Collegium Trilingue

The Collegium Trilingue, often also called Collegium trium linguarum, or, after its creator Collegium Buslidianum (French: Collège des Trois Langues, Dutch: Dry Tonghen), was founded in 1517 under the patronage of the humanist, Hieronymus van Busleyden (in Latin Hieronymus Buslidius).

The current façade of the Collegium Trilingue at Leuven, 2010.

The College, in fact inspired by Erasmus who was a friend of Busleyden, was inaugurated in September 1518.

It was not formally part of the University of Leuven, but had been founded by a group of humanists who wanted to spread humanism and the revival of the classics (specifically the literae humaniores), which were not popular at the time at the medieval University of Leuven. They promoted the teaching of the three ancient languages: Latin, Greek and Hebrew.

Léon-Ernest Halkin wrote that "Erasmus did not himself teach, but he recruited the best teachers of Latin, Greek and Hebrew".[1]

Under this model, King Francis I of France founded the Royal College in 1530 (now Collège de France). He sought to attract Erasmus who declined the offer.