Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Literatus \Lit`e*ra"tus\, n.; pl. {Literati}. [L. litteratus,
   literatus.]
   A learned man; a man acquainted with literature; -- chiefly
   used in the plural.

         Now we are to consider that our bright ideal of a
         literatus may chance to be maimed.       --De Quincey.