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LAETUS, JULIUS POMPONIUS [Giulio Pomp...

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 64 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LAETUS, See also:JULIUS See also:POMPONIUS [Giulio Pomponio Leto], (1425-1498) , See also:Italian humanist, was See also:born at See also:Salerno. He studied at See also:Rome under See also:Laurentius See also:Valla, whom he succeeded (1457) as See also:professor of eloquence in the Gymnasium Romanum. About this See also:time he founded an See also:academy, the members of which adopted See also:Greek and Latin names, met on the Quirinal to discuss classical questions and celebrated the birthday of See also:Romulus. Its constitution resembled that of an See also:ancient priestly See also:college, and Laetus was styled See also:pontifex See also:maximus. The See also:pope (See also:Paul II.) viewed these proceedings with suspicion, as savouring of paganism, See also:heresy and republicanism. In 1468 twenty of the academicians were arrested during the See also:carnival; Laetus, who had taken See also:refuge in See also:Venice, was sent back to Rome, imprisoned and put to the See also:torture, but refused to plead guilty to the charges of infidelity and immorality. For want of See also:evidence, he was acquitted and allowed to resume his professorial duties; but it was for-bidden to utter the name of the academy even in jest. See also:Sixtus IV. permitted the resumption of its meetings, which continued to be held till the See also:sack of Rome (1527) by See also:Constable See also:Bourbon during the papacy of See also:Clement VII. Laetus continued to See also:teach in Rome until his See also:death on the 9th of See also:June 1498. As a teacher, Laetus, who has been called the first See also:head of a philological school, was extraordinarily successful; in his own words, like See also:Socrates and See also:Christ, he expected to live on in the See also:person of his pupils, amongst whom were many of the most famous scholars of the See also:period. His See also:works, written in pure and See also:simple Latin, were published in a collected See also:form (See also:Opera Pomponii Laeti Darla, 1521). They contain See also:treatises on the See also:Roman magistrates, priests and lawyers, and a compendium of Roman See also:history from the death of the younger See also:Gordian to the time of See also:Justin III.

Laetus also wroth commentaries on classical authors, and promoted the publication of the editio princeps of See also:

Virgil at Rome in 1469. See The See also:Life of Leto by Sabellicus (See also:Strassburg, 1510) ; G. Voigt, See also:Die Wiederbelebung See also:des klassischen Alterthums, ii.; F. See also:Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom See also:im Mittelalter, vii. (1894), p. 576, for an See also:account of the academy; See also:Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship (1908), H. 92.

End of Article: LAETUS, JULIUS POMPONIUS [Giulio Pomponio Leto], (1425-1498)

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