Editing Manuel Chrysoloras

{{Short description|Byzantine Greek scholar, diplomat, and professor (c. 1350–1415)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{More footnotes|date=August 2011}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Manuel Chrysoloras
| image         = Manuel-chrysoloras-paolo-uccello-louvre-15th.jpg
| alt           = 
| caption       = Manuel Chrysoloras portrayed by [[Paolo Uccello]] in 1408. Drawing currently preserved in the [[Louvre Museum]], Paris.
| birth_name    = 
| birth_date    =  c. 1350<ref name="Chrysoloras"/>
| birth_place   = [[Constantinople]], [[Byzantine Empire]]<ref name="Chrysoloras"/>
| death_date    = 15 April 1415
| death_place   = [[Free imperial city]] of [[Konstanz|Constance]]<br />(modern-day [[Konstanz]], [[Germany]])
| nationality   = [[Byzantine Greeks|Byzantine Greek]]<ref name="Chrysoloras">{{cite book |author-last=Arabatzis |author-first=George |year=2011 |chapter=Manuel Chrysoloras |editor-last=Lagerlund |editor-first=Henrik |title=Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy: Philosophy between 500 and 1500 |location=[[Dordrecht]] |publisher=[[Springer Verlag]] |doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-9729-4 |pages=709–711 |isbn=978-1-4020-9729-4 |quote='''Manuel Chrysoloras''' (c. 1350–1415) was a Byzantine writer and scholar better known as professor of Greek language in [[Republic of Florence|Florence]] after 1397, the first one to hold public teaching office of Greek in Italy. His audience included famous [[Italian humanism|Italian humanists]] like [[Guarino da Verona]] (his most loyal pupil), [[Jacopo d'Angelo|Jacopo Angeli da Scarperia]], [[Coluccio Salutati]], [[Roberto de' Rossi|Roberto Rossi]], [[Niccolò de' Niccoli|Niccolò Niccoli]], [[Leonardo Bruni]], [[Carlo Marsuppini]], [[Pier Paolo Vergerio]], Uberto Decembrio, and others. After 1400, Chrysoloras left his teaching position and carried out mainly diplomatic missions in the service of the [[Byzantine emperor]] [[Manuel II Palaiologos]].}}</ref>
| other_names   = 
| occupation    = Diplomat, educator, scholar, and professor<ref name="Chrysoloras"/>
| years_active  = 1390–1415
| known_for     = Translating works of [[Homer]], [[Aristotle]], and [[Plato]] into [[Latin]]
| notable_works =  ''[[Erotemata Civas Questiones]] ''
}}

'''Manuel''' (or '''Emmanuel''') '''Chrysoloras''' ({{langx|el|Μανουὴλ Χρυσολωρᾶς}}; c. 1350<ref name="Chrysoloras"/> – 15 April 1415) was a [[Byzantine Greeks|Byzantine Greek]] [[classical scholar]], [[Renaissance humanist|humanist]], [[philosopher]], [[professor]], and [[translator]] of ancient Greek texts during the [[Renaissance]].<ref name="Chrysoloras"/><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Manuel Chrysoloras {{!}} Greek scholar|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Manuel-Chrysoloras|access-date=2021-07-20|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> Serving as the ambassador for the [[Byzantine emperor]] [[Manuel II Palaiologos]] in [[medieval Italy]], he became a renowned teacher of [[Greek literature]] and [[History of Greece|history]] in the republics of [[Republic of Florence|Florence]] and [[Republic of Venice|Venice]], and today he's widely regarded as a pioneer in the introduction of [[ancient Greek literature]] to [[Western Europe]] during the [[Late Middle Ages]].<ref name="Chrysoloras"/><ref name=":0" />

==Biography==
[[File:La Cosmographie de Claude Ptolemée, 0009.jpg|thumb|[[Jacopo d'Angelo]]'s Latin translation of [[Claudius Ptolemy|Ptolemy]]'s ''[[Ptolemy's Geography|Geography]]'' ({{circa}} 1411–1427); scan from the Nancy Library.]]

