Abstract
The crucial fifteenth-century western conflict over Platonism - which involved personalities such as Cardinal Bessarion and George of Trebizond - may be read and interpreted as a battle of translations. The modern Plato controversy began with the De differentiis by the pagan philosopher of Mistra, Gemistus Pletho, who wrote it during the Council of Ferrara- Florence, which ratified the ephemeral reunion of the Western and Eastern churches in 1439. In this short treatise Gemistus - certainly driven by Hellenophile feelings and in any case opposed to the reunification between the two Churches - exalted Plato's piety in order to undermine the western scholastic preference for Aristotle. It is true that Gaza, not trusting the quality of ancient manuscripts, had made significant alterations to the text, adding and removing long passages. In so doing, Gaza intended to correct many of the mistakes contained in medieval Latin versions of the text, such as that of Bartolomeo da Messina. Keywords:Aristotle; Bessarion; De differentiis ; George of Trebizond; Platonism; Theodore Gaza; Council of Ferrara
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