Amiroutzes, George
Philosopher, theologian, and writer; born Trebizond ca.1400, died Constantinople after 1469. The name is a diminutive of the Turkish “emir.” Amiroutzes (᾽Αμιρούτζης) is first mentioned as a lay ...
Bessarion Reliquary
A wooden staurotheke, that is, a container for fragments of the True Cross, composed of several parts, now in the Accademia in Venice; it took its name from the 15th-C. ...
Byzantine Manuscripts
Our knowledge of the places and circumstances of copying of Byzantine manuscripts, like that of their history and circulation, is based esentially on examination of the Books themselves. Documents ...
Cheilas
(Ξειλα̑ς), also Prinkips Cheilas, a family of Peloponnesian origin, known from the 13th–15th C. The Cheilades produced several ecclesiastical leaders and intellectuals: Theodosios Prinkips Cheilas ...
Demetrios Pepagomenos
Writer; fl. first half of 15th C.A member of the Pepagomenos family, Demetrios Pepagomenos was a doctor who lived in Constantinople and corresponded with John Chortasmenos, John Eugenikos, and ...
Diffusion of Culture
Different kinds of diffusion of Byz. culture may be distinguished.1. Diffusion of material objects does not in itself indicate any assimilation of culture. Byz. coins (see Coin Finds) and metalwork ...
Eugenikos, John
Churchman and writer; born Constantinople after 1394, died after 1454/5.The younger brother of Mark Eugenikos, John Eugenikos (Εὑγενικός) was a married deacon who held the positions of notary and ...
George Chrysokokkes
Astronomer and physician; fl. Trebizond and Constantinople ca.1335–50.Chrysokokkes (Ξρυσοκόκκης) is first noted as a scribe who copied the Batrachomyomachia and Odyssey in 1336 (Vat. Palat. gr. 7). ...
George Gemistos Pletho
(c.1360–1452),Byzantine Neoplatonic philosopher. The first 50 years of his long life are not well documented. His detractor Gennadios II Scholarios, who is a suspect but possibly accurate source, ...
George of Trebizond
(1395–1472/3) Humanist teacher and translator.A Greek native, he converted to Catholicism in Italy, where he taught Greek. Famed for his Rhetoricum and Isagoge dialectica as well as for translating ...
Grottaferrata
The site of a Greek Orthodox monastery near Rome, founded in 1004. It came under Latinizing influences, but in 1881 Leo XIII re-established a purely Byzantine rite.
John Chortasmenos
Writer, teacher, and bibliophile; born ca.1370, died before June 1439.Chortasmenos (Ξορτασμένος) was a man of diverse interests, whose career was shaped by his love of books and literature. He ...
Kollouthos
(Κόλλουθος), poet; born Lykopolis in Egypt, fl. 5th–6th C.According to the Souda he lived in the reign of Anastasios I (491–518), who may well have been the recipient of ...
Latin Patriarchate of Constantinople
The Latin patriarchate of Constantinople was due to the initiative of the Franks and Venetians of the fourth crusade, after their conquest of the Byzantine capital (1204). By setting up ...
Michael Apostoles
Teacher, writer, and copyist of MSS; born Constantinople? ca.1420, died Crete? after 1474 or 1486.After studying in Constantinople with John Argyropoulos, Apostoles (᾽Αποστόλης, ᾽Αποστόλιος) taught ...
Niketas “of Maroneia”
(or rather a nephew of the bishop of Maroneia in Thrace), theologian; fl. first half of the 12th C. Niketas served as chartophylax of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and from ...
Oppian
Of Cilicia (late 2nd cent. ad) wrote the Halieutica, a five-book hexameter work on sea-creatures and how to catch them (see fishing). Amongst didactic poems the Halieutica is particularly noteworthy ...
Philanthropenos
(Φιλανθρωπηνός). This family, whose name is etymologically connected with the monastery of Christos tou Philanthropou in Constantinople, appeared in the mid-13th C.; many of its members held high ...
philosophy, Byzantine
Philosophy was taught and studied in the Greek-speaking world throughout the MA.The relative continuity with ancient Greek literary culture is a distinguishing feature of Byzantine literary culture. ...
Sgouropoulos
(Σγουρόπουλος, from σγου̑ρος, “curly,” + the diminutive -πουλος), a family first appearing in the late 13th C. Manuel, pansebastos, sebastos, and domestikos ton anatolikon thematon (1286–93), ...