Cardinal Bessarion (1403–1472). Most Latin of Greeks, Most Greek of Latins, written by Michael Malone-Lee

Byzantine Scholars tn Renaissance Italy: Cardinal Bessarion and Other Emt gres. Selected Essays By John Monfasani. [Collected Studies Series.] (Brookfield, Vermont: Variorum, Ashgate Publishing Co. 1995. Pp. xii, 351.) This is the second of two collections of his articles that John Monfasani has recently published in Variorum's Collected Studies Series. The first volume, Language and Learning in Renaissance Italy, contains his articles on fifteenth-century humanism. The present volume contains fourteen articles in English and Italian on Byzantine emigre scholars in Quattrocento Italy, all previously published, including nine articles on Cardinal Bessarion and his circle. In addition to Bessarion, the volume contains studies dealing with Niccolo Perotti, Theodore Gaza, Pletho, Alexius Celadenus, Andronicus Contoblacas, Andronicus Callistus, Nicholas Secundinus, and numerous other figures. The articles are rather spottily updated in a four-page appendix, but the author adds a useful index of manuscripts and an index nominum. All of the articles display Professor Monfasani's deep learning and brilliant skills in textual and historical criticism; with their publication, he inherits Deno John Geanakoplos' place as the leading American authority on the emigration of Byzantine intellectuals to Renaissance Italy Much of this volume consists of detailed textual studies of the works of Bessarion and his `academy, including hitherto unpublished texts of Bessarion, Gaza, Callistus, and others, collations of new manuscripts of previously published texts, manuscript descriptions, paleographical data, and rich new material on the textual tradition of Bessarion's writings. There is also important new biographical information on Bessarion, Niccol6 Perotti, and Andronicus Callistus. Beyond this, we are given an intimate view of Bessarion's struggles to enter the new linguistic environment of Latin humanism. From the Council of Ferrara-Florence onwards, Bessarion's three great causes were the union of the Greek and Latin churches, the preservation of the Greek cultural heritage, and the launching of a crusade against the Turks to recover Constantinople. In order to compass these ends, Bessarion needed the ability to write persuasively in Latin and to defend, against numerous detractors, his image as a pious, orthodox, and loyal prince of the Roman Church. Though competent enough in the Italian and Kchenlatein of the papal court, Bessarion never really developed first-rate skills as a writer of Latin prose. Monfasani shows the important role played by Niccolo Perotti in translating or transforming many of Bessarion's controversial and scholarly writings into good humanistic Latin; Perotti's lost biography of Bessarion, as Monfasani demonstrates, was probably the most important source for the encomiastic biographical tradition of the great Greek cardinal that took shape after the latter's death. …

In the mid-15th c., the conflict between Cardinal Bessarion, former Greek orthodox metropolitan, and the Cretan-born George of Trebizond is best known for its philosophical dimensions. Crucially, h...

Cardinal Bessarion (1408–1472), in the second chapter of the first book of his influential work In calumniatorem Platonis, attempted to reply to Georgios Trapezuntios’ (1396–1474) criticism against Plato in the Comparatio Philosophorum Platonis et Aristotelis. Bessarion investigates why the Athenian philosopher maintained, in several dialogues, that the sacred truths should not be communicated to the general public and argued in favor of the value of oral transmission of knowledge, largely based on his theory about the cognitive processes. Recently, Fr. Bessarion Kouotsis has argued that Cardinal Bessarion’s reasoning draws primarily on the “Disciplina Arcani”, i.e., the rule of secrecy, which was an established practice of the Early Christian Church, aimed at protecting and preserving the core elements of the religion from outsiders. While I find Kouotsis’ approach interesting and thought-provoking—for instance, the idea that Bessarion’s argumentation was likely influenced by Eastern Christian views on the rule of secrecy—I intend, first of all, to discuss why Bessarion did not explicitly mention it. Moreover, I would like to argue that Bessarion’s good knowledge of the long Platonic tradition and Eastern mysticism, encompassing both pagan and Christian elements, should also be considered a significant source. Furthermore, I would like to question Kouotsis’ implicit argument that Bessarion’s views were dominated by his training in Orthodox theology and discuss the possibility that Pletho’s (1355–1454) teaching was the obvious influence for Bessarion’s defense of secrecy. After all, we should bear in mind that Anastos has already pointed out Pletho’s reverence for the rule of secrecy. Finally, I would like to support that Bessarion, in the specific text, focused predominantly on the epistemological and cognitive aspects of oral teaching, resorting to the rule of secrecy only to enhance his views.

