Claudius Salmasius

In 1606 he went to the University of Heidelberg, where he studied under the jurist Denis Godefroy,[1] and devoted himself to the classics, influenced by the librarian Jan Gruter.

[3] Returning to Burgundy, Salmasius qualified for the succession to his father's post, which he eventually lost on account of his religion.

The quarrel became both highly personal and widely known, and Heinsius as university librarian refused him access to the books he wished to consult.

His copy later appeared in print: first in 1776 when Richard François Philippe Brunck included it in his Analecta; and also when Friedrich Jacobs published the full Palatine Anthology as the Anthologia Graeca (13 vols.

His treatise De primatu Papae (1645), accompanying a republication of the tract of Nilus Cabasilas, excited controversy in France, but the government declined to suppress it.

[3] In 1643 he published De Hellenistica Commentarius, including linguistic theories of Johann Elichmann on the origins of the Greek language.

[8] In 1649, in November, appeared the work for which many remember Salmasius best: his royalist tract Defensio regia pro Carolo I provoked by the execution of Charles I.

It remains unknown whose influence induced him to undertake the Defensio regia, but Charles II defrayed the expense of printing, and presented the author with £100.

This celebrated work provoked from John Milton the Defensio pro Populo Anglicano, including attacks on Salmasius's wife along with much other vituperation.

[9] Milton also claimed that Salmasius's withdrawal from Sweden in 1651 was due to the attack, but Christina's continued warmth in letters to him argue against that cause.

[3] He is the author of Simplicii Verini, sive Claudii Salmasii, de Transsubstantiatione liber, ad justum pacium, contra H. Grotium.. Philibert de La Mare, counsellor of the parlement of Dijon, inherited Salmasius' manuscripts from his son and wrote a very lengthy life of Salmasius.