54 HARM-JAN VAN DAM
gins of his codex domesticus, which he transcribed and sent to Bero-
aldo in 1494. This codex domesticus was probably a copy of Cal-
derini’s commentary (1475). And secondly, the famous notes in his
copy of the editio princeps (1472), the so-called exemplar Corsin-
ianum, where Poliziano mentions his liber vetustissimus, Poggio’s
manuscript of the Silvae. Scaliger’s phrasing suggests the latter notes
(“ex vetustissimo codice”), but even if he meant something less excit-
ing, how would Scaliger, in Leiden, come by these notes?^34 The provi-
si onal answers supplied here do not at all solve the riddle: Scaliger did
receive notes, from his English friend Richard Thomson, author of
theological works of Arminian tendency, but also a translator of Mar-
tial.^35 Scaliger’s correspondent J. de Bumery announced from London
on 27 May a letter by Thomson with some autograph fragments of
Poliziano. Scaliger received this letter before 11 July, and returned the
notes some time before the end of December. He refers to the notes as
schedium and schediolum Politiani, but gives no information at all as
to its contents or origin or relation with the Silvae.^36 Must we really
imagine that these notes were autographs, as Bumery claims?
If Scaliger was the motor behind the study of Statius, possibly his
most ambitious pupil in this field was Petrus Scriverius (1576–1660),
son of a wealthy merchant, later immensely rich by a judicious mar-
riage. Together with Hugo Grotius, Daniel Heinsius and Joannes
Meursius he belonged to Scaliger’s inner circle. Scriverius worked as
a private scholar, and owes his fame mainly to his antiquarian work.
In his youth he had a reputation of working on many things without
34 See Courtney’s OCT xi–xiv. In van Dam 1996a I mentioned this letter and
Poliziano’s notes, but did not yet know the other letters concerning the question.
35 On Thomson, see Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 54 (2004), 549–50
(J.D. Moore), Milward 1978, 37–8, 95–6. He had one Dutch parent, but lived in Eng-
land and was fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge. His strongly Arminian Diatriba de
amissione et intercisione gratiae et iustificationis was published in Leiden in 1616,
through the agency of Bishop Overall and Hugo Grotius. In Scaliger 1627 there are
eleven letters from Scaliger to Thomson.
36 I owe this information to the generosity of Dr. Dirk van Miert, one of the editors
of the Scaliger Correspondence (see http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/scaliger/indexjjscali-
ger.htm). Bumery writes “Vous aurez vne lettre dudict Seigneur Thomson auec
quelques fragments escrits de la main propre de Politien, vn peu tard ... ”, Scaliger to
Richard Thomson, 11 July (Scaliger 1627, 503) “Quum tuas postremas accepi una
cum schedio Politiani ...”, 26 December (Scaliger 1627, 501–2) “Non dubito quin ...
Politiani schediola, quae ego in epistolam conjeceram, ne deerrarent, tibi sint reddita
...”. It is unknown to me where Thomson’s library went after his death.