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 ...
Constantine Lascaris
(c.1434–1501) Byzantine scholar and teacher who worked in Italy.Lascaris collected and copied Greek MSS, established some Latin translations, and wrote several literary and scientific texts. He is ...
Council of Florence
(1438–45)Unsuccessful reunion council that met to re-establish communion between the western and eastern churches. Although a decree of union was signed (Laetentur caeli) and agreement reached on the ...
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 ...
Demetrius Chalcondyles
(1423–1511),Greek scholar in Italy. Chalcondyles was an Athenian who lived in the circle of Bessarion in Rome and in 1464 became the first holder of the professorship of Greek ...
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 ...
ekphrasis
An extended and detailed literary description of any object, real or imaginary. ‘There are ekphraseis of faces and objects and places and ages and many other things’ (Hermogenes).
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 ...
Francesco Filelfo
(1398–1481)The Italian Humanist Francesco Filelfo played an important role in the preservation and promotion of Greek culture in Italy. Living at Constantinople from 1420 to 1427, he learned Greek ...
Georg von Purbach
(1423–1461) Austrian astronomer and mathematicianPurbach (or Peurbach) took his name from his birthplace in Austria. He had traveled in Italy and studied under Nicholas of Cusa before becoming ...
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 ...
George Trapezuntios
(1395–c. 1472),or George of Trebizond. Leaving his native Crete for Italy in 1416, he taught Greek in Vicenza, Venice, and Rome. He became a Roman Catholic and was employed ...
Greece
Located in southeastern Europe on the Mediterranean sea, Greece is known for its warm climate, mountainous mainland, island coastlines, and most importantly, its ancient civilization, which gave ...
Greek scholarship
From the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, knowledge of Greek in the West was patchy, except in the isolated Greek communities of southern Italy and Sicily, and for centuries western ...
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.
