Greek scholars in the Renaissance

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Page from Book X of George of Trebizond's Commentary on the Almagest.
Page from Book X of George of Trebizond's Commentary on the Almagest.

The migration of Byzantine Greek scholars and other emigres from Byzantium during the decline of the Byzantine empire (1203-1453) and mainly after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 until the 16th century, is considered by modern scholars as crucial in the revival of Greek and Roman studies, arts and sciences, and subsequently in the formation of Renaissance humanism.[1] These emigres were grammarians, humanists, poets, writers, printers, lecturers, musicians, astronomers, architects, academics, artists, scribes, philosophers, scientists, politicians and theologians.[2]

They became particularly famous for teaching the Greek language to their western counterparts in universities or privately. Many brought Ancient Greek texts with them which were copied, later printed, and disseminated across Europe. The most widely known financial supporters of those scholars (around the Fall of Constantinople) were: Pope Nicholas V, Anna Notaras and Cosimo de Medici. Anna Notaras established Zacharias Calliergi, one of the very first printing presses for Greek books in Venice in 1499. By 1500 there was a Greek community of about 5,000 in Venice alone, the largest in Europe, apart from the pockets of Southern Italy which were still Greek-speaking. The Venetians also ruled Crete and Dalmatia, where many refugees also settled. Crete was especially notable for the Cretan School of icon-painting, which after 1453 became the most important in the Greek world. [3]

Contents

[edit] List of renowned Byzantine scholars

Manuel Chrysoloras
Manuel Chrysoloras
Portrait of Janus Lascaris, standing at extreme left with beard, next to Leo X, by Raphael ca. 1515, from one of the Raphael Cartoons.
Portrait of Janus Lascaris, standing at extreme left with beard, next to Leo X, by Raphael ca. 1515, from one of the Raphael Cartoons.
Leo Allatius, portrait in the Collegio Greco of Rome
Leo Allatius, portrait in the Collegio Greco of Rome
Totius Graeciae Descriptio
Totius Graeciae Descriptio


[edit] Printers, Artists & Patrons

El Greco
El Greco




[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Byzantines in Renaissance Italy
  2. ^ Greeks in Italy
  3. ^ Maria Constantoudaki-Kitromilides in From Byzantium to El Greco,p.51-2, Athens 1987, Byzantine Museum of Arts
  4. ^ Nano Chatzidakis: The character of the Velimezis Collection

[edit] Sources

  • Deno J. Geanakoplos, Byzantine East and Latin West: Two worlds of christendom in middle ages and renaissance. The Academy Library Harper & Row Publishers, New York, 1966.
  • Steve Runciman, The fall of Constantinope, 1453. Cambridge University press, Cambridge 1965.
  • Deno J Geanakoplos, (1958) A Byzantine looks at the renaissance, Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 1 (2);pp:157-62.
  • John Monfasani Byzantine Scholars in Renaissance Italy: Cardinal Bessarion and Other Emigrés: Selected Essays, Aldershot, Hampshire: Variorum, 1995.
  • Fotis Vassileiou & Barbara Saribalidou, Short Biographical Lexicon of Byzantine Academics Immigrants to Western Europe, 2007.
  • Louise Ropes Loomis (1908) The Greek Renaissance in Italy The American Historical Review, 13(2);pp:246-258.
  • Dimitri Tselos (1956) A Greco-Italian School of Illuminators and Fresco Painters: Its Relation to the Principal Reims Manuscripts and to the Greek Frescoes in Rome and Castelseprio The Art Bulletin, 38(1);pp: 1-30.

[edit] External links

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