Background
Isaac Casaubon was a French humanist, was born in Geneva on Feb. 18, 1559, the son of a pastor of the Reformed Church.
Casaubon's most ambitious work was his edition, with commentary, of Athenaeus (1600). He also wrote commentaries on Theophrastus (1592), Suetonius (1595), Persius (1605), and Polybius (1609-1617) and undertook a refutation of the Church History of Baronius for the Anglican bishops. His diary Ephemerides (begun in 1547, published in 1850) contains valuable historical and biographical material.
Career
Casaubon was professor of Greek at Geneva from 1592 to 1596 and subsequently at Montpellier, but was called to the court of France and attended the colloquy of Fontainebleau in 1600. Here the accuracy of patristic quotations in Duplessis-Mornay's treatise against the Mass was tested, and Reformed scholars blamed Casaubon for siding with the Catholic commissioners. Meanwhile, his refusal to be converted to Catholicism caused him to be denied a professor's chair in the College Royal, but he was nevertheless appointed assistant in the king's library in 1604. In 1610, he was invited to England by the Archbishop of Canterbury and welcomed by King James I. His moderation was not appreciated by the Puritans, however, and he shared in the growing unpopularity of his patrons.