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 Luxembourgian humanist, Jérôme de Busleyden (in Latin Hieronymus Buslidius).

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

Literae Humaniores

Literae Humaniores is the name given to an undergraduate course focused on Classics at Oxford and some other universities.The Latin name means literally "more humane letters", but is perhaps better rendered as "Advanced Studies", since humaniores has the sense of "more refined" or "more learned",...

), 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.

Leon E. Halkin writes that "Erasmus does not teach himself, but he recruits the best teachers of Latin, Greek and Hebrew".

Under this model, King Francis I of France founded the Royal College in 1530 (now Collège de France

Collège de France

The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...

). He sought to attract Erasmus who declined the offer.

see also

• Universities in Leuven
  Universities in Leuven
  The city of Leuven, in the former Duchy of Brabant was the seat of three universities and of a universitarian college:*1425: The University of Leuven or Studium Generale Lovaniense or Universitas Studiorum Lovaniensis, was founded by a French prince, Jean de Bourgogne, Duke John IV of Brabant,...
  
  
• Collège de France
  Collège de France
  The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...
  
  
• Old University of Leuven
  Old University of Leuven
  The Old University of Leuven is the name historians give to the university, or studium generale, founded in Leuven, Brabant , in 1425, and closed in 1797, a week after the cession to the French Republic of the Austrian Netherlands and the principality of Liège by the Treaty of Campo Formio.When...
  
  
• State University of Leuven
  State University of Leuven
  The State University of Leuven a liberal, neutral and non-confessional university founded in 1817 in Leuven, Belgium, which was then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was not a continuation of the former Old University of Leuven, however, a dozen of professors of the Old University...
  
  
• Catholic University of Mechlin
  Catholic University of Mechlin
  The Catholic University of Mechlin was a university that was founded in Mechelen , Belgium, on November 8, 1834 by the bishops of Belgium.The bishops aimed to create a university "to accommodate any doctrine from the Holy Apostolic See and to repudiate anything that does not flow from this august...
  
  
• Catholic University of Leuven
  Catholic University of Leuven
  The Catholic University of Leuven, or of Louvain, was the largest, oldest and most prominent university in Belgium. The university was founded in 1425 as the University of Leuven by John IV, Duke of Brabant and approved by a Papal bull by Pope Martin V.During France's occupation of Belgium in the...
  
  
• Academic libraries in Leuven
  Academic libraries in Leuven
  The city of Leuven was not only the seat of three different Universities, but also through them, the seat of prestigious academic libraries.- The Library of the Old University of Leuven :...