Talk:Julius Caesar Scaliger

Biography assessment rating comment
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The 1911 bio surely warrants at least a B.

Want to help write or improve biographies? Check out WikiProject Biography Tips for writing better articles. -- Yamara 05:24, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Discussion
Useful entry, helpful for finding out more. It is just a shame that the Wiki has to resort to 1911 encyclo entry, but still that's better than nothing !!!Norwikian 14:42, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Surely the text can be edited, though, to make it more neutral! This article repeatedly claims that Scaliger is arrogant, that he 'completely missed the point' of texts he commented on, etc. Skyscrapersandwiches (talk) 22:58, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

Name
Would his name not more correctly be spelled Jules-César Scaliger, in the original French? Should this article be moved, perhaps? -- Ec5618 10:54, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Redirect. So that personne gets left behind. --Wetman 04:48, 18 September 2006 (UTC)
 * By the way: modern French is not necessarily the same as the original 15/16th century French, and the written language of the time – especially in Scaliger's learned circles – was very much Latin. 151.177.62.193 (talk) 20:05, 24 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Regarding older French spelling of Scaliger's name: Moreri's Grand Dictionnaire Historique (1683) refers to Scaliger so: "SCALIGER ou Jule-Cesar de l'Escale". But see VIAF for variations accepted by bibliographic authorities for modern cataloging. English-language authorities seem to prefer "Giulio Cesare Scaligero" while French authorities seem to like "Jules César Scaliger" (without a hyphen). On the title pages of two early 17th-century Latin editions of his work, his name appears as "Julii Cæsaris Scaligeri". Thus, if anything, given that this is the English language edition of Wikipedia, we should use the name "Giulio Cesare Scaligero". However, since most people search for this writer as "Scaliger", I do not think the current title of this article leads anyone astray. Perhaps the VIAF alternatives could be supplied as part of the article. Belastro (talk) 02:29, 25 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, things like fixed spelling and canonic choice of dialect in modern languages (as opposed to Latin) are an anachronism in these times and long after.
 * To avoid misunderstanding: "Julii Cæsaris Scaligeri" is genitive. 151.177.62.193 (talk) 18:41, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Anecdote
In the introduction to the eighth edition of his book The Pursuits of Literature, Thomas James Mathias relates an anecdote about Scaliger and Erasmus. Apparently, Erasmus thought Scaliger's then-anonymous oration against Ciceronianus had been written by Hieronimus Aleander.

I just thought it was interesting, and wonder if anyone thinks it could or should be included in the article. Cadwaladr (talk) 23:18, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Discription of platinum
A piece of work is interpreted to contain a hint on a new metal from south America. This might have been Platinum.

Revision
I have revised the article, simplifying the style (which clearly owes a lot to the 1911 Britannica entry) and removing subjective elements.Colin Ryan (talk) 12:28, 29 July 2015 (UTC)

Removed paragraph on naming of Julian Period for him.
I removed the paragraph about the naming of the Julian Period for Julius Caesar Scaliger. It wasn't. Many references say that the Julian in "Julian Period" is named after Joseph Scaliger's father Julius Scaliger. For example, The World Almanac for 1990 says "The Julian period was devised in 1582 by Joseph Scaliger and named after his father Julius (not after the Julian Calendar)" (Hoffman 1990:269). However, those references are wrong. In the introduction to Book V of his Opus de Emendatione Temporum, Joseph Scaliger wrote, "Iulianam vocauimus, quia ad annum Iulianum accommodata, & quidem a Kalendis Ianuarij" which translates roughly to "We have called it Julian merely because it is fitted to the Julian year, and from the first of January". (Scaligeri 1629:361).

The Julian Period is also not the same as the Julian Day Number, although they are related. The Julian Day Number was invented by Herschel in 1849. So the mention of POSIX time isn't at all like the Julian Period. That had to go too.

While adding text would require secondary references, removing text that is wrong does not. Grr (talk) 20:35, 16 November 2019 (UTC)

Birthplace
"He was born ... at the Rocca di Riva, on Lake Garda." - This is part of his fake biography, in which he traces his line to the House of della Scala. He was actually born in Padua, where his father was born and married. See Lilian Armstrong, Benedetto Bordon, "Miniator", and Cartography in Early Sixteenth-Century Venice, Imago Mundi: International Journal for the History of Cartography, Volume 48, pp. 65-92, Imago Mundi, Ltd, London (1996) - Eroica (talk) 10:05, 26 June 2023 (UTC)