Editing Bessarion (section)

==Biography==
Bessarion was born in [[Trabzon|Trebizond]], the [[Black Sea]] port in northeastern [[Anatolia]] that was the heart of [[Pontic Greeks|Pontic Greek]] culture and civilization during the [[Byzantine]] and [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] periods. The year of his birth has been given as 1389, 1395 or 1403.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=821}}

===Bessarion's Neoplatonism===
[[File:Basilius Bessarion of Trapezunt.jpg|thumb|Wood engraving from ''Bibliotheca chalcographica'', B1|left|280x280px]]
Bessarion was educated in [[Constantinople]], then went in 1423 to [[Mystras]], [[Peloponnese]] to study Neoplatonism under [[Gemistus Pletho]].<ref>James Hankins, ''Humanism and Platonism in the Italian Renaissance'', Volume 1, Ed. di Storia e Letteratura, 2003, p. 207.</ref> Under Pletho, he "went through the liberal arts curriculum…, with a special emphasis on mathematics…including the study of astronomy and geography" that would have related "philosophy to physics…cosmology and astrology" and Pletho's "mathematics would include [[Pythagoreanism|Pythagorean number-mysticism]], Plato's cosmological geometry and the Neoplatonic arithmetic which connected the material world with the world of [[Theory of forms|Plato's Forms]]. Possibly it also included astrology…"<ref name=Woodhouse-33>C.M. Woodhouse, ''George Gemistos Plethon, the Last of the Hellenes'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), p. 33</ref> Woodhouse also mentions that Bessarion "had a mystical streak…[and] was proficient in Neoplatonic vocabulary…mathematics…and Platonic theology".<ref name=Woodhouse-33/>

Bessarion's Neoplatonism stayed with him his whole life, even as a cardinal. He was very familiar with Neoplatonist terminology and used it in his letter to Pletho's two sons, Demitrios and Andronikos, on the death of his still-beloved teacher in 1452.<ref>Woodhouse, ''George Gemistos Plethon'', p. 13</ref> Perhaps the most remarkable thing about his life was that a Neoplatonist could have played such a significant role in the Catholic Church for at least a brief time, though he was attacked for his views by more orthodox Catholic academics shortly after his death.

===Role in the Council of Ferrara===
[[File:Cristofano dell'altissimo, basilio bessarione.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Bessarion, 16th century|272x272px]]
On becoming a tonsured monk, he adopted the name of [[Bessarion of Egypt]], whose story he has related. In 1436 became [[abbot]] of a monastery in Constantinople and in 1437, he was made [[metropolitan of Nicaea]] by the Byzantine Emperor [[John VIII Palaeologus]], whom he accompanied to [[Italy]] in order to bring about a reunion between the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern (Orthodox)]] and [[Catholic Church|Western (Catholic)]] churches. The emperor hoped to use the possibility of re-uniting the churches to obtain help from Western Europe against the [[Ottoman Empire]]. Bessarion participated in the Byzantine delegation to the [[Council of Ferrara-Florence]] as the most eminent representative of unionists, although he originally belonged to the party of anti-unionists. On 6 July 1439, he read the declaration of the Greek Association of Churches in Florence cathedral, in the presence of [[Pope Eugene IV]] and the Emperor [[John VIII Palaeologus]].

Some historians have impugned Bessarion's sincerity in adhering to the union.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=wFZoAAAAMAAJ&dq= ''Miscellanea marciana di studi bessarionei''], Antenore, 1976, p. 121.</ref> However, Gill upholds Bessarion's sincerity in being convinced to the truth of the Roman position in the matters discussed at the Council quoting from Bessarion's own work ''Oratio Dogmatica'':
{{blockquote|But if we had discerned error in the doctrine of the Latins or distortion in their faith, not even I would have counseled you to embrace union and agreement with them in that case, that for fear of bodily ills you should prefer the values of the present world to spiritual values, the freedom of the body to the betterment of the soul, but I myself would have undergone all that is worst and I would have exposed you to it before I would have urged you to union with them and have recommended such action.<ref>Joseph Gill, "The Sincerity of Bessarion the Unionist," ''Journal of Theological Studies'' n.s. 26 (1975), p. 387.</ref>}}