Chrysoloras was born in [[Constantinople]], at the time capital of the [[Byzantine Empire]], to a distinguished [[Greek Orthodox Church|Greek Orthodox]] family. In 1390, he led an embassy sent to the [[Republic of Venice]] by the [[Byzantine emperor]] [[Manuel II Palaiologos]] to ask the aid of the [[Christianity in the Middle Ages|Christian princes of Medieval Europe]] against the invasions of the Byzantine Empire by the [[Muslims|Muslim]] [[Ottoman Turks]]. [[Roberto de' Rossi]] of [[Republic of Florence|Florence]] met him in Venice, and, in 1395, Rossi's acquaintance [[Jacopo d'Angelo]] set off for Constantinople to study Greek with Chrysoloras. In 1396, [[Coluccio Salutati]], the [[Chancellor of Florence]], invited him to Florence to teach [[Byzantine Greek|Greek grammar]] and [[Greek literature|literature]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Salutati |first1=Coluccio |url=https://archive.org/details/epistolariodicol03salu/page/118/mode/2up |title=Epistolario di Coluccio Salutati |last2=Novati |first2=Francesco |date=1891 |publisher=Roma : Forzani E.C. Tipografidel Senato |others=PIMS – University of Toronto |pages=vol. 3, p. 119 ff}}</ref> In a letter to Poggio Bracciolini, quoting the Roman lawyer and statesman [[Cicero]], Salutati wrote:
:"The verdict of our own Cicero confirms that we Romans either made wiser innovations than theirs by ourselves or improved on what we took from them, but of course, as he himself says elsewhere with reference to his own day: "Italy is invincible in war, Greece in culture." For our part, and we mean no offence, we firmly believe that both Greeks and Latins have always taken learning to a higher level by extending it to each other's literature."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Salutati |first1=Coluccio |url=https://archive.org/details/p1epistolariodicol04salu/page/132/mode/2up |title=Epistolario di Coluccio Salutati |last2=Novati |first2=Francesco |date=1891 |publisher=Roma : Forzani E.C. Tipografidel Senato |others=PIMS – University of Toronto |pages=vol. 4, par. 1, p. 132}}</ref>

Chrysoloras arrived in the winter of 1397, an event remembered by one of his most famous pupils, the Italian humanist scholar [[Leonardo Bruni]],<ref name="Chrysoloras"/> as a great new opportunity: there were many teachers of law, but no one had studied Greek in [[northern Italy]] for 700 years. Another very famous pupil of Chrysoloras was [[Ambrogio Traversari]], who became general of the [[Camaldolese|Camaldolese order]]. Chrysoloras remained only a few years in Florence, from 1397 to 1400, teaching Greek, starting with the rudiments. He moved on to teach in [[Bologna]], and later in Venice and [[Rome]]. Though he taught widely, a handful of his chosen students remained a close-knit group, among the first [[Renaissance humanism|humanists]] of the [[Renaissance]]. Among his pupils were numbered some of the foremost figures of the revival of Greek studies in Renaissance Italy.<ref name="Chrysoloras"/> Aside from Bruni, d'Angelo, and [[Ambrose the Camaldulian|Ambrogio Traversari]], they included [[Guarino da Verona]], [[Coluccio Salutati]], Roberto Rossi, [[Niccolò de' Niccoli]], [[Carlo Marsuppini]], [[Pier Paolo Vergerio]], [[Uberto Decembrio]], [[Palla Strozzi]], and many others.<ref name="Chrysoloras"/>

Having visited [[Milan]] and [[Pavia]], and having resided for several years in Venice, he went to Rome on the invitation of Bruni, who was then secretary to [[Pope Gregory XII]]. In 1408, he was sent to [[Paris]] on an important mission from the Byzantine emperor [[Manuel II Palaiologos]]. In 1413, he went to Germany on an embassy to the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor|Sigismund]], the object of which was to fix a place for the [[Synod|church council]] that later assembled at [[Council of Constance|Constance]]. Chrysoloras was on his way there, having been chosen to represent the Greek Church, when he died suddenly. His death gave rise to commemorative essays of which [[Guarino da Verona]] made a collection in ''Chrysolorina''.

Chrysoloras translated the works of [[Homer]], [[Aristotle]], and [[Plato]]'s ''[[The Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'' into Latin. His own works, which circulated in manuscript in his lifetime, include brief works on the Procession of the Holy Ghost, and letters to his brothers, to [[Leonardo Bruni|Bruni]], [[Guarino da Verona|Guarino]], [[Ambrogio Traversari|Traversari]], and to [[Palla Strozzi|Strozzi]], as well as two which were eventually printed, his ''[[Erotemata]]'' (''Questions'') which was the first basic Greek grammar in use in Western Europe, first published in 1484 and widely reprinted, and which enjoyed considerable success not only among his pupils in Florence, but also among later leading humanists, being immediately studied by [[Thomas Linacre]] at [[Oxford]] and by [[Desiderius Erasmus]] at [[Cambridge]]; and ''Epistolæ tres de comparatione veteris et novæ Romæ'' (''Three Letters on the Comparison of Old and New Rome,'' i.e. a comparison of Rome and Constantinople). Many of his treatises on [[Morality|morals]] and [[ethics]] and other philosophical subjects came into print in the 17th and 18th centuries, because of their antiquarian interest. He was chiefly influential through his teaching in familiarizing men such as [[Leonardo Bruni]], [[Coluccio Salutati]], [[Jacopo d'Angelo]], [[Roberto de' Rossi]], [[Carlo Marsuppini]], [[Pietro Candido Decembrio]], [[Guarino da Verona]], with the masterpieces of [[Western philosophy]] and [[ancient Greek literature]].<ref name="Chrysoloras"/>

