Besides what was published, his pen was ever producing fragmentary papers which, as well as his manuscript notes on the margins of the volumes in his library, were much sought after. In the following century a volume entitled Casauboniana was compiled from these. If, like many similar compilations, this little book is of trifling importance, it is nevertheless pleasing as illustrating Casaubon’s love for Biblical studies, and the theoretical excellence of his religious sentiments. As to evangelical truth, he quotes with approbation the following aphorisms:—
Fides justificat causativè, opera justificant ostensivè.
Fides impetrat quod lex imperat.
As to error, he writes, “The best of kings has shewn us a book entitled, ‘The Catechism of the Polish Churches, which worship the God of Israel and the man Jesus,” than which book none more sinful, none more detestable, has been published for many centuries. Yet the author has dared to dedicate it to the King of Great Britain. O what wickedness! Lord Jesus, blot out these impieties from the memory of mankind. Amen.”
He makes a note of a visit from Du Moulin:— “Du Moulin came to me with a complaint that I often criticised his writings in unhandsome terms, and I did not deny that I felt displeasure at the freedom and causelessness of his condemnation, repudiation, and vituperation of pious writers among the ancients. He asked for my copy of his ‘Apology for the King of England,’ in which I had written some notes on passages in which (if I mistake not) he had greatly offended. I gave him the volume, and asked him to take all in good part. I wish that it may be so, and that all my enterprises, as well as his, may be directed to the glory of God.”
Isaac Casaubon was buried in Westminster Abbey, where there is a tablet to his memory (opposite Dryden’s monument) with this inscription:—
ISAAC: CASAUBON
(O Doctiorum quidquid est, assurgite
Huic tam colendo nomini)
Quem Gallia reipublicae literarias bono peperit
Henricus IV. Francorum Rex invictissimus
Lutetiam literis suis evocatum Bibliothecae suae praefecit
Charumque deinceps, dum vixit, habuit,
Eoque terris erepto,
Jacobus Magn. Brit. Monarcha, Regum doctissimus,
Doctis indulgentissimus, in Angliam accivit,
Munificè fovit,
Posteritasque ob doctrinam seternum mirabitur
H. S. E.
Invidia major. Obiit aeternam in Christo vitam anhelans
Kal. Jul. MDCXIV. set. LV.
Qui nosse villi Casaubonum
Non saxa, sed chartas legal
Superfuturas mannori
Et profuturas posteris.
The Rev. William Beloe (“Anecdotes of Literature,” vol. v. p. 124) gives some curious and friendly jottings regarding him in an article on Sir Henry Savile.
Madame Casaubon survived till March 1616. This energetic and devoted lady is described by Maittaire as ever the most faithful partner of her husband’s vicissitudes, and also as a frequent sufferer from illness. As refugees their life was one of much penury. She made a journey from London to Paris in 1613, to obtain some money due to him, and returned on 26th October 1613, only to be laid up with a tedious illness. Having recovered, she made another journey to Paris in March 1614, and in the following July her husband died. Isaac Casaubon himself seems to have been an invalid for the last two years of his life; and a correspondent of Camden writes of him with commiseration, while he hopes that he will live to complete his edition of “Polybius.” In the year 1617 his notes on the first book [only] of Polybius were printed in Paris [Is. Casauboni commentarii posthumi ad Polybii librum primum], the copyright being granted by Louis XIII. to Florence, daughter of Stephanus and widow of Casaubon; the dedicatory epistle was signed by J. de Gravelle[1] du Piu, her son-in-law.
The names of Casaubon’s twenty children seem never to have been recorded, but traces of thirteen have been found (chiefly in his Epistolae):—
- ↑ In Durham Cathedral, 29th December 16S3, there was registered the burial of “Frances Gravelle, niece to Isa. Casaubon.” [Query, grand-daughter of Isaac Casaubon, and niece of Meric Casaubon?]
