45. Christophe de Longueil. Perduellionis rei defensiones duae (not before 1519).

Christophe de Longueil (1488-1522), of a distinguished French family, spent most of his career at Rome where he established a reputation as an excellent Latinist. His Ciceronian purity, however, not only aroused admiration at Rome but also created patriotic resentment in certain circles where Latin was regarded as the patrimony only of Italians. A proposal to award him Roman citizenship excited such hostility that a hearing had to be held in the presence of the pope himself, for which Longueil composed the orations printed here to sustain his claim to the title. He did not appear at this trial, however, having decided prudently to stay away from Rome for a while, and his request to have them read at the trial was not granted; instead they were published afterwards. Longueil did not return to Italy until well after he had won his case and been awarded Roman citizenship. It is not surprising, given the enormous excitement about this question in the intellectual circles at the time of the trial, that the Aldine firm chose immediately to reprint Longueil's self-defense.