==See also==
* [[Byzantine art]]
* [[Cretan School]]
* [[Byzantine science]]
* [[Greek College]]
* [[Greek scholars in the Renaissance]]
* [[Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice|Hellenic Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies]]
* [[List of Byzantine scholars]]
* [[Renaissance humanism]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Chrysoloras's ''Erotemata'' are edited by A. Rollo, ''Gli'' Erotemata ''tra Crisolora e Guarino'' (Percorsi dei classici 21), Messina 2012.
* Chrysoloras's letters can be found in ''Patrologia Graeca'', ed. [[J.P. Migne|J.-P. Migne]], vol, 156, Paris 1866.
* M. Baxandall, 'Guarino, Pisanello and Manuel Chrysoloras', ''Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes'' 28 (1965), 183–204.
* [[Émile Legrand (scholar)|Émile Legrand]]: ''Notice biographique sur Manuel Chrysoloras'', Paris 1894.
* Jonathan Harris, ''Greek Émigrés in the West, 1400–1520'', Camberley UK: Porphyrogenitus, 1995. {{ISBN|1-871328-11-X}}
* S. Mergiali-Sahas, S., 'Manuel Chrysoloras: an ideal model of a scholar ambassador', ''Byzantine Studies/Etudes Byzantines'', 3 (1998), 1–12
* I. Thompson, 'Manuel Chrysoloras and the early Italian Renaissance', ''Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies'', 7 (1966), 63–82
* Lydia Thorn-Wikkert, ''Manuel Chrysoloras (ca. 1350–1415): Eine Biographie des byzantinischen Intellektuellen vor dem Hintergrund der hellenistischen Studien in der italienischen Renaissance'', Frankfurt am Main, 2006.
* N.G. Wilson, ''From Byzantium to Italy. Greek Studies in the Italian Renaissance'', London, 1992. {{ISBN|0-7156-2418-0}}

==External links==
* {{MathGenealogy|id=135185}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040515043300/http://130.238.50.3/ilmh/Ren/hum-reeve-greek.htm Michael D. Reeve, "On the role of Greek in Renaissance scholarship.']
* [https://the-orb.arlima.net/encyclop/late/laterbyz/harris-ren.html Jonathan Harris, 'Byzantines in Renaissance Italy'.]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070418132206/http://www.txclassics.org/greekarticles8.htm#chrysoloras Richard L.S. Evans, "Chrysoloras' Greek: The Pedagogy of Cultural Transformation."]
* {{CathEncy|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09614a.htm|title=Manuel Chrysoloras}}

{{EB1911|wstitle=Chrysoloras, Manuel}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chrysoloras, Manuel}}
[[Category:1350s births]]
[[Category:1415 deaths]]
[[Category:14th-century Byzantine writers]]
[[Category:14th-century Greek educators]]
[[Category:14th-century Greek philosophers]]
[[Category:14th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:14th-century translators]]
[[Category:15th-century Byzantine writers]]
[[Category:15th-century Greek educators]]
[[Category:15th-century Greek philosophers]]
[[Category:15th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:15th-century translators]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the Byzantine Empire to the Republic of Venice]]
[[Category:Constantinopolitan Greeks]]
[[Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Greece]]
[[Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from the Byzantine Empire]]
[[Category:Eastern Orthodox philosophers]]
[[Category:Grammarians from the Byzantine Empire]]
[[Category:Greek–Latin translators]]
[[Category:Greek expatriates in Italy]]
[[Category:Greek Latinists]]
[[Category:Greek Renaissance humanists]]
[[Category:Immigrants to the Holy Roman Empire]]
[[Category:Immigrants to the Republic of Venice]]
[[Category:Renaissance writers]]
[[Category:Translators of Ancient Greek texts]]
[[Category:Translators of Homer]]
[[Category:Writers from Constantinople]]