This paper shows how Islamic astronomy played a significant role in the education of one of the most important Christian figures in the history of culture between eastern and western Europe, promoter of a crusade against the Ottoman Turks, namely Cardinal Bessarion (1400/1408–72). While the Byzantine polymath has generally been considered a purist of Ptolemaic astronomy, his interest in Islamic astronomy can be traced back to his youth and persisted throughout his life, as is testified by several sources from his manuscripts collection. It is misleading therefore to consider him a ‘purist’ of Ptolemy. The paper provides a survey of the texts of Islamic astronomy among the manuscripts of Bessarion’s estate. These are compared to Ptolemaic astronomy in order to assess the importance of Islamic astronomy within the framework of Bessarion’s collection. The results shed new light not only on Bessarion’s astronomical interests, but also on the reception of Islamic astronomy in non-Islamicate contexts in the fifteenth century, such as the late Byzantine Empire, Rhodes, Crete, Venice, and European humanism.

Reviewed by: The Poetics of Patronage: Poetry as Self-Advancement in Giannantonio Campanoby Susanna de Beer Frances Muecke de Beer, Susanna, The Poetics of Patronage: Poetry as Self-Advancement in Giannantonio Campano( Proteus, 6), Turnhout, Brepols, 2013; hardback; pp. xxxii, 431; 16 colour, 45 b/w illustrations, 12 b/w line art; R.R.P. €120.00; ISBN 9782503542386. Literary patronage in the Quattrocento and early Cinquecento in Italy has been greatly neglected in comparison with that of the visual arts. There are several reasons for this. Literary patronage tends to involve writers in celebration of their patron and opens them to charges of flattery or adulation, modes that give rise to wariness, at the least. Equally important is the greater difficulty of access and creating a tradition of reading. Works of visual art have not only been widely available longer but they have a longer history of interpretation. Most of the important literary works of this period are in Latin, and many have not been reprinted since the sixteenth, seventeenth, or eighteenth centuries. Often the lesser works that form their context have never been printed. For a pioneering treatment of literary patronage in the Quattrocento, it would be hard to choose a better figure than Giannantonio Campano [End Page 198](1429–1477). Now regarded as the most important Latin poet of the Roman Quattrocento, he was a humanist whose ambitious pursuit of a career saw him writing for a series of important supporters, or hoped-for supporters, presented in five ‘case studies’. First, and discussed in Chapter 1, was Pope Pius II Piccolimini, himself a humanist writer and poet. Campano wooed Pius with his poems and was rewarded with positions as Bishop of Crotone in 1462 and Teramo in 1463, as well as a recognised position in the pope’s entourage, which did him service after Pius’s death. Chapter 2 focuses on Campano’s relationship with Giacome degli Ammanati, whom Pius made Cardinal in 1461. Ammanati initially was asked to help Campano in his approach to Pius. He admitted Campano to his court and his library and recommended him to his next influential patron, Cardinal Pietro Riario, nephew of the new pope, Sixtus IV. The poetry for Riario and Campano’s fortunes and misfortunes under Sixtus are discussed in Chapter 3. Riario died and Ammanati encouraged Campano to try his luck in the court at Naples, with King Ferrante I and his son Duke Alfonso (Chapter 4). Campano had hoped to return to his native Campania, but he failed to win a position with the Neapolitan court. The last supporter to be discussed, but not a new one, is Federico da Montefeltro of Urbino. From 1472, Campano had helped Federico built up his library, and it came to hold four manuscripts comprising Campano’s Opera omnia(Chapter 5). Campano is an ideal subject not just for the wealth of interest these various attachments provide. The corpus of his poetic œuvre is sizeable but manageable, and most of his poems are ‘occasional’ with named addressees. His life is well documented in his letters (like his poems, last printed in 1707, and in facsimile reprint 1969) and this allows the role of individual poems to be teased out in considerable detail. As Susanna de Beer shows, his knowledge of classical poetry was considerable, as befitted a university teacher (he was appointed Professor of Rhetoric at Perugia in 1455) and member of the ‘Academies’ of Pomponio Leto and Cardinal Bessarion in Rome in the late 1460s. This book makes two important contributions. The first is philological and relegated to Appendices I and II: a path-breaking analysis of the textual transmission of Campano’s poetry, with interesting remarks on the circulation of the different, overlapping, collections. Appendix III consists of a critical edition of the poems discussed in the volume, necessary because the early printed editions are unreliable, and also because it is important to be able to read the poems discussed in full. There are no translations here, but all extracts quoted in the case studies are translated. The translations are generally helpful but occasionally suffer from the fact that the author is not using her native tongue. [End...

