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Bessarion, John

Name: Cardinal John Bessarion

Nickname/Alias: Basil; Basilios; Basilius; Johannes Bessarion; John Bessarion

Achievements: Major contributor to Renaissance culture.

Born: January 2, 1403; Trebizond, Asia Minor (now Trabzon, Turkey)

Died: November 18, 1472; Ravenna, Italy (Aged 69)

Field & Discipline: Religion; Ecclesiastic; Theologian

Language: Greek; Latin; Italian

Father: Unknown

Mother: Unknown

Siblings: Unknown

Spouse: None

Children: None

Education: Taught by Manuel Chysoloras at Constantinople

Major Work:

“Against Calumniators of Plato” 1459

Life & Times:

Bessarion was ordained in 1431 and then  travelled to Mistra in the Pelopennese, where for several years he studied philosophy, particularly Platonism, under the celebrated Neoplatonist [taught by] Plethon*.

In 1437 Bessarion was recalled to Constantinople, where he was made abbot of the monastery of St. Basil, and later the same year was appointed archbishop of Nicaea (now Iznik, Turkey) by the emperor in preparation for the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438-45).

In 1438 he accompanied John VIII Palaeologus and the Greek delegation to Italy in order to negotiate a union between the Byzantine and Roman churches, as a means of ensuring Western assistance against the Turks, who had invaded the Balkan Peninsula and were threatening Constantinople.

At the councils - first in Ferrara (1438-39), then Florence (1439-43), and finally Rome (1443-45) - Bessarion argued in favour of the union unacceptable to many in the Byzantine church thanks to doctrinal and ritual differences.  He signed the decree of union on 6 June 1439 and, owing to the significance of his role, was made an offