*** 'Catalogus van het oosterse legaat van Josephus Justus Scaliger 1609', K. van Ommen and F.A. de Wolff, can be found at : http://hdl.handle.net/1887/123271 ***In 1593 the eminent scholar... Show more*** 'Catalogus van het oosterse legaat van Josephus Justus Scaliger 1609', K. van Ommen and F.A. de Wolff, can be found at : http://hdl.handle.net/1887/123271 ***In 1593 the eminent scholar Josephus Justus Scaliger (1540-1609) arrived in Leiden to accept the position as honorary professor in Latin language, antiquities and history. Scaliger had taken a part of his library, including many Oriental books and manuscripts, with him to Leiden. In 1609 Scaliger bequeathed by testament the part of his library to Leiden university that consisted of ‘[…] tous mes livres de langues estrangeres, Hebraics, Syriens, Arabics, Aethiopiens, lesquels livres sont contenus dans le Catalogue que i’ay adiousté a la copie latine de ce mien testament […]’. The governors of the university acknowledged the importance of this bequest, immediately recognized the potential of this collection of rare printed books and manuscripts and realized that this collection could make a substantial difference in acquiring a prominent position amongst the other European universities that were competing for scholarly supremacy during the seventeenth century. The governors stressed the importance of compiling a catalogue of the bequest, but subsequent catalogues from the period 1612-1674 all provide an incomplete overview of the bequest. In this thesis Scaligers bequest containing all his printed Oriental books is reconstructed and presented for the first time. Show less
