Athanasios Chalkeopoulos

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Athanasios Chalkeopoulos ( Middle Greek ᾿Αθανάσιος Χαλκεόπουλος ; † November 4, 1497 ) was a Greek monk , humanist and translator.

Life

He came from a family residing in Constantinople. The name of his father Philip is known, but the time and place of his birth are not known. Chalkeopoulos belonged to the Greek clergy who, like the later Cardinal Bessarion, established themselves in Italy under the roof of the Roman Church.

On Mount Athos he became a monk in the Vatopedi monastery . Probably as the companion of his Hegumenos Dorotheos, he came to the Union Council of Florence in 1439 , but did not return to Greece after the church assembly was over. First chaplain Bessarion, probably also a copyist (1446-1447 he made a copy of the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle ), Chalkeopoulos was appointed Archimandrite of Santa Maria del Patir near Rossano by Nicholas V on April 3, 1448 , but still resided in Rome . He translated Greek texts into Latin. In 1457 he was commissioned with the archimandrite Makarios of San Bartolomeo di Trigona to visit 78 Greek monasteries in Calabria and Campania. The visitation, which belongs in the context of the reforms of Cardinal Bessarion , lasted from October 1, 1457 to April 5, 1458, the minutes follow a fixed scheme: description of the monastery, its location, external condition, number of monks; Questioning the abbot; Compilation of an inventory, including documents and manuscripts; Questioning of witnesses; Instructions to the abbot and finally the end date of the visitation. The property was not recorded, only the possible income. 1458 Latin monastery was Athanasios S. Maria de Ark in the Diocese of Syracuse as Coming assigned in 1459 a new Archimandrite was used in Patirion. On October 21, 1461, the elevation to Bishop of Gerace followed . In 1472 the diocese of Oppido was united with Gerace for the lifetime of Chalceopulos. In 1483 he succeeded, also ad vitam , in obtaining the exemption of his dioceses from the Metropolitan in Reggio Calabria. He continued to work as a translator: in addition to Lukian of Samosata and Gregor of Nyssa , he also translated Greek documents from the Norman era. As Bessarion's confidante, he may have made his language skills available to other humanists at the Roman Curia.

Works

The manuscript of his visitation report on the Greek monasteries in Calabria passed from Cardinal Guglielmo Sirleto to his successor as protector of the Basilians, Giulio Antonio Santoro . Since 1909 it has been kept in the library of the Basilian Abbey of Santa Maria di Grottaferrata . The report is the most important source for the social and cultural conditions in this time of crisis of Greek monasticism in Calabria.

literature

  • André Guillou : Chalkeopulos, Athanasios . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 2, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-7608-8902-6 , Sp. 1654 f.
  • Marie-Hyacinthe Laurent, André Guillou: The “Liber visitationis” d'Athanase Chalkéopoulos (1457-1458). Contribution à l'histoire du monachisme grec en Italie méridionale (= Studi e testi, Volume 206). Bibl. Apost. Vaticana, Città del Vaticano 1960.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Francesco Russo: Regesto Vaticano per la Calabria. Volume II. Roma 1975, no. 11007-11009
  2. ↑ Russo No. 11500
  3. ↑ Thomas Hofmann: "Vidimus totum monasterium deductum quasi in ruyna propter absenciam abbatis". Greek monasteries in southern Italy in the sight of the visitors. In: Maria Stuiber, Michele Spadaccini (ed.): Building blocks for German and Italian history. Festschrift for the 70th birthday of Horst Enzensberger (= writings from the Faculty of Humanities and Cultural Studies of the Otto Friedrich University of Bamberg. Volume 18). University of Bamberg Press, Bamberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-86309-264-1 , pp. 219-241, here pp. 231-239
  4. ↑ Russo No. 11556
  5. ↑ Russo No. 11578
  6. ↑ Russo No. 11650
  7. ↑ Russo No. 12140
  8. ↑ Russo No. 12772, 12790. Innocent VIII confirmed this in 1485: Russo No. 12907.
  9. ^ Horst Enzensberger : La chiesa greca: organizzazione religiosa, culturale, economica e rapporti con Roma e Bisanzio. In: Augusto Placanica (ed.): Storia della Calabria. La Calabria medievale. I quadri generali. Gangemi Editore, Roma 2001, pp. 273–287, here pp. 280–282.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Chalkeopoulos, Athanasios
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chalkeopulos, Athanasios
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek monk, bishop of Gerace and Oppido
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century
DATE OF DEATH November 4, 1497