2 72 L A T 
polite party lie was driven from his country, and retired 
to France. At Paris he opened a fchool of philofophy, 
and wrote feveral books. We find him in his native coun¬ 
try in 1284, and aCling as fyndic at Florence. He died 
in 1294. The molt celebrated of his works was his Te- 
foro, a compilation from various authors, in hiltory, phi- 
lofophy, rhetoric, and morals. He trandated into the 
Italian language part of the firft book of Cicero de Inven- 
tione; and he was author of a moral work in verfe, enti¬ 
tled II Tcforetto. He is reprefented as a profound rheto¬ 
rician and philofopher; and is laid to have been the fil'd: 
who began to polilh the language, and refine the under- 
ftanding, of his countrymen. Though he does not appear 
to have been a public inflruclor at Florence, he probably 
gave private affifiance in the ftudies of his friends ; and he 
is mentioned as having been, in fome meafure, the tutor 
of Dante. 7 'irabojchi. 
LATI'NI (Latino), a learned Italian, was born at Vi¬ 
terbo in 1513. He ftudied feveral years at Sienna, with a 
view to jurifprudence, which an ill date of health obliged 
him to relinquilh. He then affumed the ecclefiaftical ha¬ 
bit, went to Rome, and became librarian to cardinal Ro- 
dolpho Pio, who, dying in 1564, left. Latini the bequeft of 
his copious library. He was employed in the reforma¬ 
tion of the Decretal of Gratian, firfl undertaken by defire 
of pope Pius IV. and publilhed under Gregory XIII. and 
committed to the care of many of the molt learned eccle- 
liadics of the Roman court. He died in 1593, and be¬ 
queathed all his books to the chapter of Viterbo. He was 
highly efteemed for his learning and induftry, though 
his modefly did not permit him to publifli any tiling dur¬ 
ing his life-time. After his deceafe there appeared two 
volumes of his “Latin Letters, Poems, and other fmall 
Pieces,” He communicated many emendations of Ter- 
tullian to the edition of that father publilhed by Pame- 
lius. His manufcript annotations on the fathers, and on 
other authors, were given to the public in the Bibliotheca 
Sacra et Profana, printed at Rome in 1667. Moreri. 
LATI'NI, the Latins, in ancient geography, compre¬ 
hended in general all the people of Latium, and particu¬ 
larly thofe who inhabited the territory along the Tiber 
from Rome to the fea. They were formed, it is faid, by 
the union of the Aborigines, or of people whofe origin 
was not known ; of the Pelafgi, who had migrated from 
Theflaly; and of the Arcadians, brought thither by Evan- 
der fixty years before the war of Troy. 
LATI'NI FE'RIiE. See Feri.« Latini, vol. vii. 
LAT'INISM, f. A Latin idiom; a mode of fpeech pe¬ 
culiar to the Latin.—Milton has made life of frequent 
tranfpofitions, Latinifms, antiquated words and phrafes, 
that he might the better deviate from vulgar and ordinary 
sxpreffions. Addifon. 
LAT'INIST, f. One ficilled in Latin.—Oldham was 
coniidered as a good Latinijl. Oldham's Life. 
LATIN'ITY, f. Purity of Latin (tyle; the Latin 
tongue.—If Shakefpeare was able to read Plautus with 
cafe, nothing in Latinity could be hard to him. Dennis. 
To LATINIZE, v. a, To ufe words or phrafes bor¬ 
rowed from the Latin.—He ufes coarfe and vulgar words, 
or terms and phrafes that are latinized , fcholaftic, and hard 
to be underftood. Watts. 
LAT'INIZING, f. The act of ufing Latin idioms. 
LA'TION, f. A philofophical term; local motion; the 
tranllation of a natural body from one place to another in 
a right line. 
LATIROS'TROUS, adj. [latus and rojlrum, Lat.] 
Broad-beaked.—In quadrupeds, in regard of the figure 
of their he.ads, the eyes are placed at fome diftance ; in 
latirofirous and flat-billed birds, they are more laterally 
feated. Brown. 
LA'TISH, adj. Somewhat late. 
LAT'ITANCY,yi [from latitans, Lat.] Delitefcence; 
the flate of lying hid.—In vipers the has abridged their 
malignity by their feceflion or latitancy. Brown's Vulgar 
irrors. 
