The New International Encyclopædia/Salmasius, Claudius

SALMASIUS, săl-mă′shĭ-ŭs, Claudius, or Claude de Saumaise (1588-1055). A French classical scholar and Protestant, born April 15, 1588, at Sémur-en-Auxois, France. After studying at Paris and Heidelberg he was made professor at Leyden (1031), but, in part because of the sensation caused by his Defensio regia pro Carolo I. (1649) and Milton's fierce rejoinder, he accepted an invitation to Stockholm (1650), whence he returned in 1651 with shattered health to Leyden. He died September, 1655, at Spa. Salmasius had immense but ill-digested learning. He was a great encyclopædist, but with little method, and weak as a textual critic. He is remembered for his discovery of the Greek Anthology of Kephalas at Heidelberg (1606), for editions of Scriptores Historiæ Augustæ (1620), and for Plinianæ Exercitationes in Solinum (1629), De Lingua Hellenistica (1643), De Usuris (1638), and De Re Militari Romanorum (1657). Salmasius's Life and Letters appeared at Leyden (1656). Consult: Masson, Life of Milton, vol. iv. (London, 1858-79); Creuzer, Opuscula Selecta, vol. ii. (Leipzig, 1854); and Saxius, Onomasticon, vol. iv. (Utrecht, 1775-83).