To the most invincible Maximilian

Caesar, Emperor of the Romans, forever August,

The Letter of Pietro Galatino of the Order of Friars Minor.

FOR A LONG TIME NOW, I HAVE BEEN TROUBLED by no small anxiety of mind, MAXIMILIAN Caesar Augustus, when I saw the multifaceted and exceptional learning of Johann Reuchlin (1455–1522), a famous humanist scholar who went by the Grecized name "Capnio." Capnio being so unworthily torn apart by the pestilential and poisonous bites of the envious: so much so that some dared to falsely slander many of his sayings, which are most consistent with the original: "Orthodoxae fidei," referring to the established Catholic Church doctrines. Orthodox faith, with the mark of heresy. And although I noticed this was being done as a bad, or rather the worst, example to all learned men—if such unfair gratitude were returned for so many exhausted labors and vigils—I nevertheless did not dare to write anything, nor even to open my mouth, to attempt to defend a man so learned and outstanding in every kind of virtue against the rash ignorance of the wicked. I feared lest the fault of rashness and arrogance be attributed to me: if I, endowed with scarcely mediocre talent and not sufficiently equipped with much erudition, should wish of my own accord and unbidden to act as patron to a man so skilled and excellent in the The Renaissance ideal of mastery in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. triple learning of languages, and therefore more suitable than can be said to defend himself along with the truth itself.

But truly, when my most reverend lord, Lord L. Pucci Lorenzo Pucci (1458–1531), an influential Italian cardinal and supporter of Reuchlin., Cardinal of the Four Holy [Crowned Martyrs], a most sharp investigator of the Christian faith and (as he ought to be) most observant of your Majesty, had more sharply urged me to undertake this kind of defense with a ready mind—because he thought that your Majesty’s honor was also at stake in this, if even a suspicion of the charged crime should touch his own counselor Reuchlin served as a legal and political advisor to the imperial government.—he compelled me to necessarily undergo the heavy burden of this task, which is unequal to my shoulders. There was added, moreover, the will of the most Holy Pope Leo X, which most especially impelled me to this. Since I was not unaware that the Pope himself, as a unique worshiper of truth and wisdom, greatly desired both that Capnio be freed from such slanders, and that your Majesty should be complied with in this all the more, the more vehemently he wished for his desires to be satisfied.

When I was uniquely intent on this matter, and was sweating with all my might (according to my strength) in unearthing the secrets found in the Talmud The central text of Rabbinic Judaism, which was the focus of intense legal and theological debate during this period., which are wonderfully effective both for the confirmation of the Catholic faith and for protecting Capnio’s cause, thereupon your Majesty’s letters arrived. These most kindly urged me to complete this work as quickly as possible, together with several others addressed to the Supreme Pontiff. Re... Regarding...