Laetus, Julius Pomponius

Laetus, Julius Pomponius

 or Giulio Pomponio Leto

(born 1428, Diano, Kingdom of Naples—died 1497, Rome) Italian humanist. As a youth he decided to dedicate his life to the study of the ancient world. In Rome he gathered other humanists around him in a semisecret society, the Academia Romana. Their celebration of ancient Roman rites aroused the suspicions of Pope Paul II, who briefly dissolved the Academia and imprisoned Laetus and his associates. Laetus's lack of rigour and critical spirit have led modern scholars to treat his writings with caution.

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Laetus, Julius Pomponius 

(Giulio Pomponio Leto). Born in 1428, in Diano; died in 1497, in Rome. Italian humanist. A pupil of Lorenzo Valla.

In 1465, Laetus founded a society of humanists in Rome, known as the Accademia Romana, where ancient philosophy was studied and where medieval Scholasticism and the Catholic Church were criticized. In 1468, Laetus and other members of the academy were charged with a conspiracy to remove Pope Paul II and to organize in Rome a republic of pagan philosophers. He was arrested but soon thereafter liberated by Paul II’s successor. During the years 1472–73, Laetus traveled through the lands of southern Rus’ and described his impressions of the journey in his commentaries to Virgil’s Georgics. His most important historical work was The Caesars, which related the history of the Roman Empire and Byzantium from the third to the seventh centuries (Laetus considered Byzantium to be the only true successor to the Roman Empire).

REFERENCES

Zabugin, V. Iu. Pomponii Let. St. Petersburg, 1914.
Zabughin, V. Giulio Pomponio Leto, vols. 1–2. Rome, 1909–12.