Editing Gemistos Plethon (section)

== Biography ==

===Early life and career===
Georgios Gemistos Plethon was born in [[Constantinople]] ''circa'' 1355/1360.<ref name="Merry">Merry, Bruce (2002) "George Gemistos Plethon (c. 1355/60–1452)" in Amoia, Alba & Knapp, Bettina L., ''Multicultural Writers from Antiquity to 1945: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook''. Greenwood Publishing Group.</ref> Raised in a family of well-educated Orthodox Christians,<ref name="de Biasi 2011 p. 19">{{cite book | last=de Biasi | first=J.L. | title=The Divine Arcana of the Aurum Solis: Using Tarot Talismans for Ritual & Initiation | publisher=Llewellyn Publications | year=2011 | isbn=978-0-7387-2086-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EbqSPpAj0sEC&pg=PA19 | access-date=2023-02-16 | page=19}}</ref> he studied in Constantinople and [[Adrianople]], before returning to Constantinople and establishing himself as a teacher of philosophy.<ref name="Hanegraaff p.31">Hanegraaff p.31</ref> Adrianople, the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] capital following its capture by the Ottoman [[Sultan Murad I]] in 1365, was a centre of learning modelled by Murad on the caliphates of [[Cairo]] and [[Baghdad]].<ref name="Merry"/> Plethon admired [[Plato]] (Greek: ''Plátōn'') so much that late in life he took the similar-meaning name ''Plethon''.<ref>Πλήθων: "the full", pronounced {{IPA|el|ˈpliθon|}}. Plethon is also an archaic translation of the [[modern Greek language|Greek]] γεμιστός ''gemistós'' ("full, stuffed")</ref> Some time before 1410, Emperor [[Manuel II Paleologos]] sent him to [[Mystras|Mystra]] in the [[Despotate of Morea]] in the southern Peloponnese,<ref name="CambridgePolitical">{{cite book |pages=77–8 |editor-last=Burns |editor-first=James Henderson  |title=The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought C. 350 – C. 1450 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1991}}</ref> which remained his home for the rest of his life. In Constantinople, he had been a senator, and he continued to fulfil various public functions, such as being a judge, and was regularly consulted by rulers of Morea. Despite suspicions of heresy from the Church, he was held in high Imperial favour.<ref name="Hanegraaff p.31"/>

In Mystra he taught and wrote philosophy, astronomy, history and geography, and compiled digests of many classical writers. His pupils included [[Bessarion]] and [[George Scholarius]] (later to become [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Patriarch of Constantinople]] and Plethon's enemy). He was made chief magistrate by [[Theodore II Palaiologos, Lord of Morea|Theodore II]].<ref name="Merry"/> He produced his major writings during his time in Italy and after his return.<ref name="Hanegraaff p.32">Hanegraaff p.32</ref>

===Council of Florence===
In 1428 Plethon was consulted by [[John VIII Palaiologos|Emperor John VIII]] on the issue of unifying the Greek and Latin churches, and advised that both delegations should have equal voting power.<ref name="Merry"/> Byzantine scholars had been in contact with their counterparts in Western [[Europe]] since the time of the [[Latin Empire]], and especially since the Byzantine Empire had begun to ask for Western European help against the [[Ottoman Turks|Ottomans]] in the 14th century. Western Europe had some access to ancient [[Greek philosophy]] through the [[Catholic Church]] and the [[Muslim]]s, but the Byzantines had many documents and interpretations that the Westerners had never seen before. Byzantine scholarship became more fully available to the West after 1438, when [[Byzantine emperor]] [[John VIII Palaiologos]] attended the Council of Ferrara, later known as the [[Council of Florence]], to discuss a union of the [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Eastern (Orthodox)]] and [[Catholic Church|Western (Catholic)]] churches. Despite not being a theologian, Plethon was chosen to accompany John VIII on the basis of his renowned wisdom and morality. Other delegates included Plethon's former students Bessarion, [[Mark Eugenikos]] and [[Gennadius Scholarius]].<ref name="DeBolt">DeBolt, Darien C. (1998) [http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Medi/MediDebo.htm ''George Gemistos Plethon on God: Heterodoxy in Defence of Orthodoxy'']. A paper delivered at the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy, Boston, Mass. Retrieved 2008-11-20.</ref>

===Plethon and the Renaissance===
At the invitation of some Florentine humanists he set up a temporary school to lecture on the difference between Plato and [[Aristotle]]. Few of Plato's writings were studied in the Latin West at that time,<ref>''Timaeus'' in the partial translation of [[Calcidius]] was available; [[Henricus Aristippus]]' 12th century translation of the ''Meno'' and ''Phaedo'' was available, but obscure; [[Leonardo Bruni]]'s translations of the ''Phaedo'', ''Apology'', ''Crito'' and ''Phaedrus'' appeared only shortly before Plethon's visit. (DeBolt)</ref> and he essentially reintroduced much of Plato to the Western world, shaking the domination which [[Aristotle]] had come to exercise over Western European thought in the high and later [[Middle Ages]].

Marsilio Ficino's introduction to the translation of Plotinus<ref>{{Cite journal|last=James|first=Hankins|title=Cosimo de' Medici and the 'Platonic Academy'|url=https://www.academia.edu/22668009|journal=Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes|year=1990 |language=en|volume=53|issue=1 |pages=144–162 |doi=10.2307/751344 |jstor=751344 |s2cid=186398177 |issn=0075-4390}}</ref> has traditionally been interpreted to the effect that [[Cosimo de' Medici]] attended Pletho's lectures and was inspired to found the ''[[Platonic Academy (Florence)|Accademia Platonica]]'' in Florence, where Italian students of Plethon continued to teach after the conclusion of the council.<ref name="DeBolt"/> However, according to [[James Hankins]], Ficino was misunderstood. In fact, communication between Plethon and Cosimo de' Medici - for whose meeting there is no independent evidence - would have been severely constrained by the language barrier. Furthermore, Ficino's "Platonic Academy" was more of an "informal gymnasium" that did not have a particularly Platonic orientation.<ref name="Hanegraaff p.41">Hanegraaff p.41</ref> Nevertheless, Plethon came to be considered one of the most important influences on the Italian [[Renaissance]]. [[Marsilio Ficino]], the Florentine [[Humanism|humanist]] and the first director of the Accademia Platonica, paid Plethon the ultimate honour, calling him 'the second Plato', while Cardinal Bessarion speculated as to whether Plato's soul occupied his body. Plethon may also have been the source for Ficino's [[Orphism (religion)|Orphic]] system of [[natural magic]].<ref name="Merry"/>

While still in Florence, Pletho wrote a volume titled ''Wherein Aristotle disagrees with Plato'', commonly called ''De Differentiis'', to correct the misunderstandings he had encountered. He claimed he had written it "without serious intent" while incapacitated through illness, "to comfort myself and to please those who are dedicated to Plato".<ref name="Hanegraaff p.32"/> [[Gennadius Scholarius|George Scholarius]] responded with a ''Defence of Aristotle'', which elicited Plethon's subsequent ''Reply''. Expatriate Byzantine scholars and later Italian humanists continued the argument.<ref name="DeBolt"/>

Plethon died in Mistra in 1452, or in 1454, according to J. Monfasani (the difference between the two dates being significant as to whether or not Plethon still lived to know of the [[Fall of Constantinople]] in 1453). In 1466, some of his Italian disciples, headed by [[Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta]], stole his remains from Mistra and interred them in the [[Tempio Malatestiano]] in [[Rimini]], "so that the great Teacher may be among free men".{{citation needed||date=November 2022}}