out confiderable lofs, and did not return till the war was at an end. In the year 1556, he went with Melancthon to the diet of Nuremberg; and attended him the year after to that of Ratisbon. After fpending a life of letters and happinefs, he died full of years and honour at Leipfic, upon the 17th of April, 1574, furviving his beloved wife not quite a year, for fhe died the 15th of July preceding, and Melchior Adam relates, that he was fo deeply afflicted with her death, that he never was perfectly well after. Among his friends were Jerome Baumgartner, Carolowits, Melanéthon, Petrus Victorius, Turnebus, Hieronymus Wolfius, and, in fhort, almost all the great men of his time. He is faid to have been to Melancthon, what Atticus was to Cicero, an advifer, counfellor, affiftant, and friend upon all occasions: and accordingly we find, that, when Melanéthon's wife died during his abfence at the diet of Worms, Camerarius quitted all his concerns at home, however neceflary and requiring his prefence, and immediately fet off on purpose to comfort him. His labours in the literary republick were prodigious. He wrote a vast number of books, and which, in thofe days, was no small service, translated as many. Greek was but little understood; fo that, to facilitate the learning of that language, he tranflated feveral authors of antiquity: Herodotus, Demofthenes, Xenophon, Euclid, Homer, Theocritus, Sophocles, Lucian, Theodoret, Nicephorus, &c. Melchior Adam fays, that "he ftudied evermore, within doors "and without, up and in bed, on a journey and in hours " even of recreation: that he learned French and Italian "when he was old; that he had but a fiattering of He"brew; that he understood Greek well; and that in Latin " he was inferior to none." Thuanus (peaks of him in the in vita, &c. highest terms, and Voffius calls him, "The phoenix of Ger- Hift. fui. many. "However, though we are very ready to allow abili- temporis, ad ties to Camerarius, yet we think Erafmus did him no wrong, when he faid, "That he fhewed more induftry than genius "in what he wrote." He was a man of great goodness of De Math. p. difpofition, great humanity, candour, and tincerity in his 377 fearches after truth; and for thefe and fuch like qualities we Epift. 1188. fuppofe it was that he was ranked, with his friend Melanthon tom.. and others, amongst hereticks of the first clafs at Rome. CAMOENS (LEWIS) a celebrated Portugueze poet, called The Virgil of Portugal, from his much admired poem the Lufiadas, or conqueft of the Indies by the Portugucze, was ann. 1574 edit. Leid. was born of a good family at Lifbon, about the year 1527. He ftudied in the univerfity of Conimbra, and gave proofs of his genius for poetry, while he was very young. However, not being born to fortunes, he was obliged to quit books, and have recourse to arms. He was sent to Ceuta in Africa, which the Portugueze were in poffeffion of at that time, and acquitted himself like a good foldier upon many occafions, but at last had the misfortune to lofe one of his eyes, in defence of that town against the Moors. From thence he returned to Portugal, but did not yet find himself in a condition to live as he would, and therefore went next in an expedition to the Eaft Indies. In this abfence he compofed a great many poems, which gained him the good will and affection of the commanding officer and fome others, who had a tincture of polite literature; but happening unluckily to be fevere upon one, who did not understand the privilege of poets, he was forced to withdraw to be out of the reach of his anger. He went to the frontiers of China, where he found means of being conveyed to Goa, and from thence to Portugal. In his paffage thither, he was fhipwrecked by a storm, loft all his effects, and with great difficulty faved his life. He did not lofe however, fays monfieur Baillet, his fenfes in the midst of all this danger; but had the presence of mind to preferve his Lufiadas, which he Jugemens held in his left hand, while he fwam with his right. As foon des Sçavans, as he was fettled again in his own country, he put the finifhtom. iv. p. ing hand to his Lufiadas, and dedicated it in the year 1569, 440. to don Sebaftian, king of Portugal, in hopes of making his fortune by it. But that prince being then very young, and the courtiers no admirers of poetry, the unfortunate Camoens was entirely difappointed. He did not however travel again in fearch of farther adventures, but spent the remainder of his life at Lifbon; where, to the eternal reproach of his countrymen, he died miferably poor and unregarded, in the Nichol. An- year 1579. ton. Bibli Hifpan, tom. It is generally agreed, that Camoens had a moft extraoroth. Script. dinary genius for poetry; that he had an abundance of that vivida vis animi, which is neceflary to constitute a poet; that he had a fertile invention, a fublime conception, and an ease and aptitude in his make, which could accommodate itfelf to any fubject. Nicholas Antonio, from whom we collected the above circumftances of his life, fays, that "he "perfectly fucceeded in all fubjects of the heroick kind; "that he had a peculiar talent in defcribing perfons and "places; that his comparisons were great and noble, his episodes episodes very agreeable and verfified, yet never leading his "reader from the principal object of his poem; and that he "had mixed a great deal of learning in it, without the least "appearance of affectation and pedantry." Rapin has cri-Nichol. Anticifed the Lufiadas fomewhat feverely, and tells us, that ton. BibliBoth. Script. "as divine a poet as Camoens may país for with the Portu Hifpan.tom. મંદ gueze, yet he is exceptionable in many accounts. His ii. p. 20, 21. "veries are so often obfcure, that they may feem rather to "be myfteries or oracles. The defign is too vaft, without "proportion or juftnefs; and, in fhort, it is a very bad mo"del for an epick poem. He adds, that Camoens has "fhewn no judgment in compofition; that he has mixed "indifcriminately Venus, Bacchus, and other heathen di"vinities in a chriftian poem; and that he has conducted "it no better in many other refpects." But notwithstanding Rapin's diflike of this poem, it has been often reprinted and tranflated into feveral languages. It has been tranflated once into French, twice into Italian, and four times into Spanish. Laftly, it was tranflated into Latin by Thomas de Faria, bifhop of Targa In Africa; who, concealing his name, and faying nothing of its being a tranflation, made fome believe, that the Lufiadas