Salmasius, CLAUDIUS, the Latinised name of a celebrated French scholar, CLAUDE DE SAUMAISE, who was born at Semur in Burgundy, 15th April 1588. His father, Benigne de Saumaise, a man of superior erudition, was his first teacher. At the age of ten young Salmasius translated Pindar and composed Greek and Latin verses. He studied philosophy at Paris, under the superintendence of Casaubon. From Paris he proceeded to Heidelberg (1606), where he devoted himself to the science of jurisprudence, and publicly professed Protestantism, to which form of the Chris- tian religion he had been secretly attached. So insatiable at this time was his thirst for knowledge—book-knowledge, at least—that he was wont to devote two whole nights out of three to hard reading, in consequence of which he brought himself to within an inch of the grave. In 1608 he published from MSS. two treatises of the sectary, Nilus, Archbishop of Thessalonica, and a work of the monk Barlaam on the primacy of the pope. In 1629 appeared his chief work, Pliniane Exercitationes in Caii Iulii Solini Polyhistora (2 vols. Paris, 1629); after the publication of which he set himself vigorously, and without the help of a master, to acquire a knowledge of Hebrew, Arabic, Coptic, and other oriental tongues. In 1631 he was called to Leyden, to occupy the chair that Joseph Scaliger had held there, and it is from this period that his European reputation as a scholar and critic dates. Various efforts were made (1635-40) to induce Salmasius to return to France, but he declined them on the ground that his spirit was too 'liberal' for his native land. Queen Christina of Sweden, however, managed to bring him to Stockholm, and fix him there for a year (1650-51), after which he returned to Holland. He died of a fever caught by imprudently drinking the waters at Spa, 6th September 1653.
In the scholastic world Salmasius was probably the most famous personage of his day in Europe. 'A man not in my opinion only, but by the common consent of scholars, the most learned of all who are now living; 'the miracle of the world, the most learned of mortals.' Such were the expressions of his contemporaries regarding him. The most exalted personages courted his friendship. Christina of Sweden declared that 'she could not live without him.' When Mazarin failed to induce him to return to France he nevertheless sent him the order of knighthood, as a proof of Louis XIV.'s desire to honour him as a Frenchman. Though his attainments were prodigious, Salmasius does not rank with scholars like Casaubon or the younger Scaliger. He had neither Casaubon's balanced judgment nor Scaliger's grasp or insight. Hence, though his industry and learning could not have been inferior to theirs, his work has no distinctive value in the history of scholarship. In England Salmasius is best known in connection with his controversy with Milton regarding the execution of Charles I. At the request of Charles II., Salmasius, as the highest scholastic authority in Europe, published (1649) his Defensio Regia pro Carolo I., which was answered in 1651 by Milton in his Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio. The preparation of his pamphlet cost Milton his eyesight, but, as Salmasius died shortly after writing a rejoinder, the English poet boasted that his adversary had the worst of the encounter. The brutal coarseness of both disputants alone gives a certain significance to their controversy at the present day. Yet it must be remembered that the standard of taste in public controversy in the 16th and 17th centuries only corresponded to the license of everyday talk in the most refined society.
For the life of Salmasius, see De Laudibus et Vita Cl. Salmasii, prefixed to the collection of his letters published at Leyden in 1656. For his controversy with Milton, see Masson, Life of Milton, vol. iv.