LAT 
LAT'ITANT, adj. Delitefcent; concealed; lying hid. 
—•Snakes and lizards, latitant many months in the year, 
containing a weak heat in a copious humidity, do long 
fubfift without nutrition. Brown. 
LAT'ITAT, f. A writ whereby all men are originally 
called to anfwer in perfonal aCtions in the King’s Bench; 
having its name upon a fuppofition that the defendant 
doth lurk and lie hid, and cannot be found in the county 
of Middlefex to be taken by bill, but is gone into fome 
other county, to the flieriff of which this writ is directed, 
to apprehend him there. F.N.B. 78. Terms de Ley. 
The origin of it is this: In ancient time, while the 
King’s Bench was moveable, when any man was fued, a 
writ was fent forth to the flieriff of Middlefex, or any 
other county where the court was refident, called a Bill 
of Middlefex, to take him ; and, if the flieriff returned 
Non efi inventus, then a fecond writ was fued out, reciting, 
that it was teflijied that the defendant lurked and lay hid in 
another county, and thereby the flieriff of that county 
was commanded to attach the party in any other place, 
where he might be found ; and, when the tribunal of the 
King’s Bench came to be fettled at Weftminfter, the fame 
courfe was obferved for a long time; but afterwards, by 
the contrivance of clerks, it was deviled to put both thefe 
writs into one, and fo attach the defendant upon a fiction 
that he was not in the county of Middlefex, but lurking 
elfewhere ; and that therefore he was to be apprehended 
by the flieriff of the county where he was fufpe&ed to be, 
and lie hid. 
It is called a tejlatum writ, from the words “ Tefiatum 
ejl, It is teftified,” ilfuing out of the K.B. grounded upon 
a bill of Middlefex, fuppofed to be fued out before, and 
returned Non efi inventus ; and is in nature of the original 
writ Claufum fregit, on which the practice is in the Com¬ 
mon Pleas, a Lil. Abr. 147. A latitat cannot iffue into 
the county of Middlefex, except the court remove out of 
Middlefex into another county; for, in the county where 
the court of K.B. is, the proceis mud be by bill, and out 
of the county by latitat, 2 Lil. Abr. 147. 
If the writ of latitat is iffued during the vacation, it 
muff be as of the lad day of the term preceding. A procefs 
or note is to be made of it on paper for the officer by the 
plaintiff’s attorney, together with a memorandum or mi¬ 
nute of his warrant duly ftamped, purfuant to flat. 25 
Geo. III. c. 80. § 13. The latitat, being filled up, is to 
be carried with the note to the King’s Bench Office, and 
there the writ is figned ; from whence it is carried to the 
Seal-office, where it is fealed. If it is intended to hold 
the defendant to bail, an affidavit of the debt rmift be 
made, an ac-etiam introduced into the body of the writ, 
the fum fworn to indorfed on the back previous to the 
figning and fealing of the writ; after which a warrant is 
to be procured from the flieriff of the county to execute 
the writ. See the article Arrest. 
It w'as formerly holden that a writ of latitat did not run 
into Wales; but the contrary has fince been determined, 
and is now the common practice. For other matters con¬ 
nected with and explanatory of this fubjeft, fee the article 
Process. 
To LAT'ITATE, v. n. To lurk in concealment ; to 
lie hid. Bailey. 
LATITA'TION,/ The flate of lying concealed. 
LAT'ITUDE, f. [latitude, Fr. latitudo, Lat.] Breadth; 
width ; in bodies of unequal dimenfions, the fhorteraxis; in 
equal bodies, the line drawn from right to left.—Whether 
the exaCt quadrat, or the long fquare, be the better, I find 
not well determined ; though I muft prefer the latter, pro¬ 
vided the length do not exceed the latitude above one third 
part. Wotton. —Room; fpace ; extent.—There is a difference 
of degrees in men’s underltandings, to fo great a latitude , 
that one may affirm, that there is a greater difference between 
fome men and others than between fome men and beafts. 
Locke. —The extent of the earth or heavens, reckoned from 
the equator to either pole : oppofed to longitude. See the 
articles Astronomy and Geography.— -We found our- 
felvss 
