[1] The only reasons for assigning an earlier date are that he was
commonly known as "old Hugh Latimer," and that Bernher, his Swiss
servant, states incidentally that he was "above threescore and seven
years" in the reign of Edward VI. Bad health and anxieties probably
made him look older than his years, but under Edward VI. his powers
as an orator were in full vigour, and he was at his book winter and
summer at two o'clock in the morning.
LATINA, VIA, an ancient highroad of Italy, leading S.E. from Rome. It
was probably one of the oldest of Roman roads, leading to the pass of
Algidus, so important in the early military history of Rome; and it must
have preceded the Via Appia as a route to Campania, inasmuch as the
Latin colony at Cales was founded in 334 B.C. and must have been
accessible from Rome by road, whereas the Via Appia was only made
twenty-two years later. It follows, too, a far more natural line of
communication, without the engineering difficulties which the Via Appia
had to encounter. As a through route it no doubt preceded the Via
Labicana (see LABICANA, VIA), though the latter may have been preferred
in later times. After their junction, the Via Latina continued to follow
the valley of the Trerus (Sacco), following the line taken by the modern
railway to Naples, and passing below the Hernican hill-towns, Anagnia,
Ferentinum, Frusino, &c. At Fregellae it crossed the Liris, and then
passed through Aquinum and Casinum, both of them comparatively low-lying
towns. It then entered the interval between the Apennines and the
volcanic group of Rocca Monfina, and the original road, instead of
traversing it, turned abruptly N.E. over the mountains to Venafrum, thus
giving a direct communication with the interior of Samnium by roads to
Aesernia and Telesia. In later times, however, there was in all
probability a short cut by Rufrae along the line taken by the modern
highroad and railway. The two lines rejoined near the present railway
station of Caianello and the road ran to Teanum and Cales, and so to
Casilinum, where was the crossing of the Volturnus and the junction with
the Via Appia. The distance from Rome to Casilinum was 129 m. by the Via
Appia, 135 m. by the old Via Latina through Venafrum, 126 m. by the
short cut by Rufrae. Considerable remains of the road exist in the
neighbourhood of Rome; for the first 40 m., as far as Compitum
Anagninum, it is not followed by any modern road; while farther on in
its course it is in the main identical with the modern highroad.
See T. Ashby in _Papers of the British School at Rome_ iv. 1 sq., v. 1
sq. (T. As.)
LATINI, BRUNETTO (c. 1210-c. 1294), Italian philosopher and scholar, was
born in Florence, and belonged to the Guelph party. After the disaster
of Montaperti he took refuge for some years (1261-1268) in France, but
in 1269 returned to Tuscany and for some twenty years held successive
high offices. Giovanni Villani says that "he was a great philosopher and
a consummate master of rhetoric, not only in knowing how to speak well,
but how to write well.... He both began and directed the growth of the
Florentines, both in making them ready in speaking well and in knowing
how to guide and direct our republic according to the rules of
politics." He was the author of various works in prose and verse. While
in France he wrote in French his prose _Trésor_, a summary of the
encyclopaedic knowledge of the day (translated into Italian as _Tesoro_
by Bono Giamboni in the 13th century), and in Italian his poem
_Tesoretto_, rhymed couplets in heptasyllabic metre, a sort of
abridgment put in allegorical form, the earliest Italian didactic verse.
He is famous as the friend and counsellor of Dante (see _Inferno_, xv.
82-87).
For the _Trésor_ see P. Chabville's edition (1863); for the _Tesoro_,
Gaiter's edition (1878); for the _Tesoretto_, B. Wiese's study in
_Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie_, vii. See also the
biographical and critical accounts of Brunetto Latini by Thoe Sundby
(1884), and Marchesini (1887 and 1890).