Editing Ambrose Traversari

{{Short description|Italian monk and theologian (1386–1439)}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix = Saint 
|name= Ambrose Traversari
|honorific_suffix = O.S.B. Cam.
|birth_date=1386
|death_date=20 October 1439
|feast_day= 20 November
|venerated_in= [[Roman Catholic Church]]<br>([[Camaldolese|Camaldolese Order]])
|image= S.M. degli angeli, chiostro della sacrestia 18 Ambrogio Traversari, Pietro Francavilla, angeli.JPG
|imagesize= 250px
|caption= Bust of Traversari in the [[sacristy]] cloister of the<br>[[Church of St. Mary of the Angels, Florence]], Italy
|birth_place= [[Portico di Romagna]],<br>[[Province of Forlì-Cesena|Forlì]], [[Papal States]]
|death_place= [[Florence]], [[Republic of Florence]]
|titles= Scholar, theologian and saint<br>[[Superior general|Prior General]] of the [[Camaldolese]] Order
|beatified_date=  
|beatified_place=
|beatified_by=
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
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|attributes=
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|major_shrine= 
|suppressed_date=
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}}
'''Ambrogio Traversari''', also referred to as '''Ambrose of Camaldoli''' (1386{{snd}}20 October 1439), was an [[Italian people|Italian]] [[monk]] and [[Catholic theology|theologian]] who was a prime supporter of the [[papal]] cause in the 15th century. He is honored as a saint by the [[Camaldolese]] Order.

==Biography==
[[Traversari]] was born near [[Forlì]], in the village of [[Portico e San Benedetto|Portico di Romagna]] in 1386.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}  At the age of 14 he entered the Camaldolese Order in the Monastery of [[Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence|St. Mary of the Angels]] in [[Florence]], and soon acquired a reputation as a leading theologian and [[Hellenism (Academia)|Hellenist]]. In his study of [[Greek literature]] his master was [[Manuel Chrysoloras|Emmanuel Chrysoloras]]. Traversari worked primarily as a scholar until he became [[Prior (ecclesiastical)|prior]] general of the Order in 1431.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Traversari emerged as a leading advocate of [[papal primacy]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} This attitude he showed clearly when he attended the [[Council of Florence|Council of Basel]] as legate of [[Pope Eugene IV]]{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} and defended the [[Papal primacy |primacy of the pope]], calling upon the council not to "rend asunder [[Jesus|Christ's]] seamless robe".{{sfn|Becket|1913}} He was next sent by Eugene  to the Emperor [[Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor|Sigismund]] to ask his aid in the pope's efforts to end this council, which for five years had been encroaching on papal prerogatives. Eugene transferred the council from [[Basel]] to [[Ferrara]] on 18 September 1437.{{sfn|Becket|1913}}

So strong was Traversari's hostility to some of the delegates that he described Basel as a western [[Babylon (New Testament)|Babylon]]. He likewise supported the pope at Ferrara and Florence, and worked hard in the attempt to reconcile the Eastern and Western Churches.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} But in this council, and later, in that of Florence, Traversari, by his efforts and charity toward some indigent Greek bishops, greatly helped to bring about a union of the two Churches, the decree for which, 6 July 1439, he was called on to prepare a draft.

Ambrose Traversari died soon after.{{sfn|Becket|1913}} His [[calendar of saints|feastday]] is celebrated by the Camaldolese Order on 20 November.

==Character==
According to the author of his biography in the eleventh edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'': "Ambrose is interesting as typical of the new humanism which was growing up within the church. Thus while among his own colleagues he seemed merely a hypocritical and arrogant priest, in his relations with his brother humanists, such as [[Cosimo de' Medici]], he appeared as the student of classical antiquities and especially of Greek theological authors".{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Works==
His works include a treatise on the Holy [[Eucharist]], one on the [[Trinity (Christianity)#Eternal generation and procession|Procession of the Holy Spirit]], many lives of saints, as well as a history of his term as prior general of the Camaldolese. He also translated from [[Greek language|Greek]] into [[Latin]] a life of [[John Chrysostom]] ([[Venice]], 1533); the ''Spiritual Wisdom'' of [[Joannes Moschus|John Moschus]]; ''[[The Ladder of Divine Ascent]]'' of [[John Climacus]] (Venice, 1531), P.G., LXXXVIII.{{sfn|Becket|1913}}  Between 1424 and 1433 he worked on the translation of the ''[[Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers]]'' by [[Diogenes Laërtius]], which came to be widely circulated in manuscript form. He also translated four books against the errors of the Greeks, by [[Manuel Kalekas]], [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Patriarch of Constantinople]], a [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] [[friar]] ([[Ingolstadt]], 1608), P.G., CLII, col. 13-661, a work known only through Ambrose's translation.

