Bessarion
Bessarion (baptismal name Greek Βασίλειος Basil , Latin Basil , monk name Greek Βησσαρίων Bessarion , Latin Bessario , Italian Bessarione falsely John Bessarion and Giovanni Bessarione * 1399-1408 in Trebizond in northeastern Asia Minor ; † 18th November 1472 in Ravenna ) was a Byzantine humanist , theologian, church politician, diplomat, speaker, publicist, philosopher , philologist and translator. From 1439 he was cardinal , from 1463 Latin patriarch of Constantinople in exile.
Bessarion initially received his education in Constantinople, where he entered a monastery as a young man. He later studied Platonic philosophy in Mystra and became an avid advocate of Platonism . At the Council of Ferrara / Florence in 1438/39 he made a significant contribution to the “ church union ”, the formal reunification of the churches of the east and west, which had been separated since the 11th century. In recognition of his services to overcoming the schism in the Church, Pope Eugene IV appointed him cardinal and brought him to Italy.
After moving to the Latin-speaking world of the Western Church, Bessarion campaigned vehemently for his homeland, which was threatened by Ottoman expansion . His main concerns were initially the realization of the church union and the mobilization of military aid for the collapsing Byzantine Empire. After the fall of the Byzantine state, which he did not consider final, he committed himself to the rescue and preservation of Greek cultural assets and to the defense against further advance of the Ottoman military power to the west. He took on the difficult task of promoting a crusade against the Turks as the papal legate , but this political effort failed completely. As a theologian he represented a synthesis of Christian, Platonic and Aristotelian ideas, as a philosopher he defended Plato and Platonism against a large-scale attack by the contemporary Aristotelian Georgios Trapezuntios . He was a pioneer of research on the history of philosophy and made a fundamental contribution to the knowledge and dissemination of the then little-known works and thoughts of Plato in the West.
Bessarion created the largest collection of Greek manuscripts in the West and donated his precious library to the Republic of Venice . He promoted the education system and ancient studies and gave generous support to needy humanists. Posterity will remember him first and foremost as a distinguished Platonist and leading representative of Greek culture in the West. Modern research honors him as an important scholar who mediated between cultures and thus achieved a high reputation.
Life
Origin, name and birth
Different information is available about Bessarion's origin, and research has divided opinions about the date of his birth. It is undisputed that he came from Trebizond, the capital of an independent empire that was one of the successor states of the Byzantine Empire, which was destroyed by the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 . According to the account of the contemporary Byzantine writer Michael Apostoles , who knew the cardinal well, his parents lived in modest circumstances and had to make a living with their hands. Another tradition followed the historian and bishop of Alessio Benedetto Orsini, who completed his research on the genealogy of the Comnenes around 1635/36. Orsini still had access to Greek sources that are now lost. According to his account, Bessarion's father was a nobleman named Konstantinos Milessios and his mother Eudoxia Komnene, a daughter of Emperor John III. of Trebizond , who ruled from 1342 to 1344. However, the credibility of Orsini's statements is largely viewed with skepticism in research. According to a contemporary note, Bessarion's mother was called Theodule. He himself mentioned the names Theodoros and Theodora, which apparently refer to his parents. Presumably either Theodora or Theodule was a monastic name his mother adopted when she entered a monastery as a widow.
For the birth of Bessarion, the rates vary between the end of 1399 and January 2, 1408. Often, January 2, 1403 is mentioned, which was calculated according to its dubious life span. If his maternal grandfather was Emperor Johannes III, who died in 1362. this suggests an early date of birth. According to his own statements, he had fourteen siblings, all of whom died before their parents.
In older specialist literature, Bessarion's baptismal name was mistakenly named Johannes. This information is based on a wrong reading of a handwritten entry in a codex . Although the mistake was proven as early as 1976, the alleged first name Johannes / Giovanni still appears in bibliographic aids in the 21st century. In recent research there is no longer any doubt that the contemporary baptismal name Basileios (Latin Basilius) is the correct one. However, the theologian no longer used this name from 1423 onwards; instead, after his ordination as a monk, he only called himself Bessarion. The combination of the two names - "Basilius Bessarion" - which is common in modern literature - has not been documented in terms of sources and is therefore to be regarded as inauthentic. In Italy he was called Nicaenus in Latin , since he was Metropolitan of Nikaia ; he also sometimes called himself that.
Education and life as a monk in Constantinople (1416 / 17–1431)
Initially, Basil attended the public school in Trebizond, where his talent was noticed. Then his parents handed him over to the Metropolitan Dositheos of Trebizond to give him a good education. When Dositheos had to leave his metropolitan seat in 1416/17 because of a conflict with the Emperor of Trebizond and went to Constantinople , he took his protégé with him. In the capital of the Byzantine Empire there was no university in the western sense; secular and spiritual instruction was in the hands of a cleric, the "universal teacher" (kathikós didáskalos) . At that time the scholar Johannes Chortasmenos held this office . He taught the young Basil the school subjects that were known in the West as the " Seven Liberal Arts " and "Philosophy", by which one understood the Aristotelian logic . These were the areas of knowledge called "Hellenic" by the Byzantines, the knowledge of which constituted the " pagan " general education (mathḗmata) based on the pre-Christian ancient school system . The textbooks that Chortasmenos used are well known, the favorable source situation enables detailed knowledge of the linguistic-literary, philosophical and mathematical-scientific teaching content that was conveyed to the students. In addition, there was instruction in the dogmatics of Orthodox theology . In the early 15th century, this was shaped by palamism , a contemplative tendency that declared the "Hellenic" educational material, especially philosophy, to be useless. This resulted in a dichotomy for students eager for education, which Basil resolved for himself in the sense of an affirmation of the pre-Christian ancient culture.
In addition to Chortasmenus, Basil also had a teacher named Chrysokokkes who worked in a public school. This is often equated with the manuscript writer Georgios Chrysokokkes, but it can also be another scholar of this name. In any case, the Italian humanist Francesco Filelfo , who was then staying in Constantinople and who later gained fame in Italy through his exceptional command of Greek, was a classmate of the future cardinal's Chrysococcus.
Soon after his arrival in Constantinople, Basil informally joined a monastic community. A few years later, on January 30, 1423, he entered as a monk. After the probationary period, the new friar received the second, definitive tonsure on July 20, 1423 . According to the custom, he changed his name when he entered the monk state. He called himself Bessarion now. With the choice of this name he showed his admiration for the late antique desert father Bessarion , an Egyptian anchorite whose cult of saints was especially cultivated in Trebizond. On December 8, 1425 he was ordained a deacon , on October 8, 1430 he was ordained a priest.
As a monk, Bessarion did not limit himself to a contemplative life in the monastery, but developed political activity at an early stage. In 1426/27 he participated in an embassy of the Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, who ruled Constantinople, to Alexios IV Komnenos , the Emperor of Trebizond. He turned to Alexios with an encomiastic address. The goal was an alliance between the two empires.
Study visit to Mystras (1431–1436 / 37)
Probably in 1431, following the advice of his former teacher Chortasmenos, Bessarion went to the Morea peninsula to deepen his education in Mystras (Mistra), the capital of the local despotate . There he studied with the famous scholar Georgios Gemistos Plethon , an anti-Aristotelian-minded Platonist who had developed an unusual philosophical-religious system. Plethon, like the Western humanists, glorified ancient cultural goods. He went so far as to reject Christianity and hope for a renewal of the old Greek religion. Bessarion held Plethon in high esteem and remained friends with him later on, but remained true to his Christian faith. A groundbreaking impulse he received in Mystras was the thorough knowledge of the Platonic philosophy that Plethon imparted to him. Bessarion linked Platonism, which he made his own as a personal conviction, with his Christian worldview. One focus of his studies in Mystras was the mathematical and natural science subjects, especially astronomy.
Bessarion was also politically active during his stay in the Despotate Morea. He enjoyed the trust of the local ruler, the despot Theodoros II , who was a brother of Emperor John VIII. His reputation was so great that he was able to mediate in a conflict in the imperial family.
Activity as an Orthodox church politician (1437–1439)
On the instructions of Emperor John VIII, Bessarion returned to Constantinople in 1436/37. Allegedly, the ruler made him the hegumenos of the capital's Basileios monastery or - according to another interpretation of the sources - gave him a teaching function there. The next year he was appointed Metropolitan of Nikaia , for which the despot Theodoros II is said to have campaigned for his brother.
Bessarion received his episcopal ordination on November 11, 1437. His elevation to the rank of metropolitan took place against the background of the forthcoming Union Council, at which the "Union", the reunification of the Roman and Orthodox Churches , was to be accomplished. The churches had been separated since the " Oriental Schism " of the 11th century. Overcoming the schism in the church was a central concern of Byzantine diplomacy, because it was the prerequisite for the urgently needed military aid from Western powers against the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish advance threatened to wipe out the Byzantine state. The extent to which Bessarion, as the emperor's confidante, was involved in the preparation of the council is controversial in research. With the emperor and the other metropolitans and other dignitaries of the Patriarchate of Constantinople who took part in the church assembly, he began the crossing to Italy in November 1437. Among the participants of the long voyage were Plethon and the philosopher and future Cardinal Nikolaus von Kues (Cusanus), who had been in Constantinople to negotiate church unity. Bessarion formed a lifelong friendship with Cusanus, which led to a fruitful collaboration.
In February 1438 the Byzantine delegation entered Venice. The city, which he later made his adopted home, made a deep impression on Bessarion; it seemed to him like a second Byzantium. In March the Byzantines arrived in Ferrara , which was to be the meeting place for the Union Council. The meeting was officially opened on April 9th, but at first only probing was carried out; the official start of the negotiations was delayed by months.
The success of the Union effort depended on an agreement on the dogmatic issues, the most important of which was the centuries-old controversy over the " Filioque " in the Creed . The question was whether the Holy Spirit only emanates from God the Father , as the orthodox theologians believed, or from the Son of God (Latin filioque "and from the Son"), as Roman dogmatics taught. The Roman Church arbitrarily inserted the addition “filioque” into the creed without consulting the other churches beforehand. This was unacceptable to the Orthodox. First, the emperor stipulated that two of the Greek metropolitans, Bessarion and Markos Eugenikos , should act as sole spokesmen for the Orthodox side in the exploratory talks. The much higher-ranking, resolute Markos Eugenikos had to pay attention to theological correctness, while the obligatory Bessarion had the task of impressing the other side with his rhetorical momentum and acting as a mediator to dampen conflicts. In the course of time, the two theologians increasingly distinguished themselves as representatives of two opposing directions: Bessarion thought and acted in a solution-oriented manner, while Markos Eugenikos, as the unyielding defender of the Eastern Church positions, accepted or even aimed at a failure of the negotiations. This led to an alienation between the two metropolitans and an antagonism that escalated.
In the first public session of the council on October 8, 1438, Bessarion gave the opening speech, with which he was passionate about the unity of the churches. With regard to the points of contention, he called for an impartial search for the truth together, he did not go into sensitive details. At the beginning of November he defended the orthodox view in extensive speeches that a change in the text of the creed would in principle be inadmissible even if its correctness was undisputed. As the positions hardened, the patriarch gathered a group of Orthodox dignitaries to discuss further action with them without the emperor. He suggested ultimately threatening to break off negotiations and then leave if the opposing side remained intransigent. Only Bessarion contradicted this plan. Finally the emperor, interested only in the political consequences, forced the council to continue.
In the first months of 1439 Bessarion officially adhered to the traditional Orthodox position, but after the first days of February he rarely spoke up and showed increasing interest and understanding for the statements of the other side. The reason for this reluctance was that the argumentation of the "Latins", the Latin-speaking Western church theologians, led him to reconsider his point of view. He was particularly impressed by the remarks made by Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini .
Even before the council was moved to Florence in January 1439, Bessarion had begun to thoroughly review the statements made by the ancient church fathers - the main authorities - on the issue at issue. After long studies, he finally came to the conclusion that the position of the Latins was the better founded one and that the conflict was due to a misunderstanding. This strengthened him in his fight for the Union, because from his point of view not only the political and military constraints, but also the theological findings spoke fully in favor of the unification. In this sense, he worked with success on wavering Orthodox bishops and achieved that the rejection front crumbled.
On April 13 and 14, 1439, Bessarion took the floor before a meeting of Byzantine bishops to allay the hesitants about the Union. He argued both theologically and philologically. He attributed the dispute over the Filioque to an apparent contradiction. He claimed that the contradiction could be bridged by a philological examination of the dogmatic statements. In fact, however, his statements amounted to approval of Roman dogma.
In the weeks that followed, there was a turnaround, and the will for union among the Byzantine council members increasingly prevailed. Bessarion took part in the elaboration of the unification formula and campaigned intensively in the Orthodox camp for approval of his concept, which essentially corresponded to the ideas of the Latins on the main point of dispute. Finally he prevailed against the resistance of Markos Eugenikos. His commitment contributed significantly to the fact that the Union of Churches was decided. Together with the humanist Ambrogio Traversari , who represented the Latins, he formulated the council decree, which laid down the dogmatic basis of the church unity on which they had agreed. At the unification ceremony on July 6, 1439, Bessarion proclaimed the Greek text of the unification document, Cesarini the Latin.
Pope Eugene IV was so impressed by the success that he granted Bessarion a pension of 300 florins annually , which was to be increased to 600 if the beneficiary decided to move to Rome and stay at the Curia permanently . On October 19, 1439, the Byzantine delegation embarked in Venice for the journey home, which took more than three months. In Constantinople those who had returned found a very bad mood; the results of the negotiations were greeted with indignation by the population. It soon became apparent that the implementation of the Florence decisions was far more difficult than expected. The Union met with such massive resistance from the people and the Orthodox clergy that it was in fact largely ineffective.
Elevation to cardinal and emigration to Italy (1439/40)
After his return home, Bessarion learned that the Pope had elevated him to cardinal in the consistory on December 18, 1439. The appointment of a Greek to the College of Cardinals should strengthen the Union. With this the decision about the further life of the Byzantine metropolitan had been made, he finally moved to Italy. His anti-union opponents at home interpreted his acceptance of the appointment as treason.
Church and general political activity as cardinal (1440–1472)
Career, Benefices, and Income
Initially, Bessarion belonged to the class of cardinal priests , that is, to the cardinals to whom a titular church was assigned in Rome . His was Santi XII Apostoli , the Church of the Twelve Apostles. In the first few years his income for a cardinal was modest, although he was endowed with smaller benefices. This changed after Nicholas V , an avid supporter of humanism, ascended the papal throne in March 1447 . Now the Greek cardinal received the southern Italian Archdiocese of Manfredonia (Siponto) in order to increase his income on May 5, 1447 , which he kept for two years, and at the end of March 1449 he got the diocese of Mazara in Sicily. On March 5, 1449, the Pope elevated him to the rank of Cardinal Bishop . First he assigned him the Cardinal Bishopric of Sabina ; soon afterwards, on April 23rd, he promoted him to Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum . In this capacity, Bessarion had a summer residence outside the city near the Church of San Cesareo . It is said to be a villa on Via di Porta S. Sebastiano, which can still be visited today; however, the attribution of the preserved building to Bessarion is not certain from the sources. After the death of Nicholas V in 1455, the Greek's reputation in the Curia was so great that some of the cardinals in the conclave considered electing him pope, although he himself did not try to do so. Only the intervention of the French Cardinal Alain de Coëtivy, who allegedly polemicized against the election of a Greek, is said to have prevented this. In 1458, Bessarion gave up the diocese of Mazara in exchange for the Spanish diocese of Pamplona , which he kept until 1462. In addition, on April 1, 1463, the Diocese of Chalkis on the Greek island of Evia (Negroponte in Italian), which at that time was still ruled by Venice. In addition, in the spring of 1463, Bessarion was appointed Patriarch of Constantinople in exile by Pope Pius II . The dignity of such a "titular patriarch" was only nominal; In Constantinople, which had been occupied by the Turks since 1453, an orthodox, anti-union patriarch was in office. With the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the church union had finally failed. After all, the titular patriarch was subordinate to the supporters of the Union on the Greek islands that were in the possession of Venice, especially on Crete, where he had goods whose income flowed to him. In October 1468, Bessarion gave up the Cardinal Diocese of Tusculum and again became Cardinal Bishop of Sabina.