The two central Latin works of the Plato‐Aristotle Controversy of the Fifteenth Century were George of Trebizond's Comparatio Philosophorum Platonis et Aristotelis and Cardinal Bessarion's In Calumniatorem Platonis in response to George. The Renaissance fortuna of Bessarion's work is well known and reflects the relative success it enjoyed. George's Comparatio, however, had a much harder time of it. The story of its eventually printing in 1523 involves us tracing the history of MS Vat. Lat. 3382 of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana through Central Europe until its arrival in Venice. The key figure in the printing proved to be the imperial official Jacopo Bannisio. A marginal note by the Englishman Robert Ridley in a copy of Bessarion's work now at Yale University reporting a conversation he had with Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples in Paris provides interesting insights on how Lefèvre and others viewed the conflict between Bessarion and George as well as on the fortuna of George's Comparatio.

Cardinal Bessarion and the Latins

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Prehistory of Modern Scepticism: Sextus Empiricus in Fifteenth-Century ItalyGian Mario CaoGian Mario Cao Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes Volume 64, Number 12001 Published for the Warburg Institute and the Courtauld Institute Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/751563 Copyright © 2001 by The Warburg Institute. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Cardinal Bessarion as a Translator of Plato, Aristotle, and Other Prose Authors in the In Calumniatorem Platonis

This chapter presents a detailed study of an early work by the Franciscan philosopher and theologian Giorgio Benigno Salviati on the importance of the will in the human soul. Salviati, the spiritual heir of Cardinal Bessarion, who later played such a leading role in Lorenzo de' Medici's circle in Florence, is making his own important contribution to fifteenth-century discussions of the dignity of man, a theme which is usually related to the humanist movement. It is important to notice that Salviati first constitutes the relation between freedom and the will, defining each of these elements in the human soul, and distinguishing them from all the other natural and thus necessary elements such as reason and the senses. The chapter examines another interesting account of the role of the intellect and the will in the human soul.Keywords: Cardinal Bessarion; Florence; freedom; Giorgio Benigno Salviati; human dignity; Lorenzo de' Medici; Theory of Will