He also translated many homilies of John Chrysostom; the writings of Dionysius Areopagita (1436);<ref>In his 1498 edition of these works, Jacques LeFèvre d’Étaples praised them as “The most holy works of the divine Dionysius the Areopagite, of such worth and excellence that no praise in words can hope to equal” (sacratissima opera tanta excellentie dignitate eminentia ut commendationis eorum nullus unquam verbis valeat assequi summam) Jacobus Faber Stapulensis piis lectoribus, ''Theologia Vivificans; cibus solidus'', 1498. [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k543103.r=%22Theologia%20Vivificans%2C%20cibus%20solidus%22?rk=42918;4]</ref> [[Basil of Caesarea]]'s treatise on [[virginity]]; thirty-nine discourses of [[Ephrem the Syrian]], and many other works of the [[Fathers of the Church|Fathers]] and writers of the [[Greek Orthodox Church|Greek Church]]. [[Jean Mabillon]]'s ''Letters and Orations of St. Ambrose of Camaldoli'' was published in Florence in 1759.{{sfn|Becket|1913}}

Selected works:
*''Hodoeporicon'', diary of a journey visiting the monasteries of Italy<ref name=Drane>[https://archive.org/details/christianschool00drangoog/page/n574 <!-- pg=602 quote=Ambrose Traversari. --> Drane, Augusta Theodosia. ''Christian Schools and Scholars'', Burns and Oates, 1881, p. 602]</ref>
*''Epistolarium'', correspondence<ref name=Drane/>
*translations of
**[[Palladius of Galatia|Palladius]], ''Life of Chrysostom''
**[[Ephraem Syrus]], ''Nineteen Sermons of Ephraem Syrus''
**[[Basil of Caesarea]], ''On Virginity''
**[[Diogenes Laërtius]], ''Vitae philosophorum'' (''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'')<ref>[http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/medieval/chklst/chkbyw.htm Diogenes Laertius]</ref>
**[[Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite]] (1436){{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

A number of his manuscripts remain in the library of Saint Mark in Venice.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==See also==
*[[Traversari]]
*[[The Baptism of Christ (Piero della Francesca)|''The Baptism of Christ'' (Piero della Francesca)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
'''Attribution'''
*{{Catholic|first=John J. A'|last=Becket |wstitle=St. Ambrose of Camaldoli}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Ambrose the Camaldulian|volume=1|page=800}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|first=Charles L.|last=Stinger|year=1977|title=Humanism and the Church Fathers: Ambrogio [[Traversari]] (1386–1439) and Christian Antiquity in the Italian Renaissance}}
*{{cite journal|first=Georgia|last=Clarke|title=Ambrogio Traversari: Artistic Adviser in Early Fifteenth-Century Florence?|journal=Renaissance Studies|volume=11|pages=161–178|date=September 1997|doi=10.1111/j.1477-4658.1997.tb00018.x|issue=3}}
*{{cite journal|first=D. F.|last=Lackner|title='The Camaldolese Academy: Ambrogio [[Traversari]], Marsilio Ficino & the Christian Platonic Tradition'|journal=Marsilio Ficino: His Theology, His Philosophy, His Legacy, ed. Michael J.B. Allen & Valery Rees, with Martin Davies|date=2002}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Ambrogio Traversari}}
* [http://www.tertullian.org/articles/traversari_index.htm Letters] – a few letters in the original Latin and a portrait of him from a manuscript he copied.
* {{DBI |title= TRAVERSARI, Ambrogio |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ambrogio-traversari_(Dizionario-Biografico)|last= Saccenti|first= Riccardo|volume= 96}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061007164028/http://www.altraromagna.net/eng/territorio/ter05.htm Contains short biography]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Traversari, Ambrose}}
[[Category:1386 births]]
[[Category:1439 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Portico e San Benedetto]]
[[Category:14th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:15th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:15th-century Italian Roman Catholic theologians]]
[[Category:Camaldolese saints]]
[[Category:Medieval Italian saints]]
[[Category:Italian Benedictines]]
[[Category:Benedictine saints]]
[[Category:Benedictine scholars]]
[[Category:Benedictine theologians]]
[[Category:15th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:Greek–Latin translators]]
[[Category:15th-century Italian writers]]
[[Category:Italian Renaissance humanists]]