Bessarion's annual income from the benefices he was endowed with over time grew from around 300 florins at the beginning of the 1440s to around 4,500 florins in the mid-1450s, and in 1458 reached about 19,000 florins. They later dropped to around 10,000 florins. He was not a particularly wealthy cardinal for the time, but initially poor, later in the midfield (4000 to 10,000 florins) and at times a little higher. Wealthy cardinals took in 30,000 to 50,000 florins annually.
Activities under Eugene IV, Nicholas V and Calixt III. (1440-1458)
The first tasks that Bessarion took on as a cardinal in Italy, again concerned the policy of the Union. In December 1440 he was back in Florence. The council continued to meet there and was now seeking union with smaller oriental churches. Only when the church assembly was moved to the Lateran in September 1443 did the Greek cardinal move to Rome. From the time of the union decision, he wrote a series of writings to his compatriots in order to convince them of the justification of the church union and to counteract the journalism of the other side. Since the Emperor John VIII was unable to implement the union against the opposition of the clergy and the people, Bessarion turned his hopes on the despot Constantine of Morea, who later became Constantine XI. became the last Byzantine emperor. The cardinal believed that the Morea peninsula could be turned into a bulwark against the Turks and advised the despot accordingly. He was in constant correspondence with Constantine.
Bessarion received his first important political commission when Pope Nicholas V appointed him legate for Bologna , Romagna and the Marches of Ancona and sent him to Bologna. The legate took up residence there in March 1450. As a representative of the Pope, he was empowered to speak and act for him. His main task was to end the political turmoil in his new place of work. The city of Bologna had effectively detached itself from the Papal State to which it formally belonged and established itself as an independent republic in which wild power struggles raged between rival sexes. In order to put an end to this situation, the Pope sent Bessarion "like an angel of peace". As a Greek, the legate was particularly suitable for this, as it could be considered a neutral authority in the party feuds of the Italians. In Bologna he succeeded in maintaining internal peace and consolidating papal authority through a cleverly balancing policy. The city lost its freedom of action in foreign policy, but retained some of its internal autonomy. Bessarion spent five years in Bologna. He was on good terms with the city administration, with which he ruled jointly, promoted the economy and took care of the beautification of several churches. Because of the fatal illness of Nicholas V, Bessarion returned to Rome in 1455. In Bologna, his departure was regretted, he remained popular there and was still regarded by the Bolognese as their advocate.
The Turkish conquest of Constantinople in May 1453 marked a turning point in Bessarion's life. The fall of the Byzantine Empire shook the western world. Nicholas V and his successor Calixt III. (1455–1458) and Pius II (1458–1464) planned the reconquest and made the preparation of a crusade the main content of their foreign policy activities. For Bessarion, this goal became the primary political concern to which he tirelessly devoted the rest of his life. The Republic of Venice played a key role in this. In July 1453, the Greek cardinal wrote to Doge Francesco Foscari that the Sultan would take the Balkans and then attack Italy if Western Christendom did not meet him immediately with united forces, and that the Republic was threatened with losing its territories in Greece. However, this warning was ineffective; Venice made peace with Sultan Mehmed II to protect its maritime trade, accepting the condition not to support military operations against the Ottoman Empire.
In the crusade efforts under Pope Calixt, Bessarion was one of the driving forces behind the Curia. He traveled to Naples to get King Alfonso V of Aragón (Alfonso I of Naples and Sicily ) to participate. The humanist-minded king received the Greeks with honor and undertook to participate in the crusade, but then did nothing.
Collaboration with Pius II. (1458–1464)
After Calixt's death, the respected humanist Enea Silvio de 'Piccolomini ascended the papal throne as Pius II. Bessarion had voted for the French opponent Guillaume d'Estouteville in the papal election and based his decision on Piccolomini's poor health, but then became one of the most important advisors and assistants of Pius II. Together they pushed the crusade project forward. The Franciscans in particular were eager helpers who committed themselves to the great project . Bessarion had a close relationship with them. On September 10, 1458 he took over the function of Cardinal Protector of the Franciscan Order, whose interest representative in the College of Cardinals he became.
On Bessarion's advice, or at least encouraged by him, the Pope invited the Christian princes and city republics to a congress in Mantua , where in the spring of 1459 a joint action against the Turks was to be decided. But when Pius arrived at the conference venue with his court in May, he experienced a serious disappointment: no ruler took part in person, and the embassies, which were primarily responsible for safeguarding the interests of their states, did not meet until the following months a. At the opening session, which only took place in September, Bessarion gave a militant speech in which he described the atrocities during the conquest of Constantinople and pointed out the acute threat to Europe from the continuing Turkish advance. The congress, which sat until January 1460, ended in failure. Apart from declarations of intent of dubious value, little came about. The only concrete result of Bessarion's urging was the financing and creation of a Milanese and papal force of 300 men. This troop went to Greece and took the city of Patras in one stroke , but then did nothing, but limited itself to looting.
After all, the embassy of Emperor Frederick III promised . in Mantua to set up a powerful army of 10,000 horsemen and 32,000 infantrymen , provided that the German clergy would finance the company with a tithe . Reichstag resolutions were required for this. In order to enable the German princes who distrusted each other to take part in the campaign, the negotiators planned to enforce a three-year peace obligation in the empire. A papal legate was to preside over two diets in Nuremberg and Vienna. Pius entrusted his eager companion Bessarion with this task. He commissioned him to mediate peace among the princes and to obtain tithe approval. The legate should also assemble the army and designate its commanders.
At the beginning of February 1460, the aged and sickly cardinal, plagued by a stone disease, set out from Venice on the arduous wintry journey over the Brenner Pass . In the Nuremberg town hall , he opened the Reichstag on March 2, which was attended by relatively few participants, with a passionate Latin speech in a humanistic style. He announced the news that the Turkish troops were advancing into Hungary and explained the urgency of the defense. A major obstacle, however, were the disputes among the princes, which threatened to result in a major military conflict in the empire. Under these circumstances, a decision on the Turkish war was impossible. The legate traveled on to Worms without having achieved anything. Friedrich III had gone there. convened a conference at which the feud between the Mainz Elector Diether von Isenburg and the Count Palatine Friedrich I. should be settled.
Only on March 29, 1460 did Bessarion arrive in Worms, where the conference had already started. Again nothing was achieved, rather the feared prince war broke out. Another problem was Diether's refusal to pay the Curia the 25,500 Rhenish guilders that he owed it for confirming his election as Archbishop of Mainz and for being awarded the pallium . As a legate, Bessarion was entrusted with the delicate task of resolving this conflict in the interests of the Pope. However, he did not dare to take decisive action against the powerful Elector of Mainz. Instead of passing a verdict, the Legate contented itself with ordering an investigation.
After the blatant failure in Germany, Bessarion went to Vienna, where Friedrich III. resided. He arrived there on May 4, 1460. The emperor gave the legate a splendid reception and agreed with him that the Vienna Reichstag should be opened on May 11 to deliberate on the Turkish war, which was to be convened in accordance with the decisions of Mantua. However, since not a single prince had appeared and only a few embassies arrived, the beginning had to be postponed to September 1st. Finally, on September 17th, Bessarion was able to open the meeting, to which thirteen foreign princes, ten archbishops and bishops and envoys from thirty-four cities had attended. The negotiations turned out to be very difficult. There was generally an unruly mood among the participants. The opinion of the Pope, which had been widespread north of the Alps for a long time and which had already asserted itself at the Council of Basel , also shaped the climate here. Many of those present distrusted the Curia and were dismissive of demands for money from Rome.
The Reichstag ended with a complete failure, they parted in a dispute and the ambassadors left in October 1460 angrily. The reasons for the failure were presented differently by the two antagonistic sides. In the anticurial camp they were already upset about the bitterness in Bessarion's opening speech. Most of all, he was resented for using massive pressure to force tithing. He himself denied this and wrote to the Pope that he had only carried out his commission with regard to tithing and that he had proceeded with caution because of the irritable mood in the congregation. He described the ambassadors as stubborn and insidious people. He also sharply criticized the German prince.
After the negotiations were over, the Legate wanted to return home, but at the Pope's insistence he stayed in Vienna for a long time to explore other options. But he achieved nothing with regard to his main concern. An additional assignment that the Pope gave him was to mediate in the dispute between the Emperor and King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary over the Hungarian crown. He achieved success in this difficult mission; he succeeded in initiating a peaceful agreement. Also in the feud between Friedrich III. and Archduke Albrecht VI. , who was allied with Matthias Corvinus, Bessarion tried to mediate. It was not until September 1461 that the legate set off for home. He could only travel slowly because of his illness, which affected him badly. Besides, he had run out of money; he had taken out a loan of 600 ducats in Vienna to cover the costs of the return journey and on the way had to ask a friend to advance funds. He was given a brilliant reception in Venice. He arrived in Rome on November 20, 1461.
After the Ottoman troops had also conquered the despotate of Morea and the Empire of Trebizond and had advanced far into the Balkans, a political change occurred in the Republic of Venice. The Turkish expansion also gripped Venetian territory and threatened trade. That is why the ruling class of the republic believed that the previous peace policy had failed and that war was inevitable. This development pleased the Pope and the cardinals. At the Curia, great hopes were placed in the new Doge Cristoforo Moro , who was in office from May 1462 and who advocated the war. For his part, Moro could count on the church to finance the military operation. The Pope willingly complied with the republic's request for taxation of the clergy for this purpose. To organize the necessary measures, Bessarion was sent as a legate to Venice, where he arrived on July 22, 1463. He had long enjoyed a high reputation there; he regarded the city as his adopted home, identified himself with its interests and was therefore perceived by political observers as a Venetian. The Republic of Venice had accepted him into the Grand Council in December 1461 and had his name entered in the Golden Book . With that he had entered the patriciate of the city. Now he was tasked with bringing about the declaration of war by the republic on the Sultan, securing the financing of armaments and coordinating the planning of the Venetians with the papal project of a general crusade. His residence at this time was the Benedictine monastery of San Giorgio on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore .
Already at the end of July the legate succeeded in allaying the concerns about the project and in moving the Signory to go to war against the resistance of the peace supporters . A special tax was levied on the clergy to finance the project. Other sources of income were the indulgence trade and the “Thirtieth”, a church tax that all laypeople in the Italian states had to pay. Bessarion laid down the details of clergy taxation. He determined the amount of the fee, graduated according to the annual income. Those unwilling to pay were threatened with excommunication . The legate hoped to collect 150,000 to 200,000 ducats annually in this way.
During his legation, Bessarion intervened in Venetian domestic and foreign policy. In agreement with the government he made sure that the 1456 of Pope Calixt III. anti-Semitic regulations that impaired economic life were suspended. The Jews were now promised undisturbed living in the republic, allowed commercial activity and granted legal security for their business. It was also about protecting them from the usual attacks of the Franciscan crusade preachers. It was a delicate act for the legate, because when collecting money he had to rely on the often brutally anti-Jewish preachers. To justify his decision, he pointed out, among other things, the usefulness of the Jewish lenders, who lent their customers money at lower interest rates than Christian usurers . He also asserted that Christians who used usury to endanger their souls ; therefore it makes sense to leave such business to the Jews. Forced conversions to Christianity were prohibited, synagogues and cemeteries were allowed to be kept. One of the legate's foreign policy successes was the treaty of alliance between Venice and the Kingdom of Hungary , which he brought about in September 1463.
Regardless of the great papal crusade company, Venetian troops fought with varying success on Morea, without achieving permanent conquests. The crusader army gathered in Ancona, where Bessarion arrived in the summer of 1464 with a galley that he had built at his own expense, even before the Doge's arrival with the Venetian fleet. However, all successes of the legate were undone when Pius II died in Ancona in August. After his death, the cardinals were unwilling to pursue the project any further. The crusade had failed before it even began. At least Bessarion managed to have the ships and funds already provided by the church handed over to the Venetians for the war; the money, 40,000 ducats, was intended for the military efforts of the Hungarian king.
Problematic relationship with Paul II (1464–1471)
The next Pope, Paul II , a nephew of Eugen IV, was of a completely different nature than his humanist and educationally friendly predecessor Pius II. He was uncomprehending about humanism. Soon after his election, a conflict arose at the Curia when it emerged that Paul wanted to revoke the written commitments to codetermination that he had given the college of cardinals in the conclave, but which he did not intend to keep from the outset. With this request, he met with outrage in the college. Bessarion in particular, who was one of the driving forces behind the co-determination initiative, refused to give in. However, the Pope had superior means of power and prevailed. Paul could only break the resistance of the Greek cardinal by threatening him with excommunication. This power struggle led to alienation between them. Bessarion withdrew from the Curia for some time. He suffered from his chronic illness and sought relief in the baths of Viterbo .
Last efforts to fight the Turkish war (1470–1472)
Meanwhile the Turks continued their advance in the Balkans. In 1470 they also conquered the Greek island of Evia , which was part of the eastern property of the Republic of Venice, and caused a massacre there. This development caused great horror in the West. Now Bessarion spoke again. He developed an intensive journalistic activity in order to get a crusade going. When the papal election was due in the summer of 1471 after the death of Paul II, the Greek cardinal was considered a promising candidate. The Republic of Venice in particular stood up for him because he had made a name for himself as the most famous spokesman for the crusade movement. In the conclave six of the eighteen participating cardinals voted for him. In the end, however, the Franciscan Francesco della Rovere was elected, who called himself Sixtus IV .
The new Pope was friends with Bessarion and had been sponsored by him. He was enthusiastic about the Turkish war. To advance the project, he appointed five cardinals as legates and commissioned them to promote the crusade in the most important states. Among them was Bessarion, to whom Sixtus assigned responsibility for France, England and the Duchy of Burgundy . In addition to the war project, the legate in France was also supposed to solve domestic and church political problems. For a while, Bessarion wanted to refuse the contract because of his poor health, but finally he gave in to the urging of the rector of the Paris University , Guillaume Fichet , especially since encouragement came from the French royal court. The Legate left Rome on April 20, 1472.
On the way, Bessarion visited the local ruler in Urbino , the famous condottiere Federico da Montefeltro , with whose family he had been on good terms for a long time. In Bologna, where he arrived in May, he took care of an important political project: he had taken care of the members of the Byzantine imperial family who had fled to Italy , among them Zoë (Sophia) Palaiologina , the niece of Constantine XI, the last emperor. You should with the Russian Grand Duke Ivan III. get married. Bessarion, who stood behind this plan, now made provisions for the marriage. The marriage project probably went back to an initiative of the Pope and the Greek cardinal and aimed at integrating the Grand Duke into an anti-Turkish alliance. The marriage, which was more in the papal than in the Russian interest, took place in the same year.