This essay examines Lorenzo Valla’s and Erasmus’ philological and historical arguments that the Corpus Dionysiacum is pseudepigraphic. The first part surveys the long history of doubts about the authenticity of the Corpus Dionysiacum from the early sixth century until some of Valla’s contemporaries, including Pietro Balbi, Cardinal Cusanus (Nicholas of Cusa), Cardinal Bessarion, Theodore Gaza, and George of Trebizond, began considering the Platonism of the Corpus Dionysiacum in the mid-fifteenth century. The second part examines all of Valla’s arguments about the pseudepigraphic nature of the corpus in his Collatio Novi Testamenti and Encomion S. Thomae Aquinatis. The third part turns to Erasmus’s extensive writings on the Corpus Dionysiacum and ancient forgeries. It discusses Erasmus’ knowledge and publication of Valla’s writings as well as Erasmus’ own arguments that the corpus was the deliberate forgery of a deceitful impostor. This section also evaluates all known evidence for William Grocyn’s reported doubts about the authenticity of the Corpus Dionysiacum. Finally, it turns to the religious controversies in which Erasmus’ writings on Pseudo-Dionysius became involved. The facts, that the king and parliament of France had to intervene in these disputes with Noël Béda, Josse Clichtove, and the Catholic faculty of theology in Paris, and that Erasmus was forced to fight accusations that his conclusions were Lutheran demonstrate what was at stake in Erasmus’ answer to the Dionysian Question.

Reviewed by: Thomism in the Renaissance: Fifty Years after Kristeller. Divus Thomas 120 ed. by Alison Frazier John Monfasani Alison Frazier, editor. Thomism in the Renaissance:Fifty Years after Kristeller. Divus Thomas. Bologna: Edizioni Studio Domenicano, 2017. pp. 232 Paper, €30.00 In his long scholarly career, Paul Oskar Kristeller (1905–1999) produced an extraordinary number of seminal books and articles, one of which was the 1967 monograph Le Thomisme et la pensée italienne de la Renaissance, which presented the evidence for the intellectual vitality of Thomism in the Italian Renaissance. In 2017, on the fiftieth anniversary of Kristeller's book, the collection of articles under review was presented originally as papers at the Chicago meeting of the Renaissance Society of America and brought together for publication in record time by Alison Frazier. The articles pay tribute to Kristeller by offering fresh contributions on Renaissance Thomism. Paul Richard Blum, at the start, and Kent Emery Jr., at the end, put in context Kristeller's work and treat the significance of the five core articles. Matthew T. Gaetano starts things off by examining two sixteenth-century Dominicans teaching in via Sancti Thomae at the University of Padua: Sisto Medici and Girolamo Vielmi. Both Medici and Vielmi were thoughtfully open to the best intellectual developments of the day, using humanist literary elegance while stressing, with Cicero, that style without substance is vacuous, and also acknowledging the need of competence in Greek and Hebrew. Contra the humanists, however, they called attention to the universal aspect of Catholic theology reaching all peoples at all levels as opposed to only those comfortable with classicizing Latin. As Emery notes, Vuelmi argued that, contrary to the charge of retrogression, medieval scholasticism represented progress in theology as it brought coherence to the disparate inheritance of the Church Fathers. Jozef Matula offers a penetrating analysis of the Thomism of one of the most intriguing scholastics of the Renaissance, Agostino Nifo (1469/70–1538). Fixing dynamic evolution as his most characteristic feature, Matula traces Nifo's development from an ardent Averroist to a critic of Averroes making use of the Greek commentators, Thomas, Albert the Great, and even the Platonist Marsilio Ficino. Nifo would eventually call Thomas vir doctissimus et omnium meo iudicio Peripateticorum princeps ("the most learned and the prince of all Peripatetics in my judgment"). But, as Matula shows, Nifo's Thomism was selective. In the works where Thomas's ideas did not suit him, Nifo ignored him. The article of Brian Garcia and Andrea A. Robiglio is really two articles in one. Robiglio reveals a startling discovery. One of the finer texts of the Quattrocento is the dialogue Eremita of the humanist Antonio de Ferraris, "il Galateo" (1444–1517). Not surprisingly, the celebrated historian Eugenio Garin included it in perhaps the most widely read collection of humanist texts, his Prosatori Latini del Quattrocento (1952). So intent was Garin on presenting Quattrocento humanism as anti-medieval that he bowdlerized the text, omitting the ending where Thomas Aquinas appears to provide the dénouement of the whole dialogue. Robiglio's discovery thus confirms Kristeller's assertion that Thomism was far more influential in the Renaissance than generally believed. [End Page 753] Brian Garcia's contribution gives another salutary lesson. He proves that the Expositio super libros de anima of Dominic of Flanders (Baudoin Lottin, †1479) was deliberately altered by Renaissance editors to bring it more in line with Thomist orthodoxy. Garcia thus confirms that one must return to the manuscripts, if available, if one wishes to make a study of any Renaissance text. Eva del Soldato studies two very different authors, the Platonist and Greek émigré Cardinal Bessarion (†1472), whose In Calumniatorem Platonis of 1469 was a seminal document in Renaissance Platonism, and the university professor Fortunio Liceti (1577–1657), whose De Pietate Aristotelis erga Deum et Homines (1645) was the last great attempt to defend Aristotle as a virtual Christian. What del Soldato discovered and ably proves is that both Bessarion and Liceti used Thomas extensively, but selectively, in making their argument, one in defense of Plato, and the other in defense of Aristotle. The final article is Robert Trent Pomplun's brilliant "Thomism and the Study...

