Demetrios Chalkokondyles ( ), Latinized as Demetrius Chalcocondyles and found variously as Demetricocondyles, Chalcocondylas or Chalcondyles (14239 January 1511), was one of the most eminent

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

scholars in the West. He taught in Italy for over forty years; his colleagues included

Marsilio Ficino Marsilio Ficino (; Latin name: ; 19 October 1433 – 1 October 1499) was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance. He was an astrologer, a reviver of Neo ...

Poliziano Agnolo (or Angelo) Ambrogini (; 14 July 1454 – 24 September 1494), commonly known as Angelo Poliziano () or simply Poliziano, anglicized as Politian, was an Italian classical scholar and poet of the Florentine Renaissance. His scholars ...

, and

Theodorus Gaza Theodorus Gaza (, ''Theodoros Gazis''; ; ), also called Theodore Gazis or by the epithet Thessalonicensis and Thessalonikeus (c. 1398 – c. 1475), was a Greek humanist and translator of Aristotle, one of the Greek scholars who were the leader ...

in the revival of letters in the Western world, and Chalkokondyles was the last of the Greek

humanists Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" has ...

who taught Greek literature at the great universities of the Italian Renaissance (

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

). One of his pupils at Florence was the famous

Johann Reuchlin Johann Reuchlin (; 29 January 1455 – 30 June 1522), sometimes called Johannes, was a German Catholic humanist and a scholar of Greek and Hebrew, whose work also took him to modern-day Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and France. Most of Reuchlin's c ...

. Chalkokondyles published the first printed publications of

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

(in 1488), of

Isocrates Isocrates (; ; 436–338 BC) was an ancient Greek rhetorician, one of the ten Attic orators. Among the most influential Greek rhetoricians of his time, Isocrates made many contributions to rhetoric and education through his teaching and writte ...

(in 1493), and of the

Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; ; ) is a large 10th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine encyclopedia of the History of the Mediterranean region, ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas () or Souidas (). It is an ...

lexicon (in 1499).

Life

Demetrios Chalkokondyles was born in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

in 1423 to one of the noblest Athenian families; he was the cousin of

Laonicus Chalcocondyles Laonikos Chalkokondyles (; – ), also latinized as Laonicus Chalcocondyles, was a Byzantine Greek historian from Athens. He is known for his '' Demonstrations of Histories'' in ten books, which record the last 150 years of the Byzantine Empi ...

, the chronicler of the

fall of Constantinople The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city was captured on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 55-da ...

. He soon moved to the

Peloponnese The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridg ...

, with his Athenian family who had migrated after its persecution by the Florentine dukes. He migrated to Italy in 1447 and arrived at

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

in 1449 where

Cardinal Bessarion Bessarion (; 2 January 1403 – 18 November 1472) was a Byzantine Greek Renaissance humanist, theologian, Catholic cardinal and one of the famed Greek scholars who contributed to the revival of letters in the 15th century. He was educated ...

became his patron. He became the student of

and later gained the patronage of

Lorenzo de Medici Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (), known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (; 1 January 1449 – 9 April 1492), was an Italian statesman, the '' de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic, and the most powerful patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Lo ...

, serving as a tutor to his sons. Afterwards Chalkokondyles lived the rest of his life in Italy, as a teacher of Greek and philosophy. One of Chalkokondyles' Italian pupils described his lectures at Perugia, where he taught in 1450: Among his pupils were

Janus Lascaris Janus Lascaris (, ''Ianos Láskaris''; c. 1445, Constantinople – 7 December 1535, Rome), also called John Rhyndacenus (from Rhyndacus, a country town in Asia Minor), was a noted Greek scholar in the Renaissance. Biography After the Fall of Con ...

Leo X Pope Leo X (; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521. Born into the prominent political and banking Me ...

, Castiglione,

Giglio Gregorio Giraldi Giglio Gregorio Giraldi (Lilius Gregorius Gyraldus or Giraldus) (14 June 1479 – February 1552) was an Italian classical scholar and poet. Biography Giglio Gregorio Giraldi was born at Ferrara, where he early distinguished himself by his talen ...

, Stefano Negri, and Giovanni Maria Cattaneo. In 1463 Chalkokondyles was made professor at

, and later, at Francesco Philelpho's suggestion, in 1479 he took over the place of Ioannis Argyropoulos, as the head of the Greek Literature department and was summoned by

. Chalkokondyles composed several orations and treatises calling for the liberation of his homeland

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

from what he called “the abominable, monstrous, and impious barbarian Turks.” In 1463 Chalkokondyles called on

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

and "all of the

Latins The term Latins has been used throughout history to refer to various peoples, ethnicities and religious groups using Latin or the Latin-derived Romance languages, as part of the legacy of the Roman Empire. In the Ancient World, it referred to th ...

" to aid the Greeks against the

Ottomans Ottoman may refer to: * Osman I, historically known in English as "Ottoman I", founder of the Ottoman Empire * Osman II, historically known in English as "Ottoman II" * Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empir ...

, he identified this as an overdue debt and reminded the Latins how the

Byzantine Greeks The Byzantine Greeks were the Medieval Greek, Greek-speaking Eastern Romans throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. They were the main inhabitants of the lands of the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire), of Constantinople and Asia ...

once came to Italy's aid against the

Goths The Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. They were first reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, living north of the Danube in what is ...

in the

Gothic Wars The Gothic Wars were a long series of conflicts between the Goths and the Roman Empire between the years 249 and 554. The main wars are detailed below. History Crisis of the Third Century During the Crisis of the Third Century, Goths under ...