While Bessarion was still on the way, a war broke out between the French King Louis XI. and Duke Charles the Bold from Burgundy. Ludwig was not at all interested in the crusade, he was interested in church support in the fight against Charles and the Duke of Brittany, who was allied with the Burgundy, Franz II. He also mistrusted the papal envoy, because he, as a neutral authority, had to try to mediate. which made him suspect of sympathizing with Charles the Bold. The Milanese Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza at the French court had nourished this suspicion ; Sforza was an opponent of Burgundy, and there was also a traditional rivalry between Milan and Venice, Bessarion's adopted home. The French king, warned by Sforza, received the legate coolly and granted him only one audience. The crusade does not seem to have been mentioned at the meeting. Ludwig demanded the excommunication of his opponents if they did not stop the fight. Bessarion did not agree to that. Without having achieved anything with regard to its main concern, the legate began the journey home. He renounced his planned meeting with Charles the Bold, who suspected him of taking sides with the other side. So his last attempt to achieve something for the crusade failed.
humanism
It was only in Italy that Bessarion acquired a solid knowledge of Latin and learned the Italian language. Soon after emigrating, he was able to express himself fluently in Latin like a Western humanist. He proved himself to be a good, but not outstanding, stylist. In his own judgment, it was hardly possible for a Greek to write Latin with the same fluency as the Italians.
The dispute over the Filioque moved Bessarion to a text-critical investigation, which he carried out in an unusually thorough and systematic way. The aim was to clarify the controversial question of the opinion of the late antique church father, Basil of Caesarea , who was regarded as a supreme authority in both the West and the East and enjoyed the highest esteem among the Orthodox. The authenticity of a passage in Basil's pamphlet against the Arian Eunomius was in dispute , the wording of which has been handed down to us as a clear commitment by the Church Father to Roman dogma. The orthodox theologians rejected this passage as an interpolation ; they claimed that the words in question were added afterwards by a forger. After his return from the council negotiations, Bessarion had all the manuscripts found in the Byzantine monasteries identified. According to him, it turned out that the controversial words were in all the old codices that were written before the church split in the 11th century. In the copies made later, however, the passage was missing. In addition, Bessarion found out that the words offensive from an Orthodox point of view had been deleted from two old manuscripts; in one they were erased, in the other they were doused with ink. This proved the authenticity of the text passage and the later deliberate falsification of the wording. In addition, Bessarion defended the authenticity with a stylistic argument.
During the time in Bologna in the 1450s, the term “academy” was used for a group of intellectuals around Bessarion. The cardinal later gathered a circle of scholars in his home in Rome, which was sometimes referred to as his "academy". Among them were well-known humanists such as the historian and archaeologist Flavio Biondo , the Graecists Francesco Filelfo and Theodorus Gaza , the manuscript researcher Poggio Bracciolini and the historian and papal librarian Bartolomeo Platina . However, some “academics” only stayed temporarily in Rome. Bessarion's circle also included the belligerent philologist Lorenzo Valla , who had come to Rome in 1448. Thanks to the intercession of the Greek cardinal, Valla found employment at the curia, although he was very controversial in ecclesiastical circles and was suspected of heresy . The Aristotelian Georgios Trapezuntios , who later became his adversary in a violent controversy about Plato and Aristotle , also frequented the cardinal's house . Bessarion was particularly close friends with the humanist Giacomo Ammanati , whose admission to the college of cardinals he obtained from Pius II.
Bessarion used letters to exchange ideas with leading foreign intellectuals. His correspondence with Guillaume Fichet, the rector of the Paris University, shows the reputation that he enjoyed in distant countries. His correspondents included such contrasting personalities as the spiritually oriented philosopher Marsilio Ficino and the poet Antonio Beccadelli , who caused a sensation with obscene epigrams . The impartiality of his dealings with people who were highly suspicious from a church perspective was unusual for a cardinal. Without prejudice, he associated with the shamelessly disreputable erotic Beccadelli, the papacy critic Valla and the anti-Christian Plethon. Even Plethon's sharp polemic against the Roman Church and the Church Union did not dampen Bessarion's enthusiasm for his old philosophy teacher, whose sons he paid alimony after their father's death. His impartiality was also evident in the humanist controversy over the primacy of Platonic or Aristotelian philosophy, in which he emphatically defended Platonism; he expressed appreciation for the thinking of Aristotle, who was "our teacher in every science", and criticized anti-Aristotelian polemics, which he found inappropriate. Like the late ancient Neo-Platonists , he followed a harmonizing approach.
During his several years legation in Bologna Bessarion put emphasis on promoting the local traditional university . He renewed their statutes, appointed capable professors and took care of their salaries, supported poor students and took structural measures. However, he did not succeed in reducing the unusually high examination fees. Among the scholars he brought to Bologna was the young humanist Niccolò Perotti , who initially took on the task of teaching poetics and rhetoric at the university , and in 1453 became Bessarion's secretary and confidante. In addition, the legate took care of the artistic design of church rooms and commissioned frescoes from Galasso Galassi . He is also said to have installed the first public clock in Bologna.
Bessarion maintained an intellectual exchange with Pope Nicholas V, who was enthusiastic about classical education. He supported him in the expansion of the papal library by procuring Greek manuscripts from Trebizond. At his suggestion, Nikolaus decided to support the major project of a complete Latin translation of the writings of Aristotle. Bessarion had already set about this task; At his suggestion, the Pope entrusted the Byzantine humanist Theodorus Gaza to continue the work.
During his stay in Vienna, Bessarion sought contact with the professors teaching there. Above all, he began a fruitful collaboration with the important astronomers Georg von Peuerbach and Johannes Müller ( Regiomontanus ). At the suggestion of the cardinal Peuerbach initially took on the task of creating an edited Latin version of the great astronomical manual of the ancient scholar Klaudios Ptolemaios known as Almagest . When the Viennese legation ended, Peuerbach was no longer alive, but Regiomontanus accepted Bessarion's invitation to accompany him to Rome and completed the work there.
Another concern of Bessarion was to look after and promote the Byzantine scholars and writers who emigrated as a result of the Turkish conquest of their homeland. Theodorus Gaza and Konstantin Laskaris were among the refugees he helped found a new existence in exile . He was close friends with Gaza. He was also responsible for the ransom of the Sultan's Byzantine prisoners.
When Paul II took action against the scholars of the classical scholar Julius Pomponius Laetus and had some humanists from this community arrested, whom he suspected of conspiracy and heresy, Bessarion stood up for the arrested. A prominent figure among the imprisoned scholars, Bartolomeo Platina, belonged to Bessarion's circle, and Julius Pomponius Laetus had also frequented the Greek's house. After a while the humanist-minded cardinals succeeded in relieving the prisoners, and finally they obtained the release of the actually harmless antiquity friends.
Bessarion's library was of outstanding importance for the reception of Greek literature in the West. The cardinal's conquest of Constantinople prompted him to collect books. It moved him to the project to save the spiritual legacy of Greece, which had hitherto been preserved in the capital of the Byzantine Empire, and to make it accessible to the educated in a safe place. To this end, he systematically bought manuscripts in the Greek-speaking world. What he could not buy he had he copied. He prefers to put the collected works of one author together in a luxurious, splendid volume. He created the largest collection of Greek books in the West in his private library. Some of them were seldom or only known from their specimen. He wrote dozens of codices, in whole or in large part, himself, many of them with handwritten notes and text corrections. Specialized literature dominated over the underrepresented fiction. Mathematical and astronomical works formed a focus of the collection. Scholastic literature was strongly represented among the Latin books . In 1468 he donated the library to the Church of San Marco and thus to the Republic of Venice, which San Marco administered. At that time, according to his catalog, it comprised 746 manuscripts, including 482 Greek. Hundreds of books were added later; the donation consisted of more than 1100 manuscripts and incunabula . The patron made it a condition that the collection had to be accessible to the public and that no book could be sold or temporarily removed from Venice. Borrowing within the city for a deposit should be possible. The donation formed the basis of the later famous Biblioteca Marciana . Some codices from this collection are of great importance for the text transmission of ancient Greek literature. The publisher Aldo Manuzio used some of the manuscripts from Bessarion's donation for his classic editions.
An important field of activity of Bessarion was textual criticism, the philological investigation of the traditional versions of a text. He had considerable expertise in this area. The available manuscripts of a work were copied, the copies were then collated and corrected. Then a fair copy was created and, if necessary, corrected again. The result was an optimized version, which was then marked with the note “corrected handwriting” (codex correctus) or “best book” (Latin liber optimus , Greek biblíon áriston ).
Bessarion had a number of luxurious liturgical codices made. Among them were chorale books which, according to his will, came into the possession of the Franciscan convent in Cesena . They are among the most important products of northern Italian book art around the middle of the 15th century. After the abolition of the monastery in the 19th century, seven chorale books came into the Biblioteca Malatestiana . Another treasure is Bessarion's Staurothek , a magnificent Byzantine reliquary that he gave to the Brotherhood of Santa Maria della Carità in Venice. This cult object is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia . It has recently been examined in detail from an art-historical perspective.
Monastery reform
A large area of responsibility was the reform of the “ Basilian ” monasticism in southern Italy. Many monks lived there in monasteries where the liturgy was traditionally celebrated according to the Greek rite , although they belonged to the Roman Church. Since the instructions of Basil of Caesarea formed the basis of monastic life, one speaks of Basilians. The material and spiritual decline in these communities had led to the need for reform. As a learned Byzantine monk and theologian, Bessarion was excellently qualified to tackle the problems. He took responsibility for it. In November 1446 he held a general chapter in his Roman titular church , in which representatives of the Basilian monasteries of Apulia , Calabria and Sicily took part. In 1451, Pope Nicholas V gave the Byzantine cardinal authority to visit all of these monasteries . Calixt III. appointed him Archimandrite of San Salvatore in Messina . Bessarion kept this benefice until 1462, when he took over the role of Commendatabbot of Santa Maria di Grottaferrata , a famous but dilapidated Greek abbey in Lazio . There the cardinal had the monastery buildings repaired and expanded and took care of the rehabilitation of the financial situation.
Since many Basilians had insufficient knowledge of Greek, Bessarion set up a school for the Greek language in the monastery of San Salvatore in Messina in order to raise the level of education. The respected scholar Konstantin Laskaris taught there from 1468 . Bessarion also summarized Basil's instructions for community life in a Greek compendium. In one of the Greek monasteries in southern Italy he discovered two previously lost works of antiquity, the poem The Rape of Helena by Kolluthos and the Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna .
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Death and burial
After the unsuccessful legation in France, Bessarion was discouraged and attacked by his illness. On the way home, the strenuous crossing of the Alps was bothering him, and he also fell ill with dysentery . Dramatically weakened, he had to interrupt the journey in Ravenna. There he died on November 18, 1472. It was rumored that he had been poisoned.
The body was brought to Rome and buried in the Basilica of the Twelve Apostles , which the deceased had once received as the titular church, in the chapel of St. Eugenia. Bessarion had the chapel decorated with frescoes in the 1460s; To what extent the painter Antoniazzo Romano was involved in this work is controversial in research. Remnants of the building and the mural were discovered in 1959/1960. Pope Sixtus IV honored his confidante by his presence at the funeral ceremony. At the beginning of the 18th century, the grave was moved when the church was rebuilt. Another exhumation took place in 1955. The bones have been in front of the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament since 1957.
Appearance and portraits
After his emigration, Bessarion continued to demonstrate as a Greek. He wore the black Greek monk's clothing and the long beard common in his homeland. He caused a stir in the West and also offended. Allegedly, his appearance contributed to the fact that he was not elected Pope. His political opponent Gregor Heimburg called him a buck because of his beard.
Three fresco portraits by Bessarion that he himself commissioned have been destroyed. One was in Rome in the chapel of St. Eugenia, his tomb, another, executed by Bramantino , in the Vatican; the third was painted by Galasso Galassi in the chapel of St. Benedict in the Bolognese church of Madonna del Monte. A portrait of the praying cardinal by the Venetian artist Gentile Bellini , which originally adorned a tabernacle door, was acquired by the National Gallery of London in 2002 . He appears here as a simple monk in plain clothes without the attributes of his dignity as a cardinal and patriarch. Another portrait by Bellini, which showed him with his storage library, has not survived, but a copy made in the 16th century after the original was lost from memory is in the possession of the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. A fresco by Bellini in the Doge's Palace in Venice has been destroyed. After Bessarion's death, Federico da Montefeltro had the deceased depicted together with other famous personalities on a wooden panel in the ducal palace of Urbino . This picture, which can be seen in the Louvre today, was made by Justus van Gent and Pedro Berruguete . On the funerary monument to Pope Pius II created by Paolo Romano , which is now in the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle , Bessarion can be seen on a bas-relief . Furthermore, on a painting by Vittore Carpaccio made in 1502 in the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni in Venice, an old monk with glasses wearing the features of the cardinal kneels in a group of mourners.
Two of Bessarion's chant books in the Biblioteca Malatestiana in Cesena each contain a profile portrait of the cardinal, showing him kneeling in prayer. He can also be seen in several other book illuminations, including one by Gioacchino di Giovanni (de Gigantibus) in a codex from the 1470s. There Bessarion is shown with King Ferdinand I of Naples.
Silvia Ronchey made a thorough iconographic study in 2008 . In their opinion, the portraits that were created in the contemporary Venetian environment differ from the others in their striking ugliness. They are downright grotesque. In reality, however, according to the sources, Bessarion was a glamorous and fascinating figure, and this is confirmed by the portraits taken elsewhere. Ronchey believes that the unfavorable presentation by Venetian artists reflects the ambivalent, sometimes distant and sarcastic attitude of parts of the urban aristocracy towards the naturalized Greeks.
Works
Bessarion's best-known work is his large-scale defense of Plato and Platonism against Aristotelian criticism. Otherwise he mainly wrote statements on theological issues and speeches. Added to this is his extensive correspondence. He also translated ancient philosophical and theological literature as well as his own works from Greek into Latin. He used to write his writings first in Greek and later to translate or have them translated for the Latin-speaking reading public. In order to meet the high stylistic demands of the humanists on Latin texts, he used the help of colleagues to translate.
Philosophical writings
In calumniatorem Platonis
In the Byzantine Empire and among the Byzantines in exile, a dispute between Platonists and Aristotelians was going on around the middle of the 15th century, in which Bessarion's teacher Plethon was the most prominent representative of Platonism. The Greek émigré Georgios Trapezuntios , who lived in Italy and wrote in Latin, carried this conflict into the western world of scholars. In the 1450s he wrote a pamphlet, the Comparatio philosophorum Platonis et Aristotelis , in which he compared the two ancient thinkers and, from an Aristotelian point of view, violently argued against Plato. He criticized both the doctrine and the character of the philosopher he hated with devastating criticism and also criticized the literary quality of the Platonic dialogues . One of his main theses was that Platonism was incompatible with Christianity, while Aristotelianism was close to Christian truth. He also argued that Plato expressed himself in riddles and wrote the dark and the untrue instead of dealing with the fundamentals of logic. He disregarded principles of ethics and failed to prove his claims. Aristotle, on the other hand, created clarity and replaced the mistaken assumptions of his teacher with real knowledge. Trapezuntios also attacked Plethon, whom he classified with Plato, Epicurus and Mohammed among the particularly powerful herbalists and seducers. He made a current reference with the assertion that the Platonic influence had weakened Hellenism and thus contributed to the fall of the Byzantine Empire. This fate now also threatens the West.
