Institutionalizing Trilingual Learning: The foundation of Hebrew and Greek Chairs at European Universities in the Early 16th Century

This contribution focuses on the early 16th-century efforts to institutionalize a vital and constitutive part of New Learning, viz. the combined study of Greek and Hebrew along with Latin. Thus far, scholars have done little to compare attempts to institutionalize this 'trilingualism' in Europe in the first half of the 16th century. Concentrating on trilingual plans and undertakings - including those that failed to materialize - and their interrelationships, this paper is a starting point for further discussion. A short journey through early 16th-century trilingual Europe, primarily of a descriptive nature and without making a claim to be comprehensive, is followed by a number of more general observations on trilingual learning.