George of Trebizond ( el, Γεώργιος Τραπεζούντιος; 1395–1486) was a Byzantine Greek
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
, scholar, and
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "human ...
.
Life
He was born on the Greek island of
Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...
(then a Venetian colony known as the
Kingdom of Candia), and derived his surname Trapezuntius from the fact that his ancestors were from the
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
Greek
Trapezuntine Empire
The Empire of Trebizond, or Trapezuntine Empire, was a monarchy and one of three successor rump states of the Byzantine Empire, along with the Despotate of the Morea and the Principality of Theodoro, that flourished during the 13th through to t ...
.
When he went to
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
is not certain; according to some accounts he was summoned to
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
about 1430 to act as
amanuensis
An amanuensis () is a person employed to write or type what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another, and also refers to a person who signs a document on behalf of another under the latter's authority. In one example Eric Fenby ...
to
Francesco Barbaro, who appears to have already made his acquaintance; according to others he did not visit
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
till the time of the
Council of Florence
The Council of Florence is the seventeenth ecumenical council recognized by the Catholic Church, held between 1431 and 1449. It was convoked as the Council of Basel by Pope Martin V shortly before his death in February 1431 and took place in ...
(1438–1439).
He learned
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
from
Vittorino da Feltre
Vittorino da Feltre (1378February 2, 1446) was an Italian humanist and teacher. He was born in Feltre, Belluno, Republic of Venice and died in Mantua. His real name was Vittorino Rambaldoni. It was in Vittorino that the Renaissance idea of the com ...
, and made such rapid progress that in three years he was able to teach
Latin literature
Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literature ...
and
rhetoric
Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate par ...
.
His reputation as a teacher and a translator of
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...
was very great, and he was selected as secretary by
Pope Nicholas V
Pope Nicholas V ( la, Nicholaus V; it, Niccolò V; 13 November 1397 – 24 March 1455), born Tommaso Parentucelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 March 1447 until his death in March 1455. Pope Eugene made ...
, an ardent Aristotelian. The bitterness of his attacks upon
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
(in the ''Comparatio Aristotelis et Platonis'' of 1458, described by historian
James Hankins as "one of the most remarkable mixtures of learning and lunacy ever penned"), which drew forth a powerful response from
Bessarion (''In calumniatorem Platonis'', printed in 1469)
and the manifestly hurried and inaccurate character of his translations of Plato, Aristotle and other classical authors, combined to ruin his fame as a scholar, and to endanger his position as a teacher of
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...
. (Pope
Pius II
Pope Pius II ( la, Pius PP. II, it, Pio II), born Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini ( la, Aeneas Silvius Bartholomeus, links=no; 18 October 1405 – 14 August 1464), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 August ...
was among the critics of George's translations.) The indignation against George on account of his first-named work was so great that he would probably have been compelled to leave Italy had not
Alfonso V of Aragon
Alfonso the Magnanimous (139627 June 1458) was King of Aragon and King of Sicily (as Alfonso V) and the ruler of the Crown of Aragon from 1416 and King of Naples (as Alfonso I) from 1442 until his death. He was involved with struggles to the ...
given him protection at the court of Naples.
He subsequently returned to
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, where in 1471 he published a very successful Latin grammar based on the work of another Greek grammarian of Latin,
Priscian. Additionally, an earlier work on Greek rhetorical principles garnered him wide recognition, even from his former critics who admitted his brilliance and scholarship. He died in great poverty in 1486 in Rome.
Works
* ''Rhetoricorum libri V.'' A synthesis of the ''
Rhetorica ad Herennium
The ''Rhetorica ad Herennium'' (''Rhetoric for Herennius''), formerly attributed to Cicero or Cornificius, but in fact of unknown authorship, sometimes ascribed to an unnamed doctor, is the oldest surviving Latin book on rhetoric, dating from the ...
'' and the
Hermogenean corpus.
* ''Isagoge dialectica.''
* ''De artificio Ciceronianae orationis pro Quinto Ligario.''
* ''Rhetoricorum.'' A translation of Aristotle's ''Rhetoric.''
For a complete list of his numerous works, consisting of translations from Greek into Latin (Plato, Aristotle and the
Fathers
A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fath ...
) and original essays in Greek (chiefly theological) and Latin (grammatical and rhetorical), see
Fabricius, ''Bibliotheca Graeca'' (ed.
Harles), xii.
See also
*
Byzantine scholars in Renaissance
The migration waves of Byzantine Greek scholars and émigrés in the period following the end of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 is considered by many scholars key to the revival of Greek studies that led to the development of the Renaissance ...
References
Further reading
* C. J. Classen, 'The rhetorical works of George of Trebizond and their debt to Cicero', ''Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes'' 56 (1993), 75–84
* Matthew DeCoursey, 'Continental European Rhetoricians, 1400–1600, and Their Influence in Renaissance England', ''British Rhetoricians and Logicians, 1500–1660, First Series'', DLB 236, Detroit: Gale, 2001, pp. 309–43.
* Jonathan Harris, ''Greek Émigrés in the West, 1400–1520'' (Camberley UK: Porphyrogenitus, 1995).
* John Monfasani, ''George of Trebizond. A biography and a study of his rhetoric and logic'', Leiden, Brill, 1976.
* John Monfasani, ed., ''Collectanea Trapezuntiana. Texts, Documents, and Bibliographies of George of Trebizond'', Binghamton, NY: RSA, 1984.
* Lucia Calboli Montefusco, "Ciceronian and Hermogenean Influences on George of Trebizond's ''Rhetoricorum Libri V''," ''Rhetorica'' 26.2 (2008): 139–164.
* N.G. Wilson, ''From Byzantium to Italy. Greek Studies in the Italian Renaissance'', London, 1992.
* Christos Ch. Kypraios,''The Ideology of Hellenoturkism: From George of Trebizond to Dimitri Kitsikis'' -Istanbul, Bilgi University, 2015 (MA thesis, 107 pages, with maps and charts).
*
G. Voigt, ''Die Wiederbelebung des klassischen Altertums'' (1893);
* Article by
C. F. Behr in
Ersch and
Gruber __NOTOC__
Gruber is a German surname from Austria and Bavaria, referring to a person from a geological depression, mine, or pit. It is the most common surname in Austria (see List of most common surnames).
Places
* Gruber Mountains, Antarctica ...
's ''Allgemeine Enzyklopadie''.
* Harris, Jonathan, 'Byzantines in Renaissance Italy', in Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies �
* Monfasani, John (1976) ''George of Trebizond : a biography and a study of his rhetoric and logic'' Brill, Leiden,
* ''Reject Aeneas, Accept Pius: Selected Letters of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II)'', ed. and tr. T. M. Izbicki, G. Christianson and P. Krey (Washington, DC, 2006), letter no. 61.
*Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007 ed.
;
;Attribution
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:George of Trebizond
1395 births
1486 deaths
15th-century Byzantine people
15th-century Greek people
15th-century Venetian people
15th-century philosophers
Scholars from Crete
Byzantine philosophers
Kingdom of Candia
Greek Renaissance humanists
Greek–Latin translators
Italian people of Greek descent
Amanuenses
15th-century Venetian writers
15th-century Greek writers
15th-century Greek educators