At first, the Latin-speaking humanists were hardly able to take a competent position on this attack, since Plato's teachings were still little known in the West at that time. This only changed when Bessarion intervened. He wrote an extensive reply to Trapezuntios' polemic, the text In calumniatorem Platonis (Against the slanderer of Plato) , which he revised several times and had it printed in 1469. His aim was to refute the “slanderer”, whom he never mentioned by name, and at the same time to justify himself as a distinguished Platonist. He was not only concerned with the current challenge posed by the thesis that Platonism is contrary to faith and its possible effects on his reputation in the Curia. Rather, he had a more comprehensive goal in mind: as a thorough expert on ancient philosophy, he wanted to introduce the western educated, ignorant of Greek, into Plato's world of thought and give them the previously missing overall description of Platonism in Latin. He also consulted Neoplatonic sources and medieval specialist literature. He went into detail on the individual areas of knowledge that are dealt with in Plato's dialogues, paying special attention to political theory . Bessarion placed particular emphasis on rejecting the dangerous accusation that Plato had approved of homosexuality and pederasty . Statements in the works of the ancient thinker, the wording of which seemed offensive from the Christian point of view of the time, were interpreted symbolically by the humanist defender of Platonism. Following the example of the ancient Neoplatonic commentary tradition, he interpreted them as encoded references to hidden sublime truths. This procedure served him as an important tool in the debunking of the criticism of the Trapezuntio, whose literal understanding of the text he considered to be wrong. He carefully avoided combining the defense of Platonism with an unnecessary devaluation of the Aristotelian philosophy glorified by Trapezuntios. He portrayed Aristotle as a further developer of Platonic ideas.
De natura et arte
Bessarion probably responded to an anti-platonic writing by Georgios Trapezuntios in 1458 with the treatise De natura et arte (On nature and art) . He first wrote this treatise in Greek; later he added a Latin version to the edition of his main work In calumniatorem Platonis, printed in 1469 .
De natura et arte is an investigation into the workings of nature. It discusses the views of ancient philosophers on the role of reflection (to buleúesthai) in artistry or technique (téchnē) and in nature. It is about the questions of whether nature acts with a conscious intention that corresponds to human planning, i.e. after prior deliberation, and whether artistry or technology inevitably requires consideration. The starting point is the relevant statements made by Aristotle in the second book of his Physics . There both questions are answered in the negative. According to the view of the Platonists, however, every natural process is based on a deliberation of a divine authority, and nature acts as an instrument of deity. Bessarion said that Aristotle had also recognized the usefulness of natural processes . Although he had denied nature its own deliberation, he did not deny that its actions require a superior planning consciousness. Rather, he had to accept the latter, because it follows as a consequence of the purposefulness of nature's work, which he recognized. Thus there is no contradiction between the Aristotelian and the Platonic view. To support this harmonizing interpretation of Aristotle, Bessarion drew on the ancient Peripatetic and Neoplatonic tradition; he appealed to Alexander of Aphrodisias and Simplikios . In doing so, he contradicted the interpretation of Trapezuntios, according to which Aristotle rejected a consideration underlying natural processes and also rejected the idea of divine planning in creation. Trapezuntios had asserted that consideration presupposed doubt and ignorance, but that God was omniscient. Therefore, although there is a purpose in the eternal, there is no consideration. On the other hand, Bessarion objected that the divine intellect grasps the ends and the means with a simple intuitive act and thus guides nature. This act of thinking is meant here by “reflection”.
With regard to the considerations in craftsmanship or technique, Bessarion came to a differentiated assessment. Following Aristotle, he found that the more precisely the object of a technique was determined, the less consideration it needed.
Theological works
Opinion on the counter-speeches by Gregorios Palamas
As Bishop of Nikaia, Bessarion examined the controversy surrounding the outcome of the Holy Spirit in a Greek treatise. Later he put on a Latin version. It is his response to the counter-speeches ( antirhḗseis bei Bessarion, after the authentic title antepigraphaí ), which Archbishop Gregorios Palamas had written in the 14th century, an opinion of the Patriarch John XI that was friendly to the Union . To refute Bekkos . Palamas, the founder of the palamism named after him, had distinguished himself in the dispute over the church union as a spokesman for the strictly orthodox tendency, which rejected any compromise. Bessarion put together the position of the Bekkos and the reply of the Palamas on the individual points of contention and then added his own defense of the view of the patriarch. With this writing, which was written before the conclusion of the negotiations of the Union Council of Florence, Bessarion already adopted an attitude that was compatible with the dogma of the Western Church.
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Dogmatic speech
An oral, later written statement by Bessarion on the Filioque is known as Dogmatic Speech , which he presented in April 1439 at a private meeting of Byzantine bishops during the Union Council of Florence. It has come down to us both in the original Greek and in a free Latin translation made by the author. Building on the preparatory work done by Patriarch Johannes Bekkos in the 13th century, Bessarion analyzed the statements made by the ancient Greek church fathers on the outcome of the Holy Spirit. He examined the texts from a linguistic and logical point of view. His finding was that the generally venerated authorities of the Church Fathers' days had ascribed a contribution to the Son of God. He added a declaration (declaratio) to the Latin version , in which he explained to his Western readers the language used by the Greek theologians.
Reply to the syllogisms of Maximos Planudes
Shortly before or soon after the conclusion of the union negotiations in Florence, Bessarion wrote a study in Greek about the outcome of the Holy Spirit, in which he argued against four syllogisms of the scholar Maximos Planudes . With the syllogisms, Planudes attacked the teaching of the Western Church. In reply, Bessarion refrained from relying on the authority of the Church Fathers to support his position and relied only on the persuasiveness of his own arguments. In order to bring his remarks to life, he addressed the Planudes, who died more than 120 years ago, directly as if he were alive.
Dogmatic letter to Alexios Laskaris
In the 1440s, Bessarion wrote a Greek letter to the Byzantine official Alexios Laskaris Philanthropinos, which he later brought to the attention of the Western public in a Latin version. Laskaris had been one of the emperor's companions at the Union Council. His interest in church union primarily related to the political consequences. Bessarion sent him his dogmatic speech and the letter in which he described the events at the council from his point of view, justified his behavior and pleaded for the dogma of the Western Church. According to his account, the factual superiority of the Latins in the negotiations was so great that their opponents finally had nothing to reply to and remained silent. The cardinal presented a thorough discussion of the dogmatic controversy, detailing the central arguments of the opposing side. The letter is a valuable source for the history of the council.
Reply to the chapters of Markus Eugenikos
After the council, Markos Eugenikos, Bessarion's main theological adversary, published his pamphlet, Syllogistic Chapter . In the Byzantine Empire, the supporters of the church union were violently attacked and fell on the defensive. Under strong pressure, the Union-friendly Patriarch of Constantinople, Gregorios III. Leaving Constantinople in 1450. He emigrated to Rome, maintaining his claim to the patriarchal dignity. In order to justify his position, he had a reply to the syllogistic chapters written . This answer (apókrisis) handed down in Greek and Latin , in which each of the 57 chapters of the opposing pamphlet is dealt with in detail, is the work of two authors: The statements on the first seventeen chapters were written by an unknown Greek theologian before the patriarch's emigration, Bessarion later dealt with the remaining forty chapters. At the urging of Gregorius, the cardinal was reluctant to take on this task, which he probably devoted himself to during his legacy in Bologna. As can be seen from his introductory letter to the client, he considered a further repetition of the arguments that had long been exhaustive to be superfluous, but then complied with the request for a thorough presentation.
Philological interpretation of the Bible
After the mid-15th century, a dispute arose over a problem of Bible interpretation, in which humanists and theologians participated. As in the controversy over Plato, Bessarion and Georgios Trapezuntios were the main opponents in this dispute. The correct Latin rendering of a passage in John's Gospel was disputed . According to the text version of the Vulgate used at that time , the authoritative late antique translation of the Greek original, John 21:22 reads in Latin “Sic eum volo manere, donec veniam, quid ad te?”, That is: “So I [Christ] want him [the apostle John ] remains until I come; what is that to you? ”This is a mistake; instead of sic ("so"), si ("if") must stand for Greek ean in the Latin text . Then the statement receives its correct content: "If I want him to stay until I come, what is that to you?" From the incorrect Latin sentence, Trapezuntios concluded that the apostle did not die, but in secrecy until the end of the World live on. He considered it inadmissible to change the binding text of the Vulgate based on the Greek original.
Bessarion took a position on this in a study specifically devoted to this question. In doing so, he followed on from observations critical of the text made by the Roman scholar Nicola Maniacutia in the 12th century. With a philological argument he proved that the previously accepted translation falsifies the meaning of the sentence and that the sic cannot be saved by reinterpreting ean . From this he concluded that a conjecture was inevitable. On this occasion he also addressed the general problem of Bible translation and the criticism of the Latin Bible. Using examples, he demonstrated the unreliability of the common Vulgate text. So he came to the conclusion that it was fundamentally legitimate to correct the Vulgate based on the authentic Greek original version.
General circular
In the sixties of the 15th century in Constantinople the patriarchal dignity was firmly in the hands of the anti-Latin tendency, which was favored by the Ottoman sultan, but the ecclesiastical union still had supporters on some Greek islands, especially in the Venetian sphere of influence. After Pius II had appointed Bessarion Patriarch of Constantinople in exile, he addressed all friends of the Union in the Patriarchate with a circular that he wrote in Viterbo on May 27, 1463. This "general letter" (epistolḗ kathikḗ) served the defense of the Union and the justification of the author. Bessarion presented the position of the Roman Church in a generally understandable manner. He established the Filioque and the papal claim to priority over the Eastern Patriarchs. He argued that Christianity needed a single head, because only a unified leadership could ensure order. Homer had already established that individual rule was superior to all other forms of government . Plato and Christ would also have given preference to the monarchy in principle. The downfall of the once glorious Byzantine Empire was a consequence of the fateful split in the church that was brought about by power-hungry people.
Treatise on the Eucharist
Bessarion's writing on the Eucharist , a late work, is available both in the Greek original and in a Latin translation. This treatise, too, is devoted to a theological point of contention between the Western and Eastern Churches, and again Markos Eugenikos is the opponent whose view Bessarion disputes. The question is whether the epiclesis , the calling down of the Holy Spirit at the Eucharist, causes the consecration of bread and wine, as orthodox dogmatics teaches, or whether, according to the Western Church's view, the words of institution constitute the act of consecration. While the argumentation of Markos Eugenikos is based primarily on the ancient church liturgies, Bessarion primarily appeals to the formulation of the words of institution. He asserts that the epiclesis in the old liturgies has different versions, while the consecration words in the Gospels are uniformly transmitted and thus guarantee the greatest possible security required here.
Talk
Even while Bessarion was studying in Constantinople, the imperial family noticed his talent. He wrote an often than grave speech marked appreciation of the 1425 deceased Emperor Manuel II. , Which was not presented on the day of the funeral, but only at a later memorial service. This appearance apparently made an impression at court. The work has survived in an anthology created by the author, which contains, among other things, nine other Greek speeches: an eulogy for Saint Bessarion, an enkomion addressed to Emperor Alexios IV Komnenus of Trebizond , three funeral speeches for Alexios's wife Theodora Komnene, who died in 1426 , three consolation speeches to Emperor John VIII on the death of his third wife Maria von Trebizond , who died in 1439, and a speech written for the exiled metropolitan Dositheos, which defended his claim to his seat in Trebizond before the synod in Constantinople served. Outside of the anthology, three other rhetorical works by Bessarion from the time before his emigration have been preserved: a funeral speech in honor of Cleopa (Cleope) Malatesta, the wife of the despot Theodoros II of Morea, who died in 1433, and the opening speech of October 8, 1438 at the Council of Ferrara and the Dogmatic Speech of April 1439.
As a legate in Bologna, the cardinal wrote an eulogy for Luigi Bentivogli, an important member of the sex that dominated the city at the time. The occasion was the presentation of a papal badge of honor to this prominent citizen.
As part of his crusade efforts, Bessarion appeared as a speaker. The speeches with which he promoted his project at the Congress of Mantua in 1459 and at the Nuremberg Reichstag on March 2, 1460, as well as his address to the participants in the Vienna Reichstag of 1460 have been passed on. After the Turkish conquest of Euboea, he wrote fictional speeches to the princes of Italy against the Turks , with whom he wanted to shake up the Christian rulers. He stated that the Sultan's intention was to conquer Italy and then subjugate the rest of the earth from there. With his plan for world domination, Mehmed II , the conqueror of Constantinople, followed the example of Alexander the great , whom he admired. One of Bessarion's main theses was that the Ottoman Empire was inherently expansive, as it could only secure its continued existence if it continued to expand. Mehmed knew that a renunciation of further conquests would be interpreted by his numerous internal and external enemies as a sign of weakness. Therefore, he must attack in order to secure what has already been won. He could only intimidate his Asian opponents and keep them in check with ever new victories in Europe. Thus a lasting peace is impossible. The proof of the hopelessness of a peace policy is history; the failure of the Byzantine attempts to curb Ottoman expansion demonstrates the impossibility of peaceful coexistence. The military successes of the Turks so far had been made possible by the quarreling of their opponents, and such a conflict was now the starting point in Italy as well. The religious context - the confrontation with Islam - takes a back seat in the cardinal's portrayal. Bessarion's confidante Guillaume Fichet had the rhetorical work printed in Paris in 1471. Fichet sent the incunabula to numerous secular and spiritual rulers with individual dedication letters. An Italian translation made by Ludovico Carbone was published in Venice that same year.
Praise to Trebizond
One of his early works is Bessarion's Greek eulogy for his hometown Trebizond. It is an ekphrasis that may have been given as a speech during the author's stay in Trebizond. It provides a detailed description of the glorified city including the suburbs and the Imperial Palace on the Acropolis . In contrast to many other cities, Trebizond is not in decline, but is becoming more and more beautiful. Thanks to the excellent port, the best on the Black Sea, the city is an important center of long-distance trade, and handicrafts thrive. Further advantages are the pleasant climate, the fertile soil and the abundance of wood that is important for ship and house construction. The history is dealt with in detail, the prehistory of the city's foundation is broadly depicted. Bessarion points out that Trebizond was never conquered by enemies.
Memorandum for the despot Constantine
An insight into the political theory of the Byzantine humanist is given in his memorandum written around 1444 as a letter to the despot of Morea, the future emperor Constantine XI. It contains his advice for the despotate's safety and welfare. His plans were based on the optimistic assumption, which was unrealistic in view of the circumstances at the time, that the Morea peninsula could be defended against Ottoman expansion in the long term. He suggested that young Byzantines be sent to Italy for training so that they could later use the skills they had acquired there in their homeland. In various areas of technology, especially in shipbuilding, the remnants of the Byzantine Empire were poor in specialists at that time, as many skilled technicians had already emigrated. The measures suggested by Bessarion include the founding of new cities, the exploitation of natural resources such as iron ore and the promotion of the manufacturing industry. The export of grain should be banned in order to prevent famine. In order to firmly anchor the church union, he advised Byzantine nobles to marry Western women who would make the Roman dogma at home in Morea. In contrast to the traditionally dominant conservative state doctrine, according to which changes in the law are harmful and destabilize the state, he advocated legislative flexibility; he said that legislation should pragmatically adapt to changes in political reality.
Letters
Numerous Greek and Latin letters from and to Bessarion have survived. He himself compiled some of his correspondence by hand. The content is partly private, partly literary, philosophical, theological, political or related to its official duties. Some letters are important sources of history.
The correspondence that Bessarion had from Italy with Georgios Gemistos Plethon is informative in terms of philosophy and history. He asked his former teacher about problems of Neoplatonism and the disagreements of the ancient Neoplatonists. Among other things, the two scholars discussed free will . In contrast to Bessarion, Plethon represented a deterministic world view and believed that the will is subject to an inner necessity.
Expert opinion on the Easter bill
In 1470, Bessarion presented Pope Paul II with a report on the Easter bill - the calculation of the Easter date - which he had probably prepared at the suggestion of and with the support of the astronomer Regiomontanus. The topic is the determination of the spring full moon on which the Easter bill depends. In the Julian calendar used at that time , which contains too many leap years, the calendar beginning of spring had shifted by several days over the centuries compared to the astronomical, the spring equinox . The result was that Easter was celebrated more than a month too late in 1470. Bessarion pointed out this mistake, thereby showing the need for calendar reform .
