Greek scholars in the Renaissance

The migration waves of Byzantine scholars and Ã©migrÃ©s in the period following the Crusader sacking of Constantinople and the end of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, is considered by many scholars key to the revival of Greek and Roman studies that led to the development of the Renaissance humanism and science. These emigres were grammarians, humanists, poets, writers, printers, lecturers, musicians, astronomers, architects, academics, artists, scribes, philosophers, scientists, politicians and theologians. They brought to Western Europe the far greater preserved and accumulated knowledge of their own (Greek) civilization.

Their main role within the Renaissance humanism was the teaching of the Greek language to their western counterparts in universities or privately together with the spread of ancient texts. Their forerunners were Barlaam of Calabria (Bernardo Massari) and Leonzio Pilato, both drawn from culturally Byzantine Calabria in southern Italy. The impact of these two scholars on the very first Renaissance humanists was indisputable.

Collegio Pontifico Greco was a foundation of Gregory XIII, who established a college in Rome to receive young Greeks belonging to any nation in which the Greek Rite was used, and consequently for Greek refugees in Italy as well as the Ruthenians and Malchites of Egypt and Syria. These young men had to study the sacred sciences, in order to spread later sacred and profane learning among their fellow-countrymen and facilitate the reunion of the schismatical churches. The construction of the College and Church of S. Atanasio, joined by a bridge over the Via dei Greci, was begun at once. The same year (1577) the first students arrived, and until the completion of the college were housed elsewhere.

Besides the southern Italians who inhabited ex-Byzantine territories of the peninsula and Sicily which were still closely connected with the Byzantine culture (and still Greek speaking in many areas), by 1500 there was a Greek speaking community of about 5,000 in Venice. The Venetians also ruled Crete, Dalmatia, and scattered islands and port cities of the former empire the populations of which were augmented by refugees from other Byzantine provinces who preferred Venetian to Ottoman governance. Crete was especially notable for the Cretan School of icon-painting, which after 1453 became the most important in the Greek world.

Contribution of Greek scholars to the Italian Renaissance

Although ideas from ancient Rome already enjoyed popularity with the scholars of the 14th century and their importance to the Renaissance was undeniable, the lessons of Greek learning brought by Byzantine intellectuals changed the course of humanism and the Renaissance itself. While Greek learning affected all the subjects of the studia humanitatis, history and philosophy in particular were profoundly affected by the texts and ideas brought from Byzantium. History was changed by the re-discovery and spread of Greek historiansâ€™ writings, and this knowledge of Greek historical treatises helped the subject of history become a guide to virtuous living based on the study of past events and people. The effects of this renewed knowledge of Greek history can be seen in the writings of humanists on virtue, which was a popular topic. Specifically, these effects are shown in the examples provided from Greek antiquity that displayed virtue as well as vice. The philosophy of not only Aristotle but also Plato affected the Renaissance by causing debates over manâ€™s place in the universe, the immortality of the soul, and the ability of man to improve himself through virtue. The flourishing of philosophical writings in the 15th century revealed the impact of Greek philosophy and science on the Renaissance. The resonance of these changes lasted through the centuries following the Renaissance not only in the writing of humanists, but also in the education and values of Europe and western society even to the present day.

Deno Geanakopoulos in his work on the contribution of Byzantine scholars to Renaissance has summarised their input into three major shifts to Renaissance thought: 1) In early 14th century Florence from the early, central emphasis on rhetoric to one on metaphysical philosophy by means of introducing and reinterpretation of the Platonic texts, 2) In Venice-Padua by reducing the dominance of Averroist Aristotle in science and philosophy by supplementing but not completely replacing it with Byzantine traditions which utilised ancient and Byzantine commentators on Aristotle, 3) and earlier in the mid 15th century in Rome, through emphasis not on any philosophical school but through the production of more authentic and reliable versions of Greek texts relevant to all fields of humanism and science and with respect to the Greek fathers of the church. Hardly less important was their direct or indirect influence on exegesis of the New Testament itself through Bessarion's inspiration of Lorenzo Valla's biblical emendations of the Latin vulgate in the light of the Greek text.

