Demetrius Chalcondyles
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Demetrius Chalcondyles or Demetrios Chalcocondylis (1424–1511), born in Athens, was the brother of the writer Laonicus Chalcondyles. He was on of the most eminent Greek scholars in the West.
From the Peloponnisos, where his Athenian family had moved after its persecution by the Florentine dukes, he moved to Italy in 1447. Cardinal Bessarion gave him his patronage. He became famous as a teacher of Greek letters and the Platonic philosophy; in 1463 he was made professor at Padua,
Later, in 1479 at Francesco Philelpho's suggestion, he took over the place of Ioannis Argyropoulos, as the head of the Greek Literature department and was summoned by Lorenzo de Medici to Florence.
Finally, invited by Ludovico Sforza, he moved to Milan (1491/2), where he taught until he died.
He contributed also to Italian Renaissance literature. He was associated with Marsilius Ficinus, Angelus Politianus, and Theodorus Gaza, in the revival of letters in the western world. One of his pupils at Florence was the famous Johann Reuchlin.
He wrote in Ancient Greek the grammar handbooks "Summarized Questions of the Eight Parts of Word After Their Rules" (Ερωτήματα Συνοπτικά Τον Οκτώ Του Λόγου Μερών Μετά Τινών Κανόνων). He translated into Latin Galen's Anatomy.
As a scholar, Demetrius Chalcondyles published the editio princeps of Homer,('Ομήρου τα Σωζόμενα', Florence, 1488), Isocrates, (Milan, 1493)and the Suda (Σούδα), the Byzantium lexicon (1494).
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