Latin translations
As part of his efforts to preserve and disseminate Greek cultural assets, Bessarion embarked on a major joint project: the provision of all of Aristotle's writings in new Latin translations that were to meet the requirements of the humanists. The starting point was his transfer of the metaphysics of the ancient philosopher, which he worked out on behalf of King Alfonso of Naples. To do this, he compared the verbatim and therefore linguistically deficient late medieval translation of Wilhelm von Moerbeke with the Greek text. Like Moerbeke, he translated literally and gave preference to accuracy over linguistic elegance, but he tried to use a somewhat more fluid language.
In addition, Bessarion translated the memories of Socrates (Memorabilia) of the writer Xenophon into Latin. He dedicated this work to Cardinal Cesarini. In his speeches to the princes of Italy against the Turks , he added a translation of the first Olynthian speech of the Athenian statesman Demosthenes , which he had made to draw attention to the topicality of the thoughts of the famous ancient rhetor in the face of the Turkish threat. With the connection to the resistance of the Athenians against the policy of conquest of King Philip II of Macedonia , the cardinal wanted to place his call to ward off Ottoman expansion in the tradition of an ancient struggle for freedom.
As a translator, Bessarion also showed a particular interest in the Greek father of the church, Basil of Caesarea. He translated sermons by the theologians of late antiquity into Latin.
Poems of the dead
With poems for the dead in iambia , Bessarion paid tribute to the Italian Teodora Tocco, who died in 1429, the first wife of the later Emperor Constantine XI, and to Cleopa Malatesta, who died in 1433, the Italian wife of the despot Theodoros II of Morea. In the poem to Cleopa he had the widower Theodoros speak and glorify the bond of conjugal love. In reality, however, the misogynous despot's marriage had been marked by a serious rift.
reception
15th century and early modern times
The Byzantine émigré was popular among the humanists thanks to his balancing nature, hard work and literary skills. His philological and ancient scholarship earned him a high reputation among contemporaries. In the descriptions of his admirers, he appears as the ideal of a cardinal. Bartolomeo Platina , who owed him his release from prison, wrote an eulogy for him during Bessarion's lifetime , which is valuable as a biographical source. The funeral speech given by the Bishop of Fermo , Niccolò Capranica, at the funeral provides further details; however, Capranica's credibility is viewed with skepticism in research. Bessarion's friend and secretary Niccolò Perotti wrote a biography that is now lost. Another contemporary humanist, the Florentine bookseller Vespasiano da Bisticci , devoted a chapter in his biography to the Greek scholar. Cardinal Giacomo Ammanati , a close friend, was particularly enthusiastic . After Bessarion's death he praised the deceased's untiring zeal for the common good; without him nothing had begun in the Curia and nothing had been completed, everything rested on his shoulders. Contemporaries also valued the cardinal's generosity, which he demonstrated above all with the donation of his precious library to the Republic of Venice. Gasparo da Verona, Paul II's biographer, reported that Bessarion had a cheerful disposition, and Capranica mentioned the cheerfulness of the humanist's guests when they returned home after the conversations in his house.
With his philological criticism of the Bible, Lorenzo Valla embarked on a path on which the Byzantine humanist's investigation of the controversial passage in John's Gospel served as a model. Valla the oft-quoted remark, Bessarion was among the Greeks of the largest native Latin scholar and among the Latins the greatest Hellenist been (inter Graecos Latinissimus, inter Latinos Graecissimus) . These words not only related to excellent command of both languages; Valla also praised the emigrant's ability to integrate himself perfectly into the Latin-speaking world of Western scholars, to bring Greek culture closer to it and at the same time to convey Western thinking to his compatriots.
Bessarion's main work In calumniatorem Platonis was published in 1469 in an edition of 300 copies, which was high for the time. It was quickly distributed by the author in Italy and received a lot of attention during his lifetime. It had an epoch-making effect on the intense reception of Plato in the late Quattrocento . Marsilio Ficino , Francesco Filelfo , Johannes Argyropulos , Niccolò Perotti, Antonio Beccadelli , Naldo Naldi and Ognibene Bonisoli da Lonigo expressed their approval. Even in the early 16th century, this work was known to the relevantly interested humanists. The famous Venetian publisher Aldo Manuzio procured a manuscript that contained important subsequent additions and corrections by the author to the first edition of 1469, and published the revised text in 1503. In the period that followed, the Aldine superseded the earlier edition. It became the reference text in the debates that Platonists and Aristotelians led in the early Cinquecento . In addition to approving voices, there were also decidedly critical voices. One critic was Agostino Nifo , who attacked Bessarion in his Metaphysicarum disputationum dilucidarium , first printed in 1511 . The French lawyer Arnauld Ferron also took an opposing position; In 1557 he published a reply entitled Pro Aristotele adversum Bessarionem libellus , in which he accused the cardinal of prejudice against Aristotle. In the 1590s, Antonio Possevino and Giovan Battisa Crispo, two anti-Platonic-minded theologians of the Counter-Reformation , sided with Bessarion and with Georgios Trapezuntios.
The Moravian humanist Augustinus Moravus ensured that two works by the cardinal, the treatise on the Eucharist and the general circular, were printed in Strasbourg in 1513.
The speeches to the princes of Italy against the Turks , which belong to the genre of the "Turkish speeches" popular at the time, had a strong aftereffect . Their printing history shows that they have received ongoing attention. Nikolaus Reusner included them in the second volume of his collection of selected Turkish speeches in 1596. Filippo Pigafetta, who made an Italian translation and published it in 1573, wanted to draw attention to the ongoing relevance of Bessarion's appeals under the impression of the 1571 victory over the Turkish fleet in the naval battle of Lepanto . Also in 1573, a German translation by Nikolaus Höniger was published in Basel .
In the 17th and 18th centuries, however, Bessarion's life's work received little attention. The interest was largely limited to the reproduction of known facts in church and educational history literature. A new biography did not appear until 1777; its author, Abbot Luigi Bandini, extolled his hero.
Modern
In the modern age, systematic research into Bessarion's life and work began only late and hesitantly. A Latin treatise by Jan Conrad Hacke van Mijnden (1840) and an Italian one by Oreste Raggi (1844) did not provide any essential information. Georg Voigt , an influential pioneer of Renaissance research, who generally assessed the Byzantine emigrants very negatively, pronounced a devastating judgment. In 1859 he found that the cardinal's political undertakings had all been turned "to nothing and usually also to the ridiculous". Outside of the learned sphere, there was nothing to boast about him, he had wrongly considered himself a genius and instead of being eloquent was only talkative. In 1871, Wolfgang Maximilian von Goethe presented a collection of material on Bessarion's activities during the Union Council. Seven years later Henri Vast published a detailed biography, but limited himself largely to the compilation of known material. Even a study by Rudolf Rocholl published in 1904 hardly led any further.
In 1886 , Ludwig von Pastor, in his history of the Popes, which was written from a decidedly Catholic point of view, was extremely praiseworthy : Bessarion, “as great as a man as a scholar” and “the last important Greek before the complete decline of his people”, had “a great activity for the good of the Church, Science and Its Unhappy People ”unfolded and earned“ the greatest merit for the Church ”.
Research received a new basis in 1923 with the publication of the first volume of Ludwig Mohler's extensive, groundbreaking work Cardinal Bessarion as a theologian, humanist and statesman . This study, which offers a thorough biographical presentation, is an extension of the dissertation that the church historian Mohler submitted in Freiburg in 1918. The second volume followed in 1927 and the third volume in 1942 with Mohler's critical edition of Bessarion's works and other sources. In the introduction to the biography, Mohler praised the ancient scientific competence of the Byzantine humanist, “his literary ability and creativity, his oratorical talent” as well as “his moral dignity and his noble way of thinking, his friendly, reconciling nature”. Not only did he achieve excellent results as a scholar, but also as a church politician he was brilliantly up to his task, and he had proven himself to be a prudent diplomat. However, in bold idealism he set his goals too high. Mohler wanted to show that Bessarion was argumentatively far superior both in the theological disputes and in the philosophical controversy surrounding Plato and Aristotle.
Efforts to understand Bessarion's academic achievement and political significance intensified considerably in the second half of the twentieth century, and interest continued to grow in the early twenty-first century. A wealth of studies appeared on individual aspects of his life and work as well as on his library. John Monfasani and Concetta Bianca in particular came out with many publications. As a result, Mohler's comprehensive overview is outdated in some details, but is still consulted as a fundamental standard work. Elpidio Mioni was working on a new biography, which, however, remained unfinished; when he died in September 1991, only the part reaching up to 1458 was finished, which was then published from his estate.
The fact that Bessarion, even as a cardinal, was not offended by the openly pagan and anti-Christian attitude of his former teacher Plethon and, after his death, sent the sons of the deceased a letter of condolence in which he himself used the pagan terminology, aroused astonishment . He wrote there, among other things, that Plethon had ascended to heaven to the Olympic gods and was now giving himself up to the Iakchos dance. François Masai investigated this aspect of Bessarion's religiosity in 1956. He saw in this an extreme example of the impartiality and carefree with which pagan ideas were received in the Renaissance even in the high clergy. Vojtěch Hladký found in 2014 that the letter, which has often been discussed in research, was probably intended for publication. A sublime “pagan” style with mythological allusions was common with both Byzantine and Western humanists and should therefore not be overrated.
A research topic that is often discussed is the extent to which Bessarion's conversion to the faith of the Roman Church was influenced by general political considerations. According to a widespread interpretation, the spectacular step was an act of persuasion, at least partly theologically motivated. According to this, the change of denomination was made possible by the fact that the arguments of the Western theologians actually made sense to the Byzantine, regardless of the fact that he warmly supported the unification of the churches under Western leadership, also because of the politico-military situation in his homeland. However, this explanation contradicts skeptical and negative assessments of Bessarion's theological sincerity, which are particularly common in Greece. There, his turning away from orthodoxy is usually viewed as a political act, traced back to considerations of utility and evaluated accordingly. In church-oriented orthodox circles, the conversion has been condemned as a betrayal of opportunism and ambition since the late Middle Ages. Another point of view emerged in 20th century Greek encyclopedias, in which Bessarion was recognized as a forerunner of national freedom and a representative of the continuity of the Greek nation. In the opinion of some Greek judges, as a patriot, he sacrificed the Orthodox faith to save his country. For example, Polychronis Enepekides found in 1976 that the Metropolitan of Nikaia had recognized "the greater danger to Christianity and Europe"; this was not the teaching of the Catholic Church about the exit of the Holy Spirit, but the "avalanche-like increasing power of the Ottomans". In 1976 Johannes Irmscher came to the conclusion that Bessarion had been "a true patriot of his people". As such, he accepted church union as an inevitable necessity. In Italian Byzantine Studies , Silvia Ronchey emphatically advocates the hypothesis of purely political motivation. She describes Bessarion as a pragmatist whose "turn" represents a high point of opportunistic "realpolitik" in Byzantine history.
A controversial research hypothesis states that Bessarion rejected a fundamental dogma of palamism early on and thus alienated himself from the orthodox denomination. He decided against the teaching of Gregorios Palamas, according to which there is a real difference between the being and the energies of God. With this rejection of an officially binding doctrine of the Orthodox Church, an inner distance to the claim of Orthodoxy to free possession of the truth arose with him even before his conversion to the Roman faith. This hypothesis, advocated by Joseph Gill and Edward Stormon, is rejected by André de Halleux as insufficiently founded.
In July 2011 an international conference on “Bessarion in the interplay of cultural integration” took place at the University of Munich . The initial question was to what extent the conspicuously tangible clash of Eastern and Western culture with the concept of "integration" can be understood and understood in the figure of the Greek cardinal. “Integration” was defined as “taking in a 'stranger' into an existing cultural environment while simultaneously accepting what is peculiar to it”, in contrast to “assimilation”, the integration without such acceptance. The contributions to the conference, which took place within the framework of the Collaborative Research Center 573 “Pluralization and Authority in the Early Modern Era (15th – 17th Century)”, were published in 2013.
In his conference contribution, Panagiotis Kourniakos emphasized the conflict that had arisen from the “tense, ambivalent Greek-Catholic dual identity” of the Byzantine converted to Roman dogma, and his “painful physical and at the same time spiritual self-exile”. His crusade program was dependent on a political practice that was based on "very pragmatic and cynical factors". Bessarion acted - according to Kourniakos - as a citizen of the Republic of Venice, and it was clear to him that a liberation of Greek areas from Turkish rule was only possible with the Venetian military power and then had to lead to the connection to the Venetian Empire. In the crusade plan “there was no room for the anachronistic restoration of a Greek empire”, rather only an “equally anachronistic and, as it finally turned out, unrealizable restoration of the Latin empire” came into consideration. That would have meant a renewal of the foreign rule, hated by the Byzantines, which a crusader army controlled from Venice had established at the beginning of the 13th century. According to Kourniakos' account, Bessarion's "unconditional support of Venice on all occasions" was also problematic in Italian politics, as it compromised his reputation as a cardinal above the parties. In 2015, Han Lamers agreed with the assessment that Bessarion had envisaged Venetian rule after the planned liberation of Greece.
Bessarion's promotion of astronomy was honored in 1935 by naming the moon crater Bessarion after him.
Editions and translations
Collective editions
- Jacques Paul Migne (Ed.): Patrologia Graeca . Volume 161, Paris 1866, Col. 1–746 (edition of many works by Bessarion; Latin translations are added to the Greek texts)
- Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman. Finds and research. Volumes 2 and 3 (= sources and research from the field of history. Volumes 22 and 24). Schöningh, Paderborn 1927–1942, reprint: Scientia, Aalen 1967 (critical edition; Volume 2 contains In calumniatorem Platonis , Volume 3 treatises, speeches and letters. Detailed review of the second volume by Johannes Sykutris in: Byzantinische Zeitschrift 28, 1928, p. 133-142)
Individual works
- Pier Davide Accendere, Ivanoe Privitera (Ed.): Bessarione: La natura delibera. La natura e l'arte. Bompiani, Milan 2014, ISBN 978-88-587-6758-0 (Greek and Latin text and Italian translation)
- Em (m) anuel Candal (ed.): Bessarion Nicaenus: Oratio dogmatica de unione. Pontificium Institutum Orientalium Studiorum, Rome 1958 (critical edition, Greek and Latin)
- Em (m) anuel Candal (ed.): Bessarion Nicaenus: De Spiritus Sancti processione ad Alexium Lascarin Philanthropinum. Pontificium Institutum Orientalium Studiorum, Rome 1961 (critical edition, Greek and Latin)
- Luigi Chitarin (translator): Greci e latini al Concilio di Ferrara-Firenze (1438–39). Edizioni Studio Domenicano, Bologna 2002, ISBN 88-7094-477-8 (contains an Italian translation of Bessarion's speech of October 8, 1438 as an appendix on pp. 185–193)
- Eva Del Soldato (translator): Basilio Bessarione: Contro il calunniatore di Platone (= Temi e testi. Volume 111). Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, Rome 2014, ISBN 978-88-6372-477-6 (Italian translation)
- Anna Gentilini (ed.): Una consolatoria inedita del Bessarione. In: Scritti in onore di Carlo Diano. Pàtron, Bologna 1975, pp. 149–164 (critical edition of Bessarion's first consolation speech to Emperor John VIII.)