A Crusade For the Humanities: From the Letters of Cardinal Bessarion (TranslatedbyAviSharon) Theearly history oftheStudia Humanitatis intheWest istightly bound upwith the PapalCourt . During the fourteenth andfifteenth centuries , atintervals ofapproximately every tenyears , representatives oftheGreek Church journeyed toEurope tomeet with Rome andadvocate boththeunion ofthetwochurches anda crusade to drive theinfidel Turk from the wallsofConstantinople. Though neither crusade norunification materialized, these Ecumenical Councils offered crucialopportunities forcultural and educational exchange . AtonesuchEcumenical potlatch ,attheCuria inAvignon in1342,Petrarch , theacknowledged father ofItalianRenaissance Humanism , wasgiven eighty-two daysofinstruction intheGreek language byBarlaam , thevisiting Bishop ofGerace inCalabria . At theKonstanz Council in141j, themost renowned teacher ofGreek during thepasttwenty years, ManuelChrysoloras, was onlykept from being elected Popebyhisuntimely death . Butitisonly much later, withtheFerrara-Florence council of1439,thattheVatican andthecity ofRomewouldbegin todevelop, as hadboth Florence andVenice, into a true center ofGreek learning. Thisisdueinlarge parttothe presence there ofCardinal Bessarion, a Greek convert to Catholicism, advisor totheGreek contingent attheFlorence Councilandoneoftheleading scholars ofhisdayIntheremaining thirty years ofhislife, Bessarion dedicated himself tomaking Romea vitalhubofbothGreek andLatinscholarship, with hishomeonthe Quirinal serving as a point ofrendezvous forGreek emigre culture anda truly Roman Academy . InspiteofhisGreek curriculum inAvignon, Petrarch stillcould not"hearthe voice"oftheGreek poets whom hisbeloved Cicero so esteemed . Oneofthemost strangely moving images ofliterary history hasPetrarch ina private letter, addressing hischerished manuscript ofHomerwith thewords : "Alas,I amdeaftoyouandyou aremuteto me" Bessarion, a remarkable Janus figure inRome, looking both EastandWest (Vallacalled himGraecorum Romanissimus , Graecissimus Romanorum), wouldlateremploy thissame Petrarchan trope inhisownattempt tohearandpreserve thevoice oftheGreek tradition . He wrote, inGreek, after thefallofByzanARION 19.2 FALL 20II 164 ACRUSADE FORTHEHUMANITIES tium, urging hisscribe andmanuscript-hound Michael Apolstolos tobuyupanyGreek texts hecouldfind so that anyGreeks whoare left " might beabletoretain, somewhere, thefull voiceoftheir own land, oratleastthesmall fragment ofitwhich wepossess today . . . lestitperish and remain voiceless forall time."Laterhe would write, inLatin, toDukeChristopher Maurus andthesenate ofthe Venetians abouthisextensive library, declaring that"these books arefullofthevoicesofthewise,fullofexamples from antiquity, fullofmorals andlawsandreligion . Theylive,they converse and speakwith us,they teach us,educate us,console us." Bessarion had fashioned himself toachieve precisely this twofold EastWest ambitionofsalvaging andperpetuating thevoiceofGreece, which Petrach hadearlier lamented ofever hearing. Under theHumanist Pope,NicholasV (1447-1455),andcontinuing untilhisowndeathin 1472,Bessarion gathered thedevotion and theresources to encourage a sterling groupoffellow scholars, manuscript hunters andscribes . His circle oftranslators andfriends included menlikeLorenzoValla, George