LAETUS, JULIUS POMPONIUS [Giulio Pomponio Leto], (1425-1498)

This article appears in Volume V16, Page 64 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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LAETUS, JULIUS POMPONIUS [Giulio Pomponio Leto], (1425-1498) , Italian humanist, was born at

Salerno

SALERNO (anc. Salernum)

. He studied at Rome under Laurentius Valla, whom he succeeded (1457) as professor of eloquence in the Gymnasium Romanum. About this time he founded an

academy

ACADEMY, GREEK
ACADEMY, ROYAL

, the members of which adopted Greek and Latin names, met on the Quirinal to discuss classical questions and celebrated the birthday of

Romulus

ROMULUS

. Its constitution resembled that of an ancient priestly college, and Laetus was styled pontifex maximus. The

pope

(Paul II.) viewed these proceedings with suspicion, as savouring of paganism, heresy and republicanism. In 1468 twenty of the academicians were arrested during the carnival; Laetus, who had taken

refuge

REFUGE

in Venice, was sent back to Rome, imprisoned and put to the torture, but refused to plead guilty to the charges of infidelity and immorality. For want of evidence, he was acquitted and allowed to resume his professorial duties; but it was for-bidden to utter the name of the

academy

ACADEMY, GREEK
ACADEMY, ROYAL

even in jest. Sixtus IV. permitted the resumption of its meetings, which continued to be held till the sack of Rome (1527) by Constable Bourbon during the papacy of Clement VII. Laetus continued to teach in Rome until his death on the 9th of June 1498. As a teacher, Laetus, who has been called the first head of a philological school, was extraordinarily successful; in his own words, like Socrates and Christ, he expected to live on in the person of his pupils, amongst whom were many of the most famous scholars of the period. His works, written in pure and simple Latin, were published in a collected form (Opera Pomponii Laeti Darla, 1521). They contain

treatises

TREATISES

on the Roman magistrates, priests and lawyers, and a compendium of Roman history from
the death of the younger

Gordian

GORDIAN, or GORDIANUS

to the time of

Justin

JUSTIN (JUNIANUS JUSTINUS)

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

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