- Georg Hofmann (ed.): Eight letters from Cardinal Bessarion. In: Orientalia Christiana Periodica 15, 1949, pp. 277-290
- Pierre Joannou (Ed.): Un opuscule inédit du cardinal Bessarion. Le panégyrique de Saint Bessarion, anachorète egyptien. In: Analecta Bollandiana 65, 1947, pp. 107-138 (critical edition)
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Spyridon Lambros (Ed.): Palaiologeia kai Peloponnesiaka (critical editions)
- Vol. 3, Athens 1926, pp. 281–283 (a poem) and 284–290 (funerary speech to Emperor Manuel II)
- Vol. 4, Athens 1930, p. 94 f. (Funeral poem on Teodora Tocco), 154–160 (funeral speech in Cleopa Malatesta)
- Odysseas Lampsidis (Ed.): Ho «eis Trapezunta» logos tu Bessarionos. In: Archeion Pontu 39, 1984, pp. 3–75 (critical edition of the praises of Trapezunt)
- Gianfrancesco Lusini (translator): Bessarione di Nicea: Orazione dogmatica sull'unione dei Greci e dei Latini. Vivarium, Naples 2001, ISBN 88-85239-41-2 (Italian translation with introduction)
- Sergei Mariev et al. (Ed.): Bessarion: About nature and art. De Natura et Arte (= Philosophical Library . Volume 670). Meiner, Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-7873-2705-8 (Greek original text, Latin version, German translation, introduction and commentary)
- Alexander Sideras : The Byzantine funerary speeches. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-7001-2159-8 (contains a critical edition of Bessarion's first funeral address to the Empress Theodora Komnene as an appendix on pp. 529-536)
- Alexander Sideras (Ed.): 25 unedited Byzantine funerary speeches. Parateretes, Thessaloniki 1990, ISBN 960-260-304-6 , pp. 349-368 (critical edition of Bessarion's second and third funerary speeches to the Empress Theodora Komnene)
literature
Overview representations
- Tzotcho Boiadjiev : Bessarion. 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. 208-214, 291-295
- Marie-Hélène Congourdeau: Bessarion (1403-1472). In: Colette Nativel (ed.): Centuriae Latinae. Droz, Geneva 1997, pp. 131-136
- Joseph Gill : Bessarion. In: Theological Real Encyclopedia . Volume 5, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1980, ISBN 3-11-007739-6 , pp. 725-730
- Thomas Sören Hoffmann : Philosophy in Italy. An introduction to 20 portraits. Marix, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-86539-127-8 , pp. 79-86
- Lotte Labowsky : Bessarione. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 9: Berengario – Biagini. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1967, pp. 686-696.
Overall representations
- Giuseppe L. Coluccia: Basilio Bessarione. Lo spirito greco e l'Occidente . Olschki, Florence 2009, ISBN 978-88-222-5925-7
- Elpidio Mioni: Vita del Cardinale Bessarione. In: Miscellanea Marciana 6, 1991, pp. 11-219
- Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman. Finds and research. Volume 1: Presentation (= sources and research from the field of history. Volume 20). Schöningh, Paderborn 1923, reprint: Scientia, Aalen 1967
Collections of articles
- Concetta Bianca: Da Bisanzio a Roma. Studi sul cardinale Bessarione. Roma nel Rinascimento, Rome 1999, ISBN 88-85913-17-2
- Gianfranco Fiaccadori (ed.): Bessarione e l'Umanesimo. Catalogo della mostra. Vivarium, Naples 1994, ISBN 88-85-239-09-9 (exhibition catalog with extensive collection of articles)
- Andrzej Gutkowski, Emanuela Prinzivalli (eds.): Bessarione e la sua Accademia. Miscellanea Francescana, Rome 2012, ISBN 978-88-87931-57-0
- Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus". Bessarion between cultures. De Gruyter, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-028265-8
- Elpidio Mioni (Ed.): Miscellanea marciana di studi bessarionei (= Medioevo e Umanesimo. Volume 24). Antenore, Padua 1976
- John Monfasani: Byzantine Scholars in Renaissance Italy: Cardinal Bessarion and Other Emigrés. Selected essays. Variorum, Aldershot 1995, ISBN 0-86078-477-0
Investigations on individual topics
- Katharina Corsepius: Cardinal Bessarion and the icon in the Roman Quattrocento. In: Henriette Hofmann, Caroline Schärli, Sophie Schweinfurth (eds.): Staging Visibility in Medieval Image Cultures. Reimer, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-496-01595-6 , pp. 235–250
- Panagiotis Kourniakos: Cardinal Bessarion's crusade legation in Venice (1463–1464). Cologne 2009 (dissertation, online )
- Lotte Labowsky: Bessarion's library and the Biblioteca Marciana. Six early inventories. Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, Rome 1979, ISBN 8-88498-569-2
- John Monfasani: 'Bessarion Scholasticus': A Study of Cardinal Bessarion's Latin Library (= Byzantios. Volume 3). Brepols, Turnhout 2011, ISBN 978-2-503-54154-9
Web links
- Literature by and about Bessarion in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about Bessarion in the German Digital Library
- Bessarion. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website, English)
- Entry on Basilios Bessarion on catholic-hierarchy.org
Remarks
- ↑ John Monfasani: The Bessarion Missal Revisited. In: Scriptorium 37, 1983, pp. 119-122; Brigitte Tambrun-Krasker: Bessarion, de Trébizonde à Mistra: un parcours intellectuel. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 1–35, here: 2 f. Tommaso Braccini pleads for Orsini's credibility: Bessarione Comneno? In: Quaderni di storia 64, 2006, pp. 61–115, here: 80–82, 89–98.
- ↑ Brigitte Tambrun-Krasker provides an overview of the discussion: Bessarion, de Trébizonde à Mistra: un parcours intellectuel. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 1–35, here: 7–9. See the detailed discussion in Elpidio Mioni: Vita del Cardinale Bessarione. In: Miscellanea Marciana 6, 1991, pp. 11-219, here: 16-21.
- ↑ John Monfasani: The Bessarion Missal Revisited. In: Scriptorium 37, 1983, pp. 119-122, here: 120.
- ^ Elpidio Mioni: Bessarione scriba e alcuni suoi collaboratori. In: Elpidio Mioni (ed.): Miscellanea marciana di studi bessarionei , Padua 1976, pp. 263-318, here: 264 f .; Concetta Bianca: Da Bisanzio a Roma , Rome 1999, pp. 141-149.
- ↑ Lotte Labowsky: Il Cardinale Bessarione e gli inizi della Biblioteca Marciana. In: Agostino Pertusi (ed.): Venezia e l'Oriente fra tardo Medioevo e Rinascimento , Florence 1966, pp. 159–182, here: 161.
- ^ Elpidio Mioni: Vita del Cardinale Bessarione. In: Miscellanea Marciana 6, 1991, pp. 11-219, here: 23; Brigitte Tambrun-Krasker: Bessarion, de Trébizonde à Mistra: un parcours intellectuel. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 1–35, here: 4–7, 10–15.
- ↑ Thierry Ganchou: Les ultimae voluntates de Manuel et Ioannes Chrysoloras et le séjour de Francesco Filelfo à Constantinople. In: Bizantinistica 7, 2005, pp. 195-285, here: 253-256; Brigitte Tambrun-Krasker: Bessarion, de Trébizonde à Mistra: un parcours intellectuel. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 1–35, here: 13 f.
- ^ Elpidio Mioni: Vita del Cardinale Bessarione. In: Miscellanea Marciana 6, 1991, pp. 11-219, here: 16 f., 24; Henri D. Saffrey: L'héritage des anciens au Moyen Age et à la Renaissance , Paris 2002, pp. 102-105.
- ^ Sebastian Kolditz: Bessarion and the Greek episcopate in the context of the Council of Ferrara-Florence. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): “Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus” , Berlin 2013, pp. 37–78, here: p. 43 note 27; Raymond J. Loenertz : Pour la biography du cardinal Bessarion. In: Orientalia Christiana Periodica 10, 1944, pp. 116-149, here: 130-132.
- ↑ Daniel Glowotz: Byzantine scholars in Italy at the time of Renaissance humanism , Schneverdingen 2006, pp 110-115; Brigitte Tambrun-Krasker: Bessarion, de Trébizonde à Mistra: un parcours intellectuel. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): “Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus” , Berlin 2013, pp. 1–35, here: 15–25; James Hankins: Plato in the Italian Renaissance , 3rd edition, Leiden 1994, pp. 218-220.
- ^ Raymond J. Loenertz: Pour la biography du cardinal Bessarion. In: Orientalia Christiana Periodica 10, 1944, pp. 116-149, here: 142-148; Edward J. Stormon: Bessarion before the Council of Florence. In: Elizabeth Jeffreys et al. (Ed.): Byzantine Papers , Canberra 1981, pp. 128–156, here: 138.
- ^ Sebastian Kolditz: Bessarion and the Greek episcopate in the context of the Council of Ferrara-Florence. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): “Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus” , Berlin 2013, pp. 37–78, here: 44–46; Brigitte Tambrun-Krasker: Bessarion, de Trébizonde à Mistra: un parcours intellectuel. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 1–35, here: p. 3 note 13.
- ^ Sebastian Kolditz: Bessarion and the Greek episcopate in the context of the Council of Ferrara-Florence. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 37–78, here: 45 f.
- ↑ Thomas Sören Hoffmann: Bessarion and Cusanus. A convergence in the sign of Neoplatonic unity thinking. In: Cusanus Jahrbuch 2, 2010, pp. 70–94, here: 84 f. Compare Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli : Bessarione, il Cusano e l'umanesimo meridionale. In: Gino Benzoni (ed.): L'eredità greca e l'ellenismo veneziano , Florenz 2002, pp. 1–21.
- ↑ Lotte Labowsky: Bessarion's library and the Biblioteca Marciana , Rome 1979, p. 3, 148.
- ↑ Jean Décarreaux: Les Grecs au concile de l'Union Ferrare-Florence 1438-1439 , Paris 1970, p 11-36.
- ^ Sebastian Kolditz: Bessarion and the Greek episcopate in the context of the Council of Ferrara-Florence. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 37–78, here: 56–59. Jean Décarreaux provides a detailed account: Les Grecs au concile de l'Union Ferrare-Florence 1438–1439 , Paris 1970, pp. 34–67.
- ↑ See on the speech by Joseph Gill: The Council of Florence , Cambridge 1959, pp. 143-145.
- ↑ Joseph Gill: The Council of Florence , Cambridge 1959, pp. 153–155.
- ^ Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 120-139; Jean Décarreaux: Les Grecs au concile de l'Union Ferrare-Florence 1438-1439 , Paris 1970, pp. 67-90.
- ↑ Lotte Labowsky: Bessarione. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Vol. 9, Rome 1967, pp. 686-696, here: 687.
- ↑ Lotte Labowsky: Bessarione. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Vol. 9, Rome 1967, pp. 686-696, here: 687; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 152–159.
- ↑ See also Joseph Gill: The Council of Florence , Cambridge 1959, p. 240 f .; Sebastian Kolditz: Bessarion and the Greek episcopate in the context of the Council of Ferrara-Florence. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 37–78, here: 61–63.
- ^ Jean-Christophe Saladin: Bessarion ou "du bon usage de la trahison". In Maïté Billoré, Myriam Soria (ed.): La Trahison au Moyen Âge , Rennes 2009, pp. 281–290, here: 283 f .; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 165–176; detailed description in Joseph Gill: The Council of Florence , Cambridge 1959, pp. 241–296.
- ^ Sebastian Kolditz: Bessarion and the Greek episcopate in the context of the Council of Ferrara-Florence. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 37–78, here: 70 f .; Joseph Gill: The Council of Florence , Cambridge 1959, p. 299.
- ↑ Christina Abenstein: The Basilius translation of Georg von Trapezunt in their historical context , Berlin 2014, p. 67 f .; Jean-Christophe Saladin: Bessarion or "you bon usage de la trahison". In Maïté Billoré, Myriam Soria (ed.): La Trahison au Moyen Âge , Rennes 2009, pp. 281–290, here: 285–288; Joseph Gill: The Council of Florence , Cambridge 1959, pp. 349-358.
- ^ Duane Henderson: Bessarion, Cardinalis Nicenus. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): “Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus” , Berlin 2013, pp. 79–122, here: 93; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 10 f., 207-209.
- ↑ See also Carol M. Richardson: Reclaiming Rome. Cardinals in the Fifteenth Century , Leiden 2009, pp. 289-291; Tancredi Carunchio (ed.): La Casina del Cardinale Bessarione , Perugia 1991, pp. 1-3.
- ↑ See also Volker Reinhardt : Pius II. Piccolomini , Munich 2013, pp. 183–186.
- ^ Duane Henderson: Bessarion, Cardinalis Nicenus. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): “Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus” , Berlin 2013, pp. 79–122, here: 94–97, 114–116; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 260, 284, 310.
- ^ Duane Henderson: Bessarion, Cardinalis Nicenus. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 79–122, here: 99–101.
- ↑ Lotte Labowsky: Bessarione. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Vol. 9, Rome 1967, pp. 686-696, here: 688; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 208-211.
- ↑ James Hankins: Plato in the Italian Renaissance , 3rd edition, Leiden 1994, p. 227; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 260–267; Emilio Nasalli Rocca di Corneliano: Il card. Bessarione Legato pontificio in Bologna (1450-1455). In: Atti e Memorie della R. Deputazione di Storia Patria per le Provincie di Romagna 20, 1930, pp. 17–80, here: 24–59; Elpidio Mioni: Vita del Cardinale Bessarione. In: Miscellanea Marciana 6, 1991, pp. 11-219, here: 149-154; Franco Bacchelli: La legazione bolognese del cardinal Bessarione (1450-1455). In: Gianfranco Fiaccadori (ed.): Bessarione e l'Umanesimo , Neapel 1994, pp. 137-147.
- ↑ Lotte Labowsky: Bessarione. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Vol. 9, Rome 1967, pp. 686-696, here: 690; Elpidio Mioni: Vita del Cardinale Bessarione. In: Miscellanea Marciana 6, 1991, pp. 11-219, here: 173-178; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 275-277.
- ^ Duane Henderson: Bessarion, Cardinalis Nicenus. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): “Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus” , Berlin 2013, pp. 79–122, here: 96; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, p. 279 f.
- ^ Volker Reinhardt: Pius II. Piccolomini , Munich 2013, pp. 207-209; Remo L. Guidi: Storia in ombra, ovvero Bessarione ei Francescani. In: Archivio Storico Italiano 169, 2011, pp. 727-757, here: 727-729; Panagiotis Kourniakos: Cardinal Bessarion's crusade legation in Venice (1463–1464) , Cologne 2009, p. 227 f. ( online ).
- ↑ Volker Reinhardt: Pius II. Piccolomini , Munich 2013, pp. 232-236, 250-268; Duane Henderson: Bessarion, Cardinalis Nicenus. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 79–122, here: 111 f .; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 285-292.
- ^ Claudia Märtl: Cardinal Bessarion as a legate in the German Empire (1460/1461). In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 123–150, here: 123 f .; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 292-294.
- ^ Günther Schuhmann: Cardinal Bessarion in Nuremberg. In: Yearbook for Franconian State Research 34/35, 1975, pp. 447–465, here: 447 f., 452–455; Erich Meuthen : To the itinerary of the German legation Bessarion (1460-61). In: Sources and research from Italian archives and libraries 37, 1957, pp. 328–333, here: 328–331.
- ↑ Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 295-297.
- ↑ Polychronis K. Enepekides: The Vienna Legation of Cardinal Bessarion in the years 1460-1461. In: Elpidio Mioni (ed.): Miscellanea marciana di studi bessarionei , Padua 1976, pp. 69–82, here: 72–77; Kenneth M. Setton: The Papacy and the Levant (1204-1571) , Vol. 2, Philadelphia 1978, pp. 217 f .; Gabriele Annas: Hoftag - Common Day - Reichstag , Vol. 2, Göttingen 2004, pp. 419-424; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 298-302.
