Manuel Chrysoloras

Manuel Chrysoloras (also Emanuel Chrysoloras , Greek Μανουήλ Χρυσολωράς ; * 1353 probably in Constantinople ; † April 15, 1415 in Constance ) was a Byzantine diplomat and promoter of Greek literature in Western Europe.

In 1393 , the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos sent Chrysoloras on a diplomatic mission to Western Europe. Politically, this step seemed necessary, as the threat from the Turks seriously questioned the continued existence of the empire. The diplomatic mission consisted of collecting money and looking for possible allies in the event of armed conflict.

Chrysoloras first settled in Italy. With his Erotemata sive Quaestiones (printed 1496) he created the first Greek grammar to be used in Western Europe. Among his students were Uberto Decembrio , Guarino da Verona and perhaps Ambrogio Traversari . This cultural contact between Byzantium and the Latin West, which grew out of a diplomatic mission , occurred at a time when various circles of scholars and artists in Italy began to be increasingly interested in classical antiquity . In doing so, they established the intellectual current of Renaissance humanism . Chrysoloras is also to a large extent to be thanked for the fact that people in the Latin West were interested in Greek again and were thus able to read the classical texts written in it again. He promoted the development of Greek manuscript collections in Italy. Another student of his, Niccolò Niccoli , took an important part in these efforts . Through the purchase of these manuscripts, mainly from Constantinopolitan holdings, it was ultimately possible that these were passed on through copies of the humanists. Chrysoloras also played an important role in the development of Classical Philology during this period.

After all, Chrysoloras was also ambassador to the Council of Constance , on whose decision Jan Hus was burned. In Constance a grave slab commemorates Chrysoloras, who died there during the council.

Text output

• Jacques-Paul Migne (Ed.): Manuelis Chrysolarae epistolae. Graece et Latine . Paris 1866.

literature

• Georgi Kapriev: Manuel Chrysoloras. 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. 170–172, 282 f.
• Émile Legrand : Notice biographique sur Manuel Chrysoloras . Maisonneuve & Larose, Paris 1963.
• Remigio Sabbadini : Crisolora, Manuele ('Εμμανουὴλ Χρυσολωρᾶς) . In: Enciclopedia Italiana 1931 ( online at treccani.it)
• Ernst Gamillscheg : Chrysoloras, Manuel . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 2, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-7608-8902-6 , Sp. 2052 f.
• Hartmut Wulfram : A savior from the East. Manuel Chrysoloras and his de-individualization in early Italian humanism. In: Foteini Kolovou (Ed.): Byzantium Reception in Europe. Searching for traces from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the present day . De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2012, ISBN 978-3-11-027206-2 , pp. 89–116.

Web links

• Works by Manuel Chrysoloras in the complete catalog of incidental prints
• Publications about Manuel Chrysoloras in the Opac of the Regesta Imperii