===Cardinal and later life===
{{infobox cardinalstyles
| name     = Bessarion
| dipstyle = [[His Eminence]]
| offstyle = [[Your Eminence]]
| relstyle = [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|Cardinal]]
| see      = [[Latin Patriarch of Constantinople|Constantinople]]
| image   = Coat of Arms of Cardinal Bessarion.svg
| image_size = 120px
}}
Upon his return to the East, he found himself bitterly resented for his attachment to the minority party that saw no difficulty in a reconciliation of the two churches. Pope Eugene IV invested him with the rank of [[cardinal (Catholicism)|cardinal]] at the [[papal consistory|consistory]] of 18 December 1439.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=821}}

{{multiple image
| align             = right
| direction         = horizontal
| width             = 200
| image1            = Casina-Bessarion-exterior-1.jpg
| alt1              = 
| caption1          = 
| image2            = Casina-Bessarion-interior.jpg
| alt2              = 
| footer            = The suburban residence of the bishops of Tusculum along the Appian way in Rome, believed to have been built and utilized by Cardinal Bessarion during his episcopate (1449–1468).
}}
From that time, Bessarion resided permanently in Italy, doing much (by his patronage of learned men, by his collection of books and manuscripts, and by his own writings) to spread the [[New Learning]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=821}} His [[palazzo]] in Rome was a virtual academy for the studies of new [[Renaissance humanism|humanistic learning]], a center for learned Greeks and Greek refugees, whom he supported by commissioning transcripts of Greek manuscripts and translations into Latin that made Greek scholarship available to Western Europeans.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}} He supported [[Regiomontanus]] in this fashion and defended [[Nicholas of Cusa]]. He is known in history as the original patron of the Greek exiles (scholars and diplomats) including [[Theodore Gaza]], [[George of Trebizond]], [[John Argyropoulos]], and [[Janus Lascaris]].

He held in succession the [[archbishopric of Siponto]] and the [[suburbicarian see]]s of [[see of Sabina|Sabina]] and [[Frascati]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=821}} At the [[papal conclave, 1455|papal conclave of 1455]] which elected the Aragonese candidate, Alfons de Borja, as [[Callixtus III]], Cardinal Bessarion was an early candidate, favored on account of his disinterestness in the struggle  between candidates pushed forward by the Roman factions of the [[Orsini family|Orsini]] and [[Colonna family|Colonna]].<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02527b.htm "Johannes Bessarion"], ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' (1907).</ref> He was opposed for his Greek background by the French Cardinal [[Alain de Coëtivy]].

[[File:Chiostri del palazzo dei ss. apostoli, monumento al cardinale bessarione (m. 1472) 01.JPG|thumb|175x175px|Tomb of Bessarion in the [[Santi Apostoli, Rome]].]]
For five years (1450–1455), he was [[papal legate|legate]] at [[Bologna]], and he was engaged on embassies to many foreign princes, among others to [[Louis XI of France]] in 1471.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=821}}  Other missions were to Germany to encourage Western princes to help their fellow Christians in the East.  For these efforts, his fellow humanist Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, then [[Pope Pius II|Pius II]], gave him the purely ceremonial title of [[Latin Patriarch of Constantinople]] in 1463. As ''primus Cardinalium'' (from April 1463) – the title [[Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals]] was not yet in use – Cardinal Bessarion presided over the [[Papal conclave, 1464]]<ref>J. P. Adams, [http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/SV1464.html ''Sede Vacante of 1464''.] Retrieved: 6 April 2016.</ref> and [[Papal conclave, 1471]].<ref>J. P. Adams, [http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/SV1471.html ''Sede Vacante 1471''.] Retrieved: 6 April 2016.</ref>

He died on 18 November 1472 at [[Ravenna]]. He is buried in the basilica of the [[Santi Apostoli, Rome]].