden, Lord Hay of Yester, &c." and a later (probably 18 century) note on the recto of the front free end-paper, a very good and attractive copy, except for the title-page, which has been vandalized by the cutting out of a portion of the leaf, measuring 75 x 58 mms. from, the centre Born in Italy, Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484 – 1558), spent most of his adult life in France and began his career in the military of the emporer Maximillian. His first work, printed in 1531, was an oration against Erasmus in defence of Cicero and his allies. Wikipedia notes, "He is best known for his critical Exotericarum Exercitationes on Cardan's De Subtilitate (1557), a book approaching natural philosophy and which had a long popularity. The Exercitationes display encyclopaedic knowledge and accurate observation; but, as noted by Gabriel Naudé, they are not flawless. They had an influence upon natural historians, philosophers and scientists such as Lipsius, Francis Bacon, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Johannes Kepler. Charles Nisard wrote that Scaliger's object seems to be to deny all that Cardan affirms and to affirm all that Cardan denies. Yet Leibniz and Sir William Hamilton recognize him as the best modern exponent of the physics and metaphysics of Aristotle."

Keywords: natural philosophy binding prose


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