Renaissance

Greek Scholarship in the 15th Century

Bassarion• Cardinal Bessarion (1403-72) born in Trebizond and educated in Constantinople• He became a monk in 1423• He studied to a freethinker George Gemistus Plethon.• Plethon introduced him to the emperors, then he is employed on government business.• In 1438 He became a cardinal and resided permanently in Italy• His house in Rome was a centre of literary activity.

Politian • Politian (1454-94) is a Greek bishop who settled in Italy and whose scholarly activity was devoted mainly to theology and philosophy. • He is famous as a poet in his vernacular language and in Latin, but was equally distinguished as a scholar. • Politian has an interesting analogy in the Hellenistic world • His works include several translations from the Greek.

The First Printed Greek Texts

Aldus Manutius• The new art of printing in 15th to 17th century are difficult to design a suitable founts.• Some of the early printers produce expensive and unsatisfactory in appearance.• The lack of demand for Greek texts in sufficient numbers makes a difficulty.• Aldus Manutius (1449- 1515) had the idea of setting up a publishing house primarily for the

Marcus • Cretan Marcus MusurusMusurus (c. 1470-1517) was a great scholar. • He helps Aldine in publishing many Greek books. • He corrects many mistakes and errors in old manuscripts. • He was very smart and had linguistic competence. • Unfortunately, his contributions to classical

Erasmus (c. 1469-1536)

• Erasmus was also a figure whoErasmus commands attention. • In 1506, He went to Italy to improve his knowledge. Then he made a contact with Aldus. • They collaborated together in publishing Adagia, a collection of proverbs with accompanying comments and the Enchiridion militis Christiani, in which the blunt expression of his view of piety had caused some offence to ecclesiastical authorities. • Much later in his career he wrote a pamphlet on the correct pronunciation of Greek, which led to the widespread