was originally written in Latin. Large commentaries have been written upon the Lufiádas; the moft confiderable of which are thofe of Emanuel Faria de Soufa, which were printed in two volumes folio at Madrid, in the year 1639. Thefe commentaries were followed the year after with the publication of another volume in folio, written to defend them; befides eight volumes of obfervations, upon the Mifcellaneous po ems of Camoens, which this commentator left behind him' in manufcript. We cannot conclude our account of Camoens, without lamenting, that his great merit was not known, or which is the fame thing, or rather worse, not acknowledged till after his death. Reflex. ctit fur la poes. CAMPANELLA (THOMAS) a celebrated Italian philofopher in the beginning of the XVIth century, was born at Stilo, a small village in Calabria, on the 5th of September, 1568. At the age of thirteen he underflood the an- More cient orators and poets, and wrote difcourfes and verses on various fubjects. When he was fourteen years and a half old, his father purpofed to fend him to Naples to ftudy law; but young Campanella having other views, entered himfelf into the order of the Dominicans. Whilft he was ftudying philofophy at San Giorgio, his profeffor was invited to dif VOL. III. E pute Moreri. pute upon fome thefes which were to be maintained by the Francifcans; but finding himself indifpofed, he fent CampanelIa in his room, who argued with fo much fubtilty and force, that every body was charmed with him, and cried out, that the genius of Telefius had tranfmigrated into Campanella: he had never before heard of that philofopher, but after this read him carefully, and even entered into his fentiments. When his courfe of philofophy was finifhed, he was fent to Cofenza to study divinity. But his inclination led him to philofophy. Having conceived a notion that the truth was not to be found in the peripatetick philofophy, he anxiously examined all the Greek, Latin, and Arabian commentators upon Ariftotle, and began to hesitate more and more with regard to their doctrines. His doubts ftill remaining, he determined to perufe the writings of Plato, Pliny, Galen, the Stoicks, and the followers of Democritus, and efpecially thofe of Telefius, and to compare them with the original book of the world. He found the doctrine of his masters to be false in so many points, that he began to doubt even of uncontroverted matters of fact. At the age of two and twenty he began to commit his new fyftems to writing, and in 1590, he went to Naples to get them printed. Paffing by a convent of the Recollets in that city, and feeing a great number of people going in and out, he enquired the reafon of it, and being told that they were difputing in philofophy, he went in with the others, and obtaining leave to speak, acquitted himself to fo much advantage, that he received the applaufes of the whole affembly, and the monks of his order carried him away in triumph to their convent. Some time after he was prefent at a difputation in divinity, and took occafion to commend what was fpoken by an ancient profeffor of his order, as very judicious; but the old man, jealous perhaps of the glory which Campanella had gained, bade him in a very contemptuous manner, be filent, fince it did not belong to a young man, as he was, to interpofe in questions of divinity. Campanella fired at this, and faid, that as young as he was, he was able to teach him; and immediately confuted what the profeffor had advanced, to the fatisfaction of the audience. The profeffor conceived a mortal hatred to him on this account, and accused him to the inquifition, as if he had gained by magick that vaft extent of learning which he had acquired without a mafter. His writings made a prodigious noise in the world, and the novelty of his opinions stirring up many enemies against him at Naples, he removed to Rome; and not meeting with a better reception in that city, he proceeded to Florence, and prefented fome of his works to the grand duke, Ferdinand I. the patron of learned men! After a fhort ftay there, as he was paffing through Bologna, in his way to Padua, his writings were feized, and carried to the inquifition at Rome. This gave him little difturbance, and he continued his journey. At Padua, he was employed in inftructing fome young Venetians in his doctrines, and compofing fome pieces. Returning afterwards to Rome, he met with a better reception than before, and was honoured with the friendship of feveral cardinals. In 1598 he went to Naples, where he ftaid but a fhort time, then vifited his own country. Some expreffions which he dropt, with regard to the government of the Spaniards and the project of an infurrection, being reported to the Spaniards, he was feized and carried to Naples in 1599, as a criminal against the ftate, and put feven times to the rack, and afterwards condemned to perpetual imprifonment. At firft he was not permitted to fee any perfon, and denied the ufe of pen, ink, and paper; but being afterwards indulged therewith, he wrote feveral of his pieces in prifon; fome of which Tobias Adamus of Saxony procured from him, and published in Germany. The difgrace of the duke of Offuna, viceroy of Naples, who had a great efteem for Campanella, and often confulted him, was the occafion of his being afterwards more ftrictly confined. Pope Urban VIII. who knew him from his writings, obtained his liberty from Philip IV. of Spain, in May 1626. Campanella went Moreri. immediately to Rome, where he continued fome years in the Gen. Dict. prifons of the inquifitión; but he was a prisoner only in name. Divers reafons are given for this new imprisonment. Some fay, that in order to rescue himself from the long and fevere confinement which he fuffered under the the Spaniards, he appealed from the inquifition in Spain, before which he had been accufed, to that of Rome, where he expected to be treated with more lenity. Others report, that the pope, who wanted a pretence to bring him from Naples, acquainted the king, that fince Campanella was not convicted of any crime against the ftate; but was accused of advancing feveral errors in his writings, he ought to give an account of his faith before the inquifition at Rome. In this cafe it was neceffary for Campanella to continue for fome time under a kind of confinement, in order to give a colour to the pretext employed by the pope. In 1629 he was discharged, but the refentment of the Spaniards was not abated. The friendship fhewn him by the pope, who fettled a E 2 con |