Trapezuntius, Theodore Gaza, PoggioBracciolini, Giannozzo Manetti, Nicollo Perotti, and others. Yettheatmosphere and workofBessarion3 s Roman Academy remain under-acknowledged, dwarfed byanacademic predilection for thehistories ofFlorence andVenice. Thefact isthat Romeinthis period andlater played a central roleinunderwriting thetransference ofGreek culture toEurope. -AS Cardinal Bessarion to Duke Christopher Maurus ANDTOTHESENATE OFTHEVENETIANS. Alwaysfromtheearliestdays of myyouth,I applied all mylabors,all ofmyenergy, devotionand zeal, as muchas I was able, to thegathering together of books in everyrange of discipline.For thisreason,not onlyas a boy and young man did I copy out in myown hand manyof thesebooks, butwhateverpettysummyslimfrugality could lay aside,I haveexpendedinthesepurchases.I do thisbecauseI believe thatthereis no moreworthyor honorablepossession,no moredignified and valuabletreasure whichI could possibly AviSharon 165 acquire. For thesebooks are fullof thevoices of thewise, fullofexamplesfromantiquity, fullofmoralsand laws and religion.They live,theyconverseand speak withus, they teach us, educate us, console us and, what is more,those things whichseemmostremoteinourmemory are suddenly broughthome to us and placed beforeour veryeyes. So greatis theirpower,so largetheirdignity and majesty, even theirspirit, that,weretherenone ofthesebooks,we would be renderedbarbarousand unlettered, withno recollection oftimesgone by,no modelsof behaviorto emulate,no real awarenessofthings humanand divine.The sameurnwhich hidesthebodiesofthesesageswould obscureeventhememoryoftheirnamesamongmen . AlthoughI have alwayszealouslyoverseenthisenterprise withall mysoul,eversincethefallofGreeceand thepitiful captureofByzantium, I havedevotedall ofmystrength, intelligence , and industry withan evenmoreardentdesire.For I dreadedmostvehemently, lestalong withso manyother things, sucha greatnumberofthemostexcellentbooks,so muchlabor and vigilanceof thefinest men,so manylights on thisearthmight, inso brief a time,be endangered or forgotten .For already, out ofthetwo hundredthousandbooks thatPlutarchclaimswere in thelibraryat Apamia, hardly one thousandhave survivedinto our own time.Therefore we have tried,as muchas was in our power,to collectnot themostbutthefinest bookspossible,and singlevolumesof singleworksat that,and in thisway to gatherand preserve almostall theworksoftheGreekwisemen,especially those thatwererareand difficult to locate. ButI would nothave satisfied mydesireunlessI had providedfora place to keep thesebooks afterI am gone withthesame care and labor thatI broughtto thispursuitduringmylife,so thatthey would neverbe scattered about or losteveragain. 166 ACRUSADE FORTHEHUMANITIES Bessarion to Michael Apostolos. As faras thesethingsgo, may God directthemto the good. Butas forourselves, thereare stillnota fewbooks of ourteachersmissing. Whilethecommonand sole hearthof theGreeksstillstood,I rested content knowingthatall those workswere safelystoredaway there.But withthe fall...

Cardinal Bessarion’s Greek and Latin Sources in the Plato-Aristotle Controversy of the 15^th Century and Nicholas of Cusa’s Relation to the Controversy

Cardinal Bessarion's Greek and Latin Sources in the Plato-Aristotle Controversy of the 15th Century and Nicholas of Cusa's Relation to the Controversy