Georgios Trapezuntios
Georgios Trapezuntios (Greek Γεώργιος Τραπεζούντιος, German also Georg von Trapezunt , Latin Georgius Trapezuntius ; * April 4, 1395 in the then Venetian Crete ; † 1472 or 1484 in Rome ) was a Greek scholar and philosopher . He is considered one of the revivals of Greek literature in Italy and became known as an advocate of the philosophy of Aristotle and as a translator of Greek authors. In addition to several works by Aristotle such as rhetoric, he also transferred Plato's laws .
He named himself after the hometown of his family, who came from Trebizond , which was a respected seat of learning at the time.
Georgios came to Italy between 1416 and 1430 in the run-up to the destruction of Constantinople and from 1433, after learning the Latin language, led the life of a wandering schoolmaster in Venice, Padua and Vicenza .
In methodology , Trapezuntios was a Christianized Aristotelian.
Eugene IV called him to Rome as papal secretary. He later became a professor at the local studio. He became a successful successor to Manuel Chrysoloras . Spaniards, Germans and French came to hear him. He supports Regiomontanus , who was doing astronomical research in Rome, in his study of the Greek language. In 1450 he voluntarily gave up this teaching post.
By Pope Nicholas V , he was with the translation of Greek writings of Eusebius , Cyril, Chrysostom , Aristotle ( Rhetoric ), Plato (1451, laws ) and Ptolemy entrusted into Latin. He made word-to-word translations, which were already sharply criticized by humanists at the time. He got into an argument with Bessarion , with Theodoros Gazes , Niccolò Perotti and Poggio . Due to the slovenliness of his work and his presumptuous nature, he forfeited the pope's favor, so that he had to leave Rome in 1452.
The Almagest translation was corrected by Georg von Peuerbach , among others .
George of Trebizond then moved through various cities in Italy for some time without a specific job or income. Under Paul II he was allowed to return to Rome in 1453 from Naples , where he was under the protection of Alfonso V (Aragón) . However, he never regained his previous reputation and was caught in new trials. Although he was a gifted teacher, he made himself unpopular everywhere because of his pomposity and quarrels.
In 1454 Bessarion directed the Greek polemic In calumniatorem Platonis (1469 in Latin) against Trapezuntios. In 1458, in his book Comparatio Platonis et Aristotelis , he attacked Neoplatonism, which Plethon had brought to Italy, and insinuated that its representatives would undermine Christianity and introduce a new paganism.
During a trip to Byzantium he made the failed attempt to convert the Turkish sultan to Christianity. With his book The Truth of the Christian Faith , he expressed the conviction that God desires “the unity of all people” and suggested that the Sultan renounce violence and convene a conference of Christians and Muslims.
He died in great poverty in Rome and was buried in the Minerva, near which he had owned a modest house.
His “Brief Dialectic” does not seem to have been printed until 1508.
Text output
- Georges de Trébizonde: De la vérité de la foi des chrétiens . Edited by Adel Theodor Khoury (= Corpus Islamo-Christianum , Series Graeca , 1), CIS-Verlag, Altenberge 1987 (Greek text and French translation)
- Luc Deitz (Ed.): Georgius Trapezuntius: Rhetoricorum libri quinque. Olms, Hildesheim 2006, ISBN 3-487-11573-5
literature
- Michel Balivet: Pour une concorde islamo-chrétienne. Démarches byzantines et latines à la fin du Moyen-Âge (de Nicolas de Cues à Georges de Trébizonde) , Rome 1997
- Tzotcho Boiadjiev : Georgios of Trebizond. In: Laurent Cesalli, Gerald Hartung (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy . The philosophy of the Middle Ages. Volume 1: Byzantium, Judaism. Schwabe, Basel 2019, ISBN 978-3-7965-2623-7 , pp. 220–222, 297
- Florian Hamann: How to convince Muslims of Christianity - The possible influence of George of Trebizond on Nikolaus von Kues and Enea Silvio Piccolomini . In: Thomas Frank, Norbert Winkler (ed.): Renovatio et unitas - Nikolaus von Kues as a reformer. V & R unipress, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-89971-962-8 , pp. 205-237
- Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Vol. 3: Faber Felix - Juwayni, Al- . Brepols, Turnhout 2012, ISBN 978-2-503-53243-1 , pp. 97-98.
- Peter Schulz: Georgios Gemistos Plethon, Georgius Trapezuntios, Cardinal Bassarion. The Controversy Between Platonists and Aristotelians in the 15th Century. In: Paul Richard Blum (Ed.): Philosophen der Renaissance , Darmstadt 1999, pp. 22–32.
- John Monfasani: George of Trebizond. A biography and a study of his rhetoric and logic , Leiden 1976
- John Monfasani: Collectanea Trapezuntiana. Texts, Documents, and Bibliographies of George of Trebizond . Medieval & Renaissance Texts and Studies, Binghamton (NY) 1984.
- Georges E. Voumvlinopoulos: Bibliographie critique de la Philosophie grecque depuis la chute de Constantinople à nos jours, 1453-1953 , Athens 1966, p. 38 ff.
Web links
- Literature by and about Georgios Trapezuntios in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about Georgios Trapezuntios in the German Digital Library
- Portrait of Georgius Trapezuntius
- Works
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Georgios Trapezuntios |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | George of Trebizond; Georgius Trapezuntius |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Greek scholar and philosopher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 4, 1395 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Crete |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1472 or 1484 |
| Place of death | Rome |