Editing Constantine Lascaris

{{Short description|Greek grammarian and scholar (1434–1501)}}
{{Distinguish|Constantine Laskaris}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}
[[File:Lascaris 1493.JPG|thumb|right|200px|Constantine Lascaris as depicted by Paolo Fidanza (18th century).]] '''Constantine Lascaris''' ({{langx|el|Κωνσταντῖνος Λάσκαρις}} ''Kostantinos Láskaris''; 1434 – 15 August 1501) was a [[Greeks|Greek]] scholar and [[grammar]]ian, one of the promoters of the revival of Greek learning in Italy during the [[Renaissance]], born in [[Constantinople]].

==Life==
Constantine Lascaris was born in [[Constantinople]], where he was educated by the scholar [[John Argyropoulos]], [[Gemistus Pletho]]'s friend and pupil. After the [[fall of Constantinople]] in 1453, he took refuge in [[Rhodes]] and then in Italy, where [[Francesco Sforza]], [[Rulers of Milan|Duke of Milan]], appointed him [[Greek language|Greek]] tutor to his daughter [[Ippolita Maria Sforza|Hippolyta]]. Here was published his ''Grammatica Graeca, sive compendium octo orationis partium'', remarkable as being probably the first book entirely in Greek issued from the [[printing press]], in 1476.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

[[File:ConstantineLascaris.jpeg|thumb|right|175px|Constantine Lascaris writing his ''Grammatica'' as depicted by [[Pierre de Nolhac]]''.'' (1887)]]

After leaving [[Milan]] in 1465, Lascaris taught in Rome and in [[Naples]], to which he had been summoned by [[Ferdinand I of Naples|Ferdinand I]] to deliver a course of lectures on [[Greece]]. In the following year, on the invitation of the inhabitants, and especially of Ludovico Saccano, he settled in [[Messina]] ([[Sicily]]). On the recommendation of Cardinal [[Bessarion]], he was appointed to succeed [[Andronikos Galaziotes]] to teach Greek to the Basilian monks of the island.  He continued to work in Messina until his death, teaching many pupils who came on purpose to Sicily, from all over Italy, to learn grammar and Greek culture from him.

Among his numerous pupils in Milan was [[Giorgio Valla]] and, in Messina, [[Pietro Bembo]], Angelo Gabrieli, Urbano Valeriani, Cola Bruno, Bernardino Rizzo, Francesco Faraone, Antonio Maurolico (the father of [[Francesco Maurolico]]), Francesco Giannelli and Cristóbal Escobar. Lascaris bequeathed his library of valuable manuscripts of philosophy, science and magic to the [[Senate of Messina]]; the collection, after the Messina revolt (1674-1678), was confiscated and carried to [[Spain]] and is now in the [[Spanish National Library]] in [[Madrid]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} In the second half of the sixteenth century his tomb in Messina was totally destroyed during the repression of the [[Counter-Reformation]].<ref>Russo (2003-2004), pp. 22-28.</ref> He was a typical Renaissance humanist, with polymathic interests, but especially in [[Neoplatonism]] combined with [[Pythagoreanism]] (which was dear to many contemporary Byzantine scholars).<ref>Russo (2003-2004), pp. 46-78.</ref> Through his pupils Antonio Maurolico, Francesco Faraone and Giacomo Notese-Genovese his knowledge reached the scientist Francesco Maurolico.<ref>Russo (2018), pp. 50-51, 70-71 note 69.</ref>

Lascaris died in [[Messina]] in 1501.

==Work==
The ''Grammatica'', which has often been reprinted (including the famous [[Aldus Manutius|Manuzio]]'s edition of 1494–1495 with the [[The golden verses of Pythagoras|''Golden Verses'']] of [[Pythagoras]]), is the most valuable work produced by Lascaris. In 1499 at Messina he published the ''Vitae illustrium philosophorum siculorum et calabrorum'', with the first Renaissance biography of Pythagoras. Some of his letters are given by [[Johannes Iriarte]] in the ''Regiae Bibliothecae Matritensis codices Graeci manuscripti'' (Madrid, 1769). His name was later known to readers in the romance of [[Abel-François Villemain]], ''Lascaris, ou les Grecs du quinzieme siècle'' (1825). See also [[John Edwin Sandys]], ''Hist. Class. Schol.'', ed. 2, vol. ii (1908), pp.&nbsp;76 foll.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==See also==
*[[Greek scholars in the Renaissance]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
'''Attribution:'''
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Lascaris, Constantine|volume=16|page=232}}

==References==
*{{Cite CE1913 |last=Lejay |first=Paul |wstitle=Constantine Lascaris |volume=9}}
* Fernández Pomar, José María (1966). "La colección de Uceda y los manuscritos griegos de Constantino Láscaris", ''Emerita'', 34, 1966, 211–88.
* Harris, Jonathan (1995). ''Greek Émigrés in the West, 1400-1520'', Camberley UK: Porphyrogenitus, 1995. {{ISBN|1-871328-11-X}}
* Martínez Manzano, Teresa (1994). ''Konstantinos Laskaris. Humanist, Philologe, Lehrer, Kopist'', Hamburg, 1994.
* Russo, Attilio (2003-2004). "Costantino Lascaris tra fama e oblio nel Cinquecento messinese", ''Archivio Storico Messinese'', 84–85, Messina 2003–2004, 5-87. {{ISSN|0392-0240}}
* Russo, Attilio (2018). "Una nuova ipotesi sul nome ‘Maurolico’ ", ''Archivio Storico Messinese'', 99, Messina 2018, 37-71. {{ISSN|1122-701X}}
* De Rosalia, Antonino (1958). "La vita di Costantino Lascaris", ''Archivio Storico Siciliano'', 3, IX, 1957–1958, 21–70.
* Vassileiou, Fotis-Saribalidou, Barbara (2007). ''Short Biographical Lexicon of Byzantine Academics Immigrants in Western Europe'', 2007.
* Wilson, Nigel Guy (1992). ''From Byzantium to Italy. Greek Studies in the Italian Renaissance'', London, 1992. {{ISBN|0-7156-2418-0}}

==External links==
*[http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=596 Excerpt from one of his works] - on [[Diodorus Siculus]]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lascaris, Constantine}}
[[Category:1434 births]]
[[Category:1501 deaths]]
[[Category:Constantinopolitan Greeks]]
[[Category:Grammarians from the Byzantine Empire]]
[[Category:Italian people of Greek descent]]
[[Category:Greek Renaissance humanists]]
[[Category:Greek refugees]]
[[Category:15th-century Byzantine writers]]
[[Category:15th-century Greek writers]]
[[Category:15th-century Greek educators]]
[[Category:People from Constantinople]]