Latino Latini (Latinus Latinius) (

Viterbo Viterbo (; Viterbese: ; lat-med, Viterbium) is a city and ''comune'' in the Lazio region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo. It conquered and absorbed the neighboring town of Ferento (see Ferentium) in its early history. ...

, ca. 1513 – 21 January 1593) was an Italian scholar and

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...

. Latini was a member of the commission for the revision of the ''

Corpus Juris canonici The ''Corpus Juris Canonici'' ( lit. 'Body of Canon Law') is a collection of significant sources of the canon law of the Catholic Church that was applicable to the Latin Church. It was replaced by the 1917 Code of Canon Law which went into effe ...

''. He is known for his lifelong research into the texts of the Fathers of the church and his critical editions of their works, including those of

Cyprian Cyprian (; la, Thaschus Caecilius Cyprianus; 210 – 14 September 258 AD''The Liturgy of the Hours according to the Roman Rite: Vol. IV.'' New York: Catholic Book Publishing Company, 1975. p. 1406.) was a bishop of Carthage and an early Chri ...

. He published notes on

Tertullian Tertullian (; la, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; 155 AD – 220 AD) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of L ...

and worked on the text of

Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintilia ...

Life

Latini studied

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

and

belles-lettres is a category of writing, originally meaning beautiful or fine writing. In the modern narrow sense, it is a label for literary works that do not fall into the major categories such as fiction, poetry, or drama. The phrase is sometimes used pejora ...

Siena Siena ( , ; lat, Sena Iulia) is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena. The city is historically linked to commercial and banking activities, having been a major banking center until the 13th and 14th centuri ...

. In 1552 he took holy orders at Rome. A poor man, he was obliged to find a patron and entered the service of cardinal Pozzo, for whom he was Latin secretary. He then became librarian to Cardinal Rudolfo Pio. Pio died in 1564, leaving his extensive library to Latini. He then worked for cardinals Farnese and Colonna. He superintended the production of the classic Roman edition of the Septuagint Version of the Bible, which appeared in 1587. He reformed the decretal of Gratian, at the wish of Pope Pius IV, which was published under Gregory XIII. After his death, the chapter of the Cathedral of Viterbo acquired Latini's important library which contained many annotated copies. His letters and papers are still there today. He published nothing under his own name in his lifetime. Two works appeared posthumously. The first was a volume of letters. The other was "Bibliotheca sacra et profana, sive observationes, correctiones, conjecturae, et variae lectiones". This book contains his collected filological and critical remarks to textual editions of various classical authors in an edition edited by Domenico Magri (1604–1672). The work contains a biography of Latini by Malgri. He knew John Annius, the forger of classical texts and artefacts. His letters were published and include many of the humanists of his day, including

Andreas Masius Andreas Masius (or Maes) (30 November 1514 – 7 April 1573) was a Catholic priest, humanist and one of the first European syriacists. He was born in Lennik, Flemish Brabant. Following his education, and after a short period of training at Leuven, ...

. One of those to Masius, written in January 1559 deplores the potential effect of the new Roman Index of prohibited books (1559), issued by Pope Paul IV, on scholarship: :"Why should you be planning for the publication of any new works at a time when nearly all the books which have thus far appeared (''qui adhuc sunt editi'') are being taken away from us? It seems to me that at least for some years to come, no one among us will dare to write anything but letters. There has just been published an ''Index'' of the books which, under penalty of excommunication, we are no longer permitted to possess. The number of those prohibited (particularly of works originating in Germany) is so great that there will remain but few. On this ground, I advise you to put to one side your variants of the Bible and the translation of Demosthenes. Faernus has been devoting some days to the 'purifying' of his library; I shall begin to-morrow going over my own collection so that nothing may be found in it which is not authorised. Should I describe the process as a shipwreck or a holocaust of literature? In any case this ensorshipmust have the result of deterring many of your group from the production of books, and will serve as a warning to the printers to be cautious in making selections for their presses."G.H. Putnam, The censorship of the church of Rome, Vol.1 (1906), p. 176 The death of Paul IV later in the same year lifted the threat, however.

Bibliography

*''Epistolæ, Coniecturæ, & Obseruationes Sacra, Profanaque Eruditione Ornatæ. Ex Bibliotheca Cathedralis Vterbienses a Dominico Magro Melitensi eiusdem ecclesiæ Canonico Theologo. Studio, ac triennali labore collectæ, prodeunt in lucem publicæ studiforum utilitati ... D. Francicu Mariæ cardinalis Brancacchi. (Part 1). Rom, Nicolai Angeli Tinassij, 1659. (8)+396 p. + engr. portrait of Latino Latini. A second part was published in Wittemberg 1667.

References

Sources

* Joseph Robertson, ''The Parian Chronicle, Or The Chronicle of the Arundelian Marbles'' (1788), p.210-11
online here
* John Platts, ''A Universal Biography: Containing Interesting Accounts...'', vol. 5, (1826) p. 559
Online here
*Pierre Petitmengin, ''Latino Latini, une longue vie au service des Peres de l'Eglise'', In: ''Humanisme et Église en Italie et en France méridionale : 15. siècle-milieu du 16. siècle'' Series: ''Collection de l'École française de Rome'' vol. 330 (2004) pages 381–407 {{DEFAULTSORT:Latini, Latino 1510s births 1593 deaths Italian Renaissance humanists Italian Renaissance writers People from Viterbo Year of birth uncertain 16th-century Latin-language writers 16th-century Italian writers 16th-century male writers