Leontius Pilatus

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The Hecabe of Euripides in the original text with a Latin translation and marginal notes by Leonzio Pilato in a manuscript written in 1362. Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, San Marco 226, fol. 1r

Leontius Pilatus (also Leo Pilatus , Italian Leonzio Pilato ; * around 1310; † 1365 on a ship in the Adriatic ) was the first professor of the Greek language in Western Europe and the first translator of Homer's works into Latin.

He probably came from the Greek-influenced southern Italian Calabria , but also gives Thessaly as his home. He is considered a student of the Barlaam of Calabria . In 1358 he stayed in Padua and made the acquaintance of Francesco Petrarca there . In 1353 or 1354 he had received a Greek manuscript with the works of Homer from the Byzantine ambassador Nikolaos Sygeros. Since he lacked the necessary language skills, he asked Leontius Pilatus to do a translation. This provided a less elegant, verbatim rendering of the first chapters of Homer's Iliad. Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio then brought him to Florence in 1360 and had a chair for the Greek language set up for him, the first in Western Europe since ancient times. Leontius Pilatus finally completed his work. The manuscript is now in the French National Library , ms. lat. 7880 (1) and 7880 (2). The relationship between Petrarch and Boccaccio on the one hand and Leontius Pilatus on the other clouded. It was described as grumpy, ragged, and unkempt. On the occasion of a joint trip with Petrarch to Venice, Leontius Pilatus was sent from there to Byzantium, with the ostensible aim of getting more manuscripts by classical authors, actually to get rid of him. A letter was sent to him informing him that his return was no longer desired. However, he ignored the letter and traveled back to Venice by ship. The ship got caught in a storm and Leontius Pilatus was killed by lightning. From his luggage Petrarca received, among other things, manuscripts of Sophocles and Euripides .

literature

  • Donatella Coppini: Leonzio Pilato . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 5, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-7608-8905-0 , Sp. 1898.
  • Paolo Falzone:  LEONZIO Pilato. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 64:  Latilla – Levi Montalcini. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2005.
  • Agostino Pertusi : Leonzio Pilato from Petrarca e Boccaccio. Le sue versioni omeriche negli autografi di Venezia e la cultura greca del primo Umanesimo. Istituto per la Collaborazione Culturale, Venice / Rome 1964

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information on the manuscript on Mirabile; Digitized on Gallica
  2. ↑ Information on the manuscript on Mirabile; Digitized on Gallica.
  3. ↑ Francesco Petrarcha: Lettere Senili. Le Monnier, Firenze 1869, pp. 411-415 (Libro Sesto, Lettera I: A Giovanni Boccacio. Di Venezia, il 25 di gennaio [1366]. Online ).
personal data
SURNAME Pilate, Leontius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pilate, Leo; Pilato, Leonzio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mediator of Greek language and literature at the beginning of the Renaissance
DATE OF BIRTH around 1310
DATE OF DEATH 1365
Place of death the Adrian Sea