Scholars

Leo Allatius, Rome, librarian of the library of Vatican
George Amiroutzes, Florence, Aristotelian
Henry Aristippus
Michael Apostolius, Rome
Aristobulus Apostolius
Arsenius Apostolius
John Argyropoulos, Universities of Florence, Rome
Simon Atumano, Bishop of Gerace in Calabria
Basilios Bessarion
Barlaam of Seminara, he taught Petrarch some rudiments of Greek language
Zacharias Calliergi, Rome
Laonicus Chalcocondyles
Demetrius Chalcondyles, Milan
Theofilos Chalcocondylis, Florence
Manuel Chrysoloras, Florence, Pavia, Rome, Venice, Milan
John Chrysoloras, scholar and diplomat: relative of Manuel Chrysoloras, patron of Francesco Filelfo
Andronicus Contoblacas, Basel, teacher of Johann Reuchlin
Johannes Crastonis, Modena, Greek-Latin dictionary
Andronicus Callistus, Rome
Demetrius Cydones
Mathew Devaris, Rome
Demetrios Ducas
Elia del Medigo, Venice
Antonios Eparchos, Venice, scholar and poet
Theodorus Gaza, first dean of the University of Ferrara, Naples and Rome
George Gemistos Plethon, teacher of Bessarion
George of Trebizond, Venice, Florence, Rome
George Hermonymus, University of Paris, teacher of Erasmus, Reuchlin, Budaeus and Jacques LefÃ¨vre d'Ã‰taples
Georgios Kalafatis (professor) (ca. 1652 â€" ca. 1720), Greek professor of theoretical and practical medicine
Andreas Musalus (ca. 1665/6 â€" ca. 1721) Greek professor of Mathematics, Philosopher and Architectural theorist
Nicholas Kalliakis
Mathaeos Kamariotis
Isidore of Kiev
Ioannis Kigalas (ca. 1622 â€" 1687), Greek scholar and professor of Philosophy and Logic
Ioannis Kottounios, Padua
Konstantinos Kallokratos
Constantine Lascaris, University of Messina
Janus Lascaris or Rhyndacenus, Rome
Leonard of Chios, Greek-born Roman Catholic prelate
Nikolaos Loukanis, Venice
Maximus the Greek studied in Italy before moving to Russia
Maximos Margunios, Venice
Marcus Musurus, University of Padua
Michael Tarchaniota Marullus, Ancona and Florence, friend and pupil of Jovianus Pontanus
Leonardos Philaras (1595â€"1673), an early advocate for Greek independence
Nicholas Kalliakis (Nicolai Calliachius) (1645â€"1707)-was a Greek scholar and philosopher who flourished in Italy.
Leozio Pilatus, he taught Boccacio some rudiments of Greek language
Maximus Planudes, Rome, Venice
John Servopoulos, scholar, professor, Oxford
Nikolaos Sophianos, Rome, Venice: scholar and geographer, creator of the Totius Graeciae Descriptio
Nicholas Leonicus Thomaeus, Venice, Padua
Iakovos Trivolis, Venice
Gregory Tifernas, Paris, teacher of Jacques LefÃ¨vre d'Ã‰taples and Robert Gaguin
Gerasimos Vlachos, Venice
Francesco Maurolico, mathematician and astronomer from Sicily

Painting/Music

Marco Basaiti, painter
Belisario Corenzio, painter, Napoli
Michael Damaskenos, Venice, Cretan painter
Thomas Flanginis, Venice, funded the establishment of the Flanginian Greek school for teachers
El Greco, the nickname for the Cretan painter Dominikos Theotokopoulos, Italy, Spain
Francisco Leontaritis, Italy, Bavaria: singer and composer
Anna Notaras, Venice, first Greek typing press
Angelos Pitzamanos (1467â€"1535), Cretan painter, Otranto, South Italy
Janus Plousiadenos, Venice, hymnographer and composer
Theodore Poulakis, Venice, painter
Emmanuel Tzanes, Venice, Cretan painter
John Rhosos, Rome, Venice well-known scribe
Antonio Vassilacchi, painter from Milos worked in Venice with Paolo Veronese

References

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.
Deno J. Geanakoplos, (1958) A Byzantine looks at the renaissance, Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 1 (2);pp:157-62.
Louise Ropes Loomis (1908) The Greek Renaissance in Italy The American Historical Review, 13(2);pp:246-258.
John Monfasani Byzantine Scholars in Renaissance Italy: Cardinal Bessarion and Other Ã‰migrÃ©s: Selected Essays, Aldershot, Hampshire: Variorum, 1995.
Steven Runciman, The fall of Constantinople, 1453. Cambridge University press, Cambridge 1965.
Fotis Vassileiou & Barbara Saribalidou, Short Biographical Lexicon of Byzantine Academics Immigrants to Western Europe, 2007.
Dimitri Tselos (1956) A Greco-Italian School of Illuminators and Fresco Painters: Its Relation to the Principal Reims
Nigel G. Wilson. From Byzantium to Italy: Greek Studies in the Italian Renaissance. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.

External links

Greece: Books and Writers.
Michael D. Reeve, "On the role of Greek in Renaissance scholarship.'
Jonathan Harris, 'Byzantines in Renaissance Italy'.
Bilingual (Greek original / English) excerpts from Gennadios Scholarios' Epistle to Orators.
Paul Botley, Renaissance Scholarship and the Athenian Calendar.
Richard C. Jebb 'Christian Renaissance'.
Karl Krumbacher: 'The History of Byzantine Literature: from Justinian to the end of the Eastern Roman Empire (527-1453)'.
San Giorgio dei Greci and the Greek community of Venice
Istituto Ellenico di Studi Byzantini and Postbyzantini di Venezia

Greek scholars in the Renaissance

Sabtu, 14 Maret 2015