(535–554 AD) It was during his tenure at the Studium in Florence that Chalkokondyles edited

for publication, which, dedicated to

Lorenzo de' Medici Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (), known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (; 1 January 1449 – 9 April 1492), was an Italian statesman, the ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic, and the most powerful patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Lore ...

, is his major accomplishment. He assisted Marsilio Ficino with his Latin translation of

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

. During his tenure at Florence, the German classical scholar

Johannes Reuchlin Johann Reuchlin (; 29 January 1455 – 30 June 1522), sometimes called Johannes, was a German Catholic humanist and a scholar of Greek and Hebrew, whose work also took him to modern-day Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and France. Most of Reuchlin's c ...

was one of his pupils. He also taught

Alessandra Scala Alessandra Scala (1475–1506) was a Florence, Florentine Renaissance humanism, humanist and scholar of Latin and Ancient Greek, Greek in the late fifteenth century. She was an amateur actress during the 1490s, portraying Electra in a Florentine p ...

, the Florentine Greek and Latin poet. Chalkokondyles married in 1484 at the age of sixty-one and fathered ten children. Finally, invited by

Ludovico Sforza Ludovico Maria Sforza (; 27 July 1452 – 27 May 1508), also known as Ludovico il Moro (; 'the Moor'), and called the "arbiter of Italy" by historian Francesco Guicciardini,

, he moved to Milan (1491/1492), where he taught until he died.

Work

He wrote in

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

the grammar handbook "Summarized Questions on the Eight Parts of Speech With Some Rules" (). He translated

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

's ''Anatomy'' into Latin. As a scholar, Chalkokondyles published the ''

editio princeps In Textual scholarship, textual and classical scholarship, the ''editio princeps'' (plural: ''editiones principes'') of a work is the first printed edition of the work, that previously had existed only in manuscripts. These had to be copied by han ...

'' of Homer (Florence 1488),

(Milan 1493) and the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

'' lexicon (1499). *Greek Grammar, edited 1546 by Melchior Volmar in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

*Latin translation of the ''Anatomical Procedures'' of

, edited and published in 1529 by

Jacopo Berengario da Carpi Jacopo Berengario da Carpi (also known as Jacobus Berengarius Carpensis, Jacopo Barigazzi, Giacomo Berengario da Carpi or simply Carpus; c. 1460 – c. 1530) was an Italian physician. His book "''Isagoge breves''" published in 1522 made him the mo ...

Ἡ τοῦ Ὁμήρου ποίησις ἅπασα
1488, ''

'' of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, edited by Bernardus Nerlius and Chalkokondyles, appeared in Florence, not before 13 January 1489, in two folio volumes. It was the first Greek book to be printed in Florence. The Greek type used to print the 1488–1489 Homer is believed to have been cast by the

Cretan Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

Demetrius Damilas from the type that he had used to print

Constantine Lascaris Constantine Lascaris ( ''Kostantinos Láskaris''; 1434 – 15 August 1501) was a Greek scholar and grammarian, one of the promoters of the revival of Greek learning in Italy during the Renaissance, born in Constantinople. Life Constantine Lasca ...

’ ''

Erotemata The ''Erotemata'' (Ἐρωτήματα) are the first printed basic Greek grammar in use in Western Europe, written by Manuel Chrysoloras who was a pioneer in spreading Greek literature in Western Europe. Chrysoloras' ''Erotemata'' were likely ...

'' (Milan 1476), the first book to be printed entirely in Greek, based upon the hand of Damilas’s fellow scribe Michael Apostolis.

Notes

References

* Nancy Bisaha, ''Creating East and West: Renaissance humanists and the Ottoman Turks'', University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006, pp. 113–15. * Deno J. Geanakoplos, "The discourse of Demetrius Chalcocondyles on the inauguration of Greek studies at the University of Padua", ''Studies in the Renaissance'', 21 (1974), 118–44 and in Deno J. Geanakoplos, ''Interaction of the ‘Sibling’ Byzantine and Western Cultures in the Middle Ages and Italian Renaissance (330–1600)'', New Haven and London, 1976, pp. 296–304 * Jonathan Harris, ''Greek Émigrés in the West, 1400–1520'', Camberley: Porphyrogenitus, 1995. * Robert Proctor, ''The Printing of Greek in the Fifteenth-Century'', London, 1930, pp. 66–9. * Fotis Vassileiou & Barbara Saribalidou, ''Short Biographical Lexicon of Byzantine Academics Immigrants to Western Europe'', 2007. * N.G. Wilson, ''From Byzantium to Italy. Greek Studies in the Italian Renaissance'', London, 1992.

External links

*
The "First Edition" of the ''Iliad''
article about the textual history the ''Iliad'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Chalcocondyles, Demetrius 1423 births 1511 deaths Writers from Athens Academic staff of the University of Perugia Greek Renaissance humanists Byzantine writers Renaissance writers Greek–Latin translators

Demetrius Demetrius is the Latinization of names, Latinized form of the Ancient Greek male name, male Greek given names, given name ''Dēmḗtrios'' (), meaning "devoted to goddess Demeter". Alternate forms include Demetrios, Dimitrios, Dimitris, Dmytro, ...

15th-century Byzantine writers 15th-century writers in Latin 15th-century Greek writers 16th-century Greek writers 16th-century Greek male writers 15th-century Greek educators 16th-century Greek educators

Life

Work

See also

Notes

References

External links