- ↑ Polychronis K. Enepekides: The Vienna Legation of Cardinal Bessarion in the years 1460-1461. In: Elpidio Mioni (ed.): Miscellanea marciana di studi bessarionei , Padua 1976, pp. 69–82, here: 76 f .; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, p. 301 f.
- ^ Alfred A. Strnad : Bessarion also understood German. In: Erwin Gatz (Ed.): Roman Curia. Church finances. Vatican Archives. Studies in honor of Hermann Hoberg , Part 2, Rome 1979, pp. 869–881, here: pp. 872, 878 and note 31.
- ↑ Polychronis K. Enepekides: The Vienna Legation of Cardinal Bessarion in the years 1460-1461. In: Elpidio Mioni (ed.): Miscellanea marciana di studi bessarionei , Padua 1976, pp. 69–82, here: 77–80; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, p. 302 f.
- ↑ Lotte Labowsky: Bessarion's library and the Biblioteca Marciana , Rome 1979, pp. 3–5; Panagiotis Kourniakos: Cardinal Bessarion's crusade legation in Venice (1463–1464) , Cologne 2009, p. 117 f. ( online ).
- ↑ Gabriele Köster: On a special mission. In: Peter Bell et al. (Ed.): Fremde in der Stadt , Frankfurt 2010, pp. 143–169, here: 145–148; Holger A. Klein : Cardinal Bessarion's storage library: visual rhetoric and cult of relics in Venice in the late Middle Ages. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 245–276, here: p. 246 and note 4.
- ↑ Lotte Labowsky: Bessarion's library and the Biblioteca Marciana , Rome 1979, p. 23; Panagiotis Kourniakos: Cardinal Bessarion's crusade legation in Venice (1463–1464) , Cologne 2009, pp. 151–163 ( online ).
- ^ Theodoros N. Vlachos: Bessarion as papal legate in Venice in 1463. In: Rivista di studi bizantini e neoellenici 15 (= Nuova Series 5), 1968, pp. 123-125; Panagiotis Kourniakos: Cardinal Bessarion's crusade legation in Venice (1463–1464) , Cologne 2009, pp. 160–163, 169–171 ( online ); Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, p. 312 f.
- ↑ Uwe Israel et al. (Ed.): «Interstizi» , Rome 2010, pp. 17-27 (edition of Bessarion's decree on the legal security of Jews with Italian and German translation); Panagiotis Kourniakos: The Crusade Legation Cardinal Bessarion in Venice (1463–1464) , Cologne 2009, pp. 200–208 ( online ).
- ↑ Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, p. 314.
- ^ Marino Zorzi: La Libreria di San Marco , Milan 1987, p. 37 f .; Lotte Labowsky: Bessarione. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Vol. 9, Rome 1967, pp. 686-696, here: 692; Kenneth M. Setton: The Papacy and the Levant (1204-1571) , Vol. 2, Philadelphia 1978, pp. 247-257, 268-270; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 315-317.
- ↑ Thomas M. Krüger: Management violence and collegiality , Berlin 2013, pp. 267–270; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 317–322.
- ↑ Kenneth M. Setton: The Papacy and the Levant (1204-1571) , Vol. 2, Philadelphia 1978, pp. 300-303.
- ↑ Kenneth M. Setton: The Papacy and the Levant (1204-1571) , Vol. 2, Philadelphia 1978, pp. 312-314; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 416-419.
- ↑ Paul Ourliac: Études d'histoire du droit médiéval , Paris 1979, pp 492-496; Marino Zorzi: La Libreria di San Marco , Milan 1987, pp. 40, 42.
- ↑ On Bessarion's relationship to the ruling family of Urbino see Cecil H. Clough: Cardinal Bessarion and Greek at the Court of Urbino. In: Manuscripta 8, 1964, pp. 160-171, here: 160-167; Concetta Bianca: Da Bisanzio a Roma , Rome 1999, pp. 123-127.
- ↑ Lotte Labowsky: Bessarione. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Vol. 9, Rome 1967, pp. 686-696, here: 693; John LI Fennell: Ivan the Great of Moscow , London 1961, pp. 316-318; Charles A. Frazee: Catholics and Sultans , Cambridge 1983, p. 15; Kenneth M. Setton: The Papacy and the Levant (1204-1571) , Vol. 2, Philadelphia 1978, pp. 318-320; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, p. 310, 422.
- ↑ Paul Ourliac: Études d'histoire du droit médiéval , Paris 1979, pp 496-501; Lotte Labowsky: Bessarione. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Vol. 9, Rome 1967, pp. 686-696, here: 693; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 423-425.
- ^ Richard J. Walsh: Charles the Bold and Italy (1467-1477) , Liverpool 2005, pp. 76-78; Paul Ourliac: Études d'histoire du droit médiéval , Paris 1979, pp. 501–503.
- ^ Alfred A. Strnad: Bessarion also understood German. In: Erwin Gatz (Ed.): Roman Curia. Church finances. Vatican Archives. Studies in honor of Hermann Hoberg , Part 2, Rome 1979, pp. 869–881, here: 870–872; John Monfasani: 'Bessarion Scholasticus' , Turnhout 2011, pp. 27-29; John Monfasani: Greek Scholars between East and West in the Fifteenth Century , Farnham 2016, No. VII pp. 8-10. Cf. Agustin Hevia-Ballina: Besarion de Nicea, latinista. In: Jean-Claude Margolin (ed.): Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Turonensis , Vol. 1, Paris 1980, pp. 449-461.
- ↑ Christina Abenstein: “Penitus me destruxisti…” In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): “Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus” , Berlin 2013, pp. 301–346, here 302–307; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 21 f., 206 f.
- ↑ John Monfasani: Two Fifteenth-Century "Platonic Academies" Bessarion's and Ficino's. In: Marianne Pade (Ed.): On Renaissance Academies , Rome 2011, pp. 61–76, here: 61–65; Fabio Stok: Perotti e l'Accademia romana. In: Marianne Pade (Ed.): On Renaissance Academies , Rome 2011, pp. 77–90, here: 81–84; Daniel Glowotz: Byzantine Scholars in Italy at the Time of Renaissance Humanism , Schneverdingen 2006, pp. 377-380; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 5, 252 f., 260, 283, 322, 326 f., 331 f.
- ↑ See James Hankins: Bessarione, Ficino e le scuole di platonismo del sec. XV. In: Mariarosa Cortesi, Enrico V. Maltese (ed.): Dotti bizantini e libri greci nell'Italia del secolo XV , Naples 1992, pp. 117–128, here: 124–128.
- ^ Charles H. Lohr: Metaphysics. In: Charles B. Schmitt (Ed.): The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy , Cambridge 1988, p. 566 f .; Héctor Delbosco: El humanismo platónico del cardenal Bessarión , Pamplona 2008, pp. 47-50; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 332 f., 339 f., 396.
- ↑ Franco Bacchelli: La legazione bolognese del cardinal Bessarione (1450-1455). In: Gianfranco Fiaccadori (ed.): Bessarione e l'Umanesimo , Naples 1994, pp. 137-147, here: 143; Elpidio Mioni: Vita del Cardinale Bessarione. In: Miscellanea Marciana 6, 1991, pp. 11-219, here: 154 f .; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, p. 263 f.
- ↑ Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 259 f., 265 f.
- ^ Alfred A. Strnad: Bessarion also understood German. In: Erwin Gatz (Ed.): Roman Curia. Church finances. Vatican Archives. Studies in honor of Hermann Hoberg , Part 2, Rome 1979, pp. 869–881, here: 877 f .; Antonio Rigo: Bessarione, Giovanni Regiomontano ei loro studi su Tolomeo a Venezia e Roma (1462–1464). In: Studi Veneziani 21, 1991, pp. 49-110, here: 49-51, 62-67, 77-79.
- ^ Marino Zorzi: La Libreria di San Marco , Milan 1987, p. 28; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 306, 327–329.
- ↑ See also Fabio Stok: Pomponio Leto e Niccolò Perotti. In: Anna Modigliani et al. (Ed.): Pomponio Leto tra identità locale e cultura internazionale , Rome 2011, pp. 79–94, here: 81–86; James Hankins: Plato in the Italian Renaissance , 3rd edition, Leiden 1994, pp. 211-214; Marino Zorzi: La Libreria di San Marco , Milan 1987, p. 76 f .; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, p. 320.
- ↑ Daniel Glowotz: Byzantine scholars in Italy at the time of Renaissance humanism , Schneverdingen 2006, pp 457-461; Lotte Labowsky: Bessarion's library and the Biblioteca Marciana , Rome 1979, pp. 13-15.
- ^ Marino Zorzi: La Libreria di San Marco , Milan 1987, pp. 45-61, 77-85; John Monfasani: 'Bessarion Scholasticus' , Turnhout 2011, pp. 3-7, 28-31. For the handling of the transfer, see Joachim-Felix Leonhard : Schenker und Beschenkte. In: Bernhard Adams et al. (Ed.): Aratro corona messoria , Bonn 1988, pp. 15–34, here: 18–26.
- ↑ Daniel Glowotz: Byzantine scholars in Italy at the time of Renaissance humanism , Schneverdingen 2006, p 460; Lotte Labowsky: Bessarion's library and the Biblioteca Marciana , Rome 1979, p. 14.
- ↑ Fabrizio Lollini: Bologna, Ferrara, Cesena: i corali del Bessarione tra circuiti umanistici e percorsi di artisti. In: Piero Lucchi (ed.): Corali Miniati del Quattrocento nella Biblioteca Malatestiana , Milan 1989, pp. 19-36.
- ↑ Giordana Mariani Canova: Una illustrious series liturgica ricostruita: i corali del Bessarione già all'Annunziata di Cesena. In: Saggi e memorie di storia dell'arte 11, 1977, pp. 7–20 (images pp. 129–145), here: 9–12 ( online ); Elpidio Mioni: Vita del Cardinale Bessarione. In: Miscellanea Marciana 6, 1991, pp. 11-219, here: 164 f .; Roberto Weiss: Two Unnoticed 'Portraits' of Cardinal Bessarion. In: Italian Studies 22, 1967, pp. 1-5.
- ↑ See the study by Holger A. Klein: The storage library of Cardinal Bessarion: Image rhetoric and cult of relics in Venice in the late Middle Ages. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 245-276.
- ^ Elpidio Mioni: Vita del Cardinale Bessarione. In: Miscellanea Marciana 6, 1991, pp. 11-219, here: 98 f., 194-197; Concetta Bianca: Da Bisanzio a Roma , Rome 1999, pp. 107-116.
- ↑ Lotte Labowsky: Bessarion's library and the Biblioteca Marciana , Rome 1979, p. 11 f .; Elpidio Mioni: Vita del Cardinale Bessarione. In: Miscellanea Marciana 6, 1991, pp. 11-219, here: 197.
- ↑ Silvia Ronchey: Bessarion Venetus. In: Chryssa Maltezou et al. (Ed.): Philanagnostes , Venice 2008, pp. 375–401, here: p. 389 and note 38; Tommaso Braccini: Bessarione Comneno? In: Quaderni di storia 64, 2006, pp. 61–115, here: 99–102; Tommaso Braccini: Bessarione e la cometa. In: Quaderni di storia 67, 2008, pp. 37-53.
- ^ Carol M. Richardson: Reclaiming Rome. Cardinals in the Fifteenth Century , Leiden 2009, pp. 220–232 (with images and reconstruction of the chapel), 453–455; Klaus Ley: The Return of the “Sublime” , Berlin 2015, pp. 108–120.
- ^ Isidoro Liberale Gatti: Il Palazzo Della Rovere ai Santi Apostoli di Roma. Uomini, pietre e vicende. Il Quattrocento , part 1, Rome 2015, p. 165; Antonio Coccia: Vita e opere del Bessarione. In: Miscellanea Francescana 73, 1973, pp. 265-293, here: 285.
- ↑ Silvia Ronchey: Bessarion Venetus. In: Chryssa Maltezou et al. (Ed.): Philanagnostes , Venice 2008, pp. 375–401, here: p. 387 and note 33; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, p. 251 f.
- ^ Marino Zorzi: La Libreria di San Marco , Milan 1987, p. 26 (illustration), 44.
- ^ Concetta Bianca: Da Bisanzio a Roma , Rom 1999, p. 159 f., 162.
- ↑ Silvia Ronchey: Bessarion Venetus. In: Chryssa Maltezou et al. (Ed.): Philanagnostes , Venice 2008, pp. 375–401, here: p. 390 and note 39; Thomas Leinkauf : Outline of the philosophy of humanism and the Renaissance (1350–1600) , Vol. 1, Hamburg 2017, p. 1017 f.
- ↑ See on the relief Silvia Ronchey: Bessarion Venetus. In: Chryssa Maltezou et al. (Ed.): Philanagnostes , Venice 2008, pp. 375–401, here: p. 388 and note 35.
- ^ Günter Brucher : History of Venetian Painting , Volume 2, Vienna 2010, p. 356.
- ↑ Roberto Weiss: Two Unnoticed 'portraits' of Cardinal Bessarion. In: Italian Studies 22, 1967, pp. 1-5; Concetta Bianca: Da Bisanzio a Roma , Rome 1999, pp. 161-167. The picture with King Ferdinand is in Codex Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Lat. 12946, fol. 29r.
- ↑ Silvia Ronchey: Bessarion Venetus. In: Chryssa Maltezou et al. (Ed.): Philanagnostes , Venice 2008, pp. 375–401, here: 382–388, 400.
- ↑ John Monfasani: 'Bessarion Scholasticus' , Turnhout 2011, pp. 27-30.
- ↑ On the position of the Trapezuntios see Eva Del Soldato: Illa litteris Graecis abdita: Bessarion, Plato, and the Western World. In: Marco Sgarbi (Ed.): Translatio Studiorum , Leiden 2012, pp. 109–122, here: 111–113; Christina Abenstein: The St. Basil's translation of Georg von Trapezunt in its historical context , Berlin 2014, p. 187; James Hankins: Plato in the Italian Renaissance , 3rd edition, Leiden 1994, pp. 236–245.
- ^ Eva Del Soldato: Illa litteris Graecis abdita: Bessarion, Plato, and the Western World. In: Marco Sgarbi (Ed.): Translatio Studiorum , Leiden 2012, pp. 109–122, here: 114–121; James Hankins: Plato in the Italian Renaissance , 3rd Edition, Leiden 1994, pp. 229-231, 233-236, 245-263; Daniel Glowotz: Byzantine Scholars in Italy at the Time of Renaissance Humanism , Schneverdingen 2006, pp. 390–393, 405; Klaus-Peter Todt : In Calumniatorem Platonis: Cardinal Johannes Bessarion (approx. 1403–1472) as mediator and defender of Plato's philosophy. In: Evangelos Konstantinou (ed.): The contribution of the Byzantine scholars to the occidental renaissance of the 14th and 15th centuries , Frankfurt 2006, pp. 149–168, here: 158–165.
- ↑ For the genesis and dating of the work see Sergei Mariev et al. (Ed.): Bessarion: About nature and art. De Natura et Arte , Hamburg 2015, pp. IX – XVI.
- ↑ Monica Marchetto: Nature and deliberation in Bessarion's De natura et arte. In: Byzantinische Zeitschrift 108, 2015, pp. 735–751; Sergei Mariev: Nature as instrumentum Dei. In: Denis Searby (Ed.): Never the Twain Shall Meet? , Berlin 2018, pp. 275–289; Eva Del Soldato: Introduzione. In: Pier Davide Accendere, Ivanoe Privitera (ed.): Bessarione: La natura delibera. La natura e l'arte , Milan 2014, pp. 11–37, here: 23–37; Sergei Mariev et al. (Ed.): Bessarion: About nature and art. De Natura et Arte , Hamburg 2015, pp. LI – LXII.
