Playing with Lucilius: Ianus Dusa’s Centones luciliani, the beginnings of the Classical Philology in Leiden

Abstract

The field of Classical Philology in the Northern Netherlands before the foundation of the University of Leiden belongs to a few individual teachers of the Latin schools. The most outstanding is Hadrianus Iunius, among other things editor of Nonius Marcellus. His young friend Ianus Dousa plays an essential part in the foundation and the administration of the University, recruiting famous scholars such as Justus Lipsius and Josephus Scaliger. Among Dousa’s favourite Latin authors we find Lucilius. He studies his fragments, tries to increase their number and to combine them into centoes, meanwhile making lots of conjectures and emendations. His studies lay the base for his son’s edition of the fragments (1597) and for all future editions.