chapter 7 , April–August 1593

Thomson seems to have left Christmann’s house in Heidelberg in March 1593. We do not know when he arrived in Geneva, but he was certainly there by August. , the great Greek scholar and ’s difficult father-in-law, was in Geneva during Thomson’s stay.1 Estienne had been absent from the city for eight or nine months when Casaubon wrote to Thomson in April 1594, a statement which allows us to deduce that Thomson had reached Geneva before August 1593.2 Thomson may have heard Casaubon speak pub- licly on the subject of the New World during this visit.3 In Geneva he knew the man who taught Casaubon Hebrew, Pierre Cheva- lier. Their acquaintance, however, cannot have extended beyond Thomson’s time in Geneva: he sent his regards to Chevalier in a letter of December 1593, and is informed of his death by Casaubon in April 1594.4 In his letter of April 1594, Casaubon also sends greetings from Jacques de Lect, a Genevan historian, lawyer and magistrate, and from Paul Estienne, the son of Casaubon’s father-in-

1 Casaubon married Estienne’s daughter Florence, but her father never allowed his son-in- law to enter his library: see Casaubon’s letter to Scaliger of 2 September 1598, in Botley and Van Miert, eds, Scaliger Correspondence, 2012, 3, p. 195; Pattison, Casaubon, 1892, pp. 30–32. Scaliger said: ‘H. Estienne ne voulut point voir sa fille femme de Casaubon. Il n’aymoit point son gendre’ (Scaliger, Secunda Scaligerana, 1740, p. 316). For his biography, see Biographie universelle (Michaud) ancienne et moderne, 45 vols, and Leipzig, 1843–1865, 13, pp. 112– 115; L. Clément, Henri Estienne et son oeuvre française, Paris, 1899; dbf 13, 1975, cols 96–99; J. Kecskeméti et al., La France des humanistes: Henri ii Estienne, éditeur et écrivain, Turnhout, 2003. 2 Casaubon to Thomson, 25 April 1594: ‘quod tu putas eum [sc. Stephanum] hic esse, falleris: postquam semel abiit ante menses octo aut novem, ex illo semper non quidem per Elysios campos, sed per Germaniam ἀλᾶται, πλανᾶται, καὶ ἀλύει’ (p. 175). 3 See Casaubon to Thomson, 20 September 1600 (p. 248). Thomson had located material on the New World in his letter to Casaubon of 10 April 1597 (pp. 211–215). He asked about the New World in his letter to Casaubon of 22 July 1600 (pp. 235–239), and Casaubon’s reply referred him to a speech he had made around 1593: ‘Propositam a te quaestionem ante sex septem annos cum cura tractavimus Genevae, solemni promotionum publicarum die. Nosti morem’. A study by Casaubon under the title ‘An priscis novus orbis fuerit incognitus?’ is outlined from Casaubon’s notes in J.C. Wolf, ed. Casauboniana, Hamburg, 1710, p. 51. 4 Thomson to Casaubon, 27 December 1593 (pp. 164–168); Casaubon to Thomson, 25 April 1594 (pp. 173–178).

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2016 | doi: 10.1163/9789004308282_008 26 chapter 7 law Henri. It is thus likely that Thomson knew these men too from his time in Geneva in the summer of 1593. In addition, we know that at least three other studious Dutchmen were in Geneva the same summer, in conversation with Casaubon and (we may suppose) Thomson. These were Johann van Werck- hoven and the two sons of Dirk Canter, Lambert and Johann. They had set out in 1591 on a trip to Bremen, Mainz, Basle, Geneva and Padua.5 All three men seem to have returned to the Low Countries by the autumn of 1594.6 Thomson was also in Geneva at the same time as another Englishman, . Wotton, better known for his subsequent role as the ambassador of James i to the Republic of , had arrived in Geneva from on 22 June 1593, and by August he was staying in Casaubon’s house.7 A later letter from Casaubon to Thomson supplies us with the information that it was at Thomson’s request that Casaubon took him in.8 He stayed for at least four- teen months, from June 1593 to August 1594.9 Wotton seems to have made good use of Casaubon’s expertise during this long stay: Wotton later implies that he studied the history of Thucydides with Casaubon in Geneva, and they may have shared an interest in Heliodorus of Emesa’s Greek prose romance the Aethiopica.10 Wotton wrote an extant letter to Carolus Clusius from Casaubon’s house in Geneva on 23 August 1593, and the letter demonstrates that Wot- ton was very well informed of all the new academic appointments at the University of Leiden.11 It is unlikely that Thomson and Casaubon knew less

5 A.J. Gruys, ed. Theodori Canteri Epistolae, Amsterdam, 1998, p. 271. For a biography of Dirk Canter (Theodorus Canterus, 1545–1617), brother of the philologist Willem Canter, see ibid., pp. 3–13. For the biography of Van Werckhoven (Werchovius, 1570–1619), see nnbw, 1911–1937, 3, 1914, cols 1402–1403. 6 Wotton wrote an undated letter, apparently on his return to England at the end of 1594, apparently addressed to the Earl of Essex: ‘In the Low Countries, the sufficientest of my acquaintance are one Jo. Werckhovius at Utrecht, and Pet. Scapius in the Hage, both doctors in the civil laws, of good judgment, diligent, and free’ (Pearsall Smith, Henry Wotton, 1907, 1, p. 301). 7 Wotton to Lord Zouche, 22 August 1593 o.s., in Pearsall Smith, Henry Wotton, 1907, 1, p. 297. 8 Casaubon to Thomson, 11 October 1594 (pp. 190–192). 9 Wotton wrote to Casaubon from London on 12 December 1596: ‘post quatuordecim menses redii per Helvetios et Rhenana loca in illam patriam quae iam me biennium habuit’ (Pearsall Smith, Henry Wotton, 1907, 1, p. 302). 10 Wotton to Casaubon, 12 December 1596 (Pearsall Smith, Henry Wotton, 1907, 1, p. 303). 11 ‘Iosephum Scaligerum ibine inventurus es? … Ionstonus Scotus nactus professionem ethicam? Franciscus Iunius iam ibi? Et tu futurus?’ (Leiden, University Library, Vulc. 101). For John Johnston, see chapter 4, ‘Leiden, 1588–1591?’, note 10. Wotton’s letter to Clusius is not in Pearsall Smith, Henry Wotton, 1907.