- ↑ Sergei Mariev et al. (Ed.): Bessarion: About nature and art. De Natura et Arte , Hamburg 2015, p. LIII f.
- ↑ Antonio Rigo: La refutazione di Bessarione delle Antepigraphai di Gregorio Palamas. In: Mariarosa Cortesi, Claudio Leonardi (ed.): Tradizioni patristiche nell'umanesimo , Florenz 2000, pp. 283-294, here: 289-294; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 213-218.
- ^ Joseph Gill: The Council of Florence , Cambridge 1959, pp. 240 f .; Gianfrancesco Lusini: Bessarione di Nicea: Orazione dogmatica sull'unione dei Greci e dei Latini , Naples 2001, pp. 110-113; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 218–220.
- ^ Antonio Rigo: La teologia di Bessarione da Costantinopoli a Roma. In: Andrzej Gutkowski, Emanuela Prinzivalli (ed.): Bessarione e la sua Accademia , Rome 2012, pp. 21–55, here: 34–36; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 220–222.
- ^ Joseph Gill: The Sincerity of Bessarion the Unionist. In: The Journal of Theological Studies 26, 1975, pp. 377-392, here: 388-390; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 224–232.
- ^ Antonio Rigo: La teologia di Bessarione da Costantinopoli a Roma. In: Andrzej Gutkowski, Emanuela Prinzivalli (ed.): Bessarione e la sua Accademia , Rome 2012, pp. 21–55, here: 37–39; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 232-239.
- ^ Nigel Guy Wilson : From Byzantium to Italy , London 1992, p. 61 f .; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 399-403.
- ^ Antonio Rigo: La teologia di Bessarione da Costantinopoli a Roma. In: Andrzej Gutkowski, Emanuela Prinzivalli (ed.): Bessarione e la sua Accademia , Rome 2012, pp. 21–55, here: 40–43; Paolo Garbini: Una cena a casa del Bessarione. In: Andrzej Gutkowski, Emanuela Prinzivalli (ed.): Bessarione e la sua Accademia , Rome 2012, pp. 65–79, here: 65–68; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 399-402.
- ↑ Panagiotis Kourniakos: The Crusade Legation Cardinal Bessarion in Venice (1463–1464) , Cologne 2009, pp. 101–104 ( online ); Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 240–242.
- ^ Antonio Rigo: La teologia di Bessarione da Costantinopoli a Roma. In: Andrzej Gutkowski, Emanuela Prinzivalli (ed.): Bessarione e la sua Accademia , Rome 2012, pp. 21–55, here: 44–47; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 243–247.
- ↑ Alexander Sideras: Die Byzantinischen Grabreden , Vienna 1994, p. 361 f.
- ↑ Silvia Ronchey: Bessarione poeta e l'ultima corte di Bizanzio. In: Gianfranco Fiaccadori (ed.): Bessarione e l'Umanesimo , Neapel 1994, pp. 47-65, here: 48-50.
- ↑ Alexander Sideras: Die Byzantinischen Grabreden , Vienna 1994, pp. 362–365; Filippo Maria Pontani : Epicedi inediti del Bessarione. In: Rivista di studi bizantini e neoellenici 15 (= Nuova Series 5), 1968, pp. 105–121, here: 105–112.
- ^ Sebastian Kolditz: Bessarion and the Greek episcopate in the context of the Council of Ferrara-Florence. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): “Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus” , Berlin 2013, pp. 37–78, here: pp. 41–43, p. 54 note 71; Antonio Rigo: Le opere d'argomento teologico del giovane Bessarione. In: Gianfranco Fiaccadori (ed.): Bessarione e l'Umanesimo , Neapel 1994, pp. 33-46, here: 39 f.
- ↑ Alexander Sideras: Die Byzantinischen Grabreden , Vienna 1994, p. 365 f .; Filippo Maria Pontani: Epicedi inediti del Bessarione. In: Rivista di studi bizantini e neoellenici 15 (= Nuova Series 5), 1968, pp. 105–121, here: 112–121.
- ^ Herbert Hunger : Die hochsprachliche Profane Literatur der Byzantiner , Vol. 1, Munich 1978, p. 141; Edward J. Stormon: Bessarion before the Council of Florence. In: Elizabeth Jeffreys et al. (Ed.): Byzantine Papers , Canberra 1981, pp. 128–156, here: 131–135, 142 f.
- ^ Emilio Nasalli Rocca di Corneliano: Il card. Bessarione Legato pontificio in Bologna (1450-1455). In: Atti e Memorie della R. Deputazione di Storia Patria per le Provincie di Romagna 20, 1930, pp. 17–80, here: 54 f.
- ^ Dan Ioan Mureșan: Bessarion's Orations against the Turks and Crusade Propaganda at the Große Christentag of Regensburg (1471). In: Norman Housley (ed.): Reconfiguring the Fifteenth-Century Crusade , London 2017, pp. 207–243, here: 209–218; Margaret Meserve: Italian Humanists and the Problem of the Crusade . In: Norman Housley (ed.): Crusading in the Fifteenth Century , Basingstoke 2004, pp. 13–38, here: 34–38; Thomas Ricklin : Bessarion's Turk and other Turks of interested circles. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): “Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus” , Berlin 2013, pp. 277–300, here: 284–289, 293–296; Robert Schwoebel: The Shadow of the Crescent , Nieuwkoop 1967, pp. 157-160.
- ↑ Herbert Hunger: The high-language profane literature of the Byzantines , Vol. 1, Munich 1978, p. 175 f .; Han Lamers: Greece Reinvented , Leiden 2015, pp. 95-103; Edward J. Stormon: Bessarion before the Council of Florence. In: Elizabeth Jeffreys et al. (Eds.): Byzantine Papers , Canberra 1981, pp. 128–156, here: 140–142; Odysseas Lampsidis: L '"éloge de Trébizonde" de Bessarion. In: Yearbook of Austrian Byzantine Studies 32/3, 1982, pp. 121–127.
- ↑ Vojtěch Hladký: The Philosophy of Gemistos Plethon , Farnham 2014, p. 30 f .; Jonathan Harris: Bessarion on Shipbuilding. In: Byzantinoslavica 55, 1994, pp. 291-303; Christos P. Baloglou: Georgios Gemistos-Plethon: Economic Thinking in the Late Byzantine Spiritual World , Athens 1998, p. 97; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , vol. 3, Paderborn 1923, p. 439 note on letter 13.
- ↑ Panagiotis Kourniakos: The historical 'unicum' Cardinal Bessarion. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 439–466, here: 452 f.
- ^ Vasileios Syros: Between Chimera and Charybdis: Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Views on the Political Organization of the Italian City-States. In: Journal of Early Modern History 14, 2010, pp. 451–504, here: 490 f.
- ↑ Brigitte Tambrun-Krasker: Bessarion, de Trébizonde à Mistra: un parcours intellectuel. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): “Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus” , Berlin 2013, pp. 1–35, here: 25–27; Christopher M. Woodhouse: George Gemistos Plethon , Oxford 1986, pp. 233-237; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 336–339.
- ^ Antonio Rigo: Gli interessti astronomici del cardinal Bessarione. In: Gianfranco Fiaccadori (ed.): Bessarione e l'Umanesimo , Neapel 1994, pp. 105-117, here: 113; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, p. 334.
- ↑ Agustín Hevia Ballina: Besarión de Nicea, humanista cristiano. In: Studium Ovetense 2, 1974, pp. 7–108, here: 54–57; Elpidio Mioni: Vita del Cardinale Bessarione. In: Miscellanea Marciana 6, 1991, pp. 11-219, here: 120-126; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 341–345.
- ↑ See Michele Bandini: Due note bessarionee. In: Studi medievali e umanistici 7, 2009, pp. 399–406, here: 399–404.
- ↑ Thomas Ricklin: Bessarions Turk and other Turks of interested circles. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 277–300, here: 296 f .; Klaus Ley: Longin von Bessarion zu Boileau , Berlin 2013, pp. 94–98.
- ↑ John Monfasani: Greek Scholars between East and West in the Fifteenth Century , Farnham 2016, No. VII p. 10; John Monfasani: Still More on “Bessarion Latinus”. In: Rinascimento 23, 1983, pp. 217-235, here: 223-228.
- ↑ Edward J. Stormon: Bessarion before the Council of Florence. In: Elizabeth Jeffreys et al. (Eds.): Byzantine Papers , Canberra 1981, pp. 128–156, here: 137; Agustín Hevia Ballina: Besarión de Nicea, humanista cristiano. In: Studium Ovetense 2, 1974, pp. 7–108, here: 87–97 (pp. 88 f. Greek text and Spanish translation of the poem to Teodora Tocco); Silvia Ronchey: L'ultimo bizantino. In: Gino Benzoni (ed.): L'eredità greca e l'ellenismo veneziano , Florenz 2002, pp. 75–92, here: 80–89.
- ↑ Silvia Ronchey: Bessarione poeta e l'ultima corte di Bizanzio. In: Gianfranco Fiaccadori (ed.): Bessarione e l'Umanesimo , Neapel 1994, pp. 47-65, here: 55-60.
- ^ Duane Henderson: Bessarion, Cardinalis Nicenus. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 79–122, here: 88–90, 112.
- ↑ John Monfasani: Platina, Capranica, and Perotti: Bessarion's Latin eulogists and his date of birth. In: Augusto Campana, Paola Medioli Masotti (ed.): Bartolomeo Sacchi il Platina (Piadena 1421 - Roma 1481) , Padua 1986, pp. 97-136, here: 97-108.
- ↑ Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, p. 428 f.
- ^ Marino Zorzi: La Libreria di San Marco , Milan 1987, p. 28.
- ^ Claudia Märtl et al.: Foreword. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. VII – XX, here: VII f. See John Monfasani: Bessarion, Valla, Agricola, and Erasmus. In: Rinascimento 28, 1988, pp. 319-320.
- ↑ Daniel Glowotz: Byzantine scholars in Italy at the time of Renaissance humanism , Schneverdingen 2006, p 392 f, 406..
- ↑ For contemporary reactions, see Karl August Neuhausen , Erich Trapp : Latin humanist letters to Bessarion's work “In Calumniatorem Platonis”. In: Yearbook of Austrian Byzantine Studies 28, 1979, pp. 141–165; Jeroen De Keyser: Perotti and Friends. In: Italia medioevale e umanistica 52, 2011, pp. 103-137, here: 108-116.
- ↑ Thomas Leinkauf: Grundriss Philosophy of Humanism and the Renaissance (1350–1600) , Vol. 2, Hamburg 2017, p. 1170, note 14.
- ↑ John Monfasani: The Pre- and Post-History of Cardinal Bessarion's 1469 In Calumniatorem Platonis. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 347–366, here: 359 f .; Eva Del Soldato: Sulle tracce di Bessarione: appunti per una ricerca. In: Rinascimento 50, 2010, pp. 321-342.
- ↑ Edina Zsupán: Bessarion still in Buda? In: Péter Ekler, Farkas Gábor Kiss (ed.): Augustinus Moravus Olomucensis , Budapest 2015, pp. 113-138, here: 115.
- ↑ See Dieter Mertens : Claromontani passagii exemplum. In: Bodo Guthmüller, Wilhelm Kühlmann (eds.): Europe and the Turks in the Renaissance , Tübingen 2000, pp. 65–78, here: 76.
- ↑ Klaus Ley: The Return of the “Sublime” , Berlin 2015, pp. 175–182, 187–190, 221.
- ↑ On reception at this time, see Klaus Ley: Longin von Bessarion zu Boileau , Berlin 2013, p. 50 f .; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, p. 8 f. The biography written by Bandini is in Jacques Paul Migne (ed.): Patrologia Graeca , Vol. 161, Paris 1866, Col. I – CII.
- ↑ Georg Voigt: The Revival of Classical Antiquity , Berlin 1859, pp. 334, 336 f.
- ^ Henri Vast: Le cardinal Bessarion (1403–1472) , Paris 1878.
- ^ Rudolf Rocholl: Bessarion. Study on the history of the Renaissance , Leipzig 1904.
- ↑ Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 8-10 and p. 341 note 2.
- ↑ Ludwig Pastor: History of the Popes since the end of the Middle Ages , vol. 1, Freiburg 1886, p. 240 f.
- ↑ Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 1, 6 f., 95–98, 206–209, 216–247, 358, 366–383.
- ↑ Gianfrancesco Lusini gives a research report: Recenti studi sul Concilio di Firenze e il cardinale Bessarione. In: Studi storici 37, 1996, pp. 667-684, here: 679-684.
- ↑ François Masai: Plethon et le platonisme de Mistra , Paris 1956, pp 306-314.
- ↑ Vojtěch Hladký: The Philosophy of Gemistos Plethon , Farnham 2014, pp. 207-209. See Christopher M. Woodhouse: George Gemistos Plethon , Oxford 1986, pp. 13-15.
- ↑ See for example Antonio Rigo: Le opere d'argomento teologico del giovane Bessarione. In: Gianfranco Fiaccadori (ed.): Bessarione e l'Umanesimo , Neapel 1994, pp. 33-46, here: 33.
- ↑ Panagiotis Kourniakos: The historical 'unicum' Cardinal Bessarion. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): “Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus” , Berlin 2013, pp. 439–466, here: 452–454, 460; Han Lamers: Greece Reinvented , Leiden 2015, p. 93 and note 3; Joseph Gill: The Sincerity of Bessarion the Unionist. In: The Journal of Theological Studies 26, 1975, pp. 377-392; Tamas Glaser: The remnants of the Hellenes. In: Evangelos Konstantinou (ed.): The contribution of the Byzantine scholars to the occidental renaissance of the 14th and 15th centuries , Frankfurt 2006, pp. 199–209, here: 208; Ludwig Mohler: Cardinal Bessarion as theologian, humanist and statesman , Vol. 1, Paderborn 1923, pp. 10-12.
- ↑ Polychronis K. Enepekides: The Vienna Legation of Cardinal Bessarion in the years 1460-1461. In: Elpidio Mioni (ed.): Miscellanea marciana di studi bessarionei , Padua 1976, pp. 69–82, here: 70 f.
- ↑ Johannes Irmscher: Bessarion as a Greek patriot. In: Elpidio Mioni (ed.): Miscellanea marciana di studi bessarionei , Padua 1976, pp. 176 f., 184 f.
- ↑ See also Silvia Ronchey: Bessarion Venetus. In: Chryssa Maltezou et al. (Ed.): Philanagnostes , Venice 2008, pp. 375–401, here: p. 375 and note 5; Silvia Ronchey: Il piano di Salvataggio di Bisanzio in Morea. In: L'Europa dopo la caduta di Constantinopoli: 29 maggio 1453 , Spoleto 2008, pp. 517-531, here: 521, 527 f.
- ^ Joseph Gill: The Council of Florence , Cambridge 1959, p. 224 f.
- ↑ Edward J. Stormon: Bessarion before the Council of Florence. In: Elizabeth Jeffreys et al. (Eds.): Byzantine Papers , Canberra 1981, pp. 128–156, here: 143–145.
- ↑ See the research report and the discussions by André de Halleux: Bessarion et le palamisme au concile de Florence. In: Irénikon 62, 1989, pp. 307-332.
- ^ Claudia Märtl et al.: Foreword. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. VII – XX, here: VII.
- ↑ Panagiotis Kourniakos: The historical 'unicum' Cardinal Bessarion. In: Claudia Märtl et al. (Ed.): "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus" , Berlin 2013, pp. 439–466, here: 442, 451 f., 455, 457, 462 f.
- ↑ Han Lamers: Greece Reinvented , Leiden 2015, pp. 130 f.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bessarion |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Basil; Basil |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Byzantine theologian and humanist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | between 1399 and 1408 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Trebizond |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 18, 1472 |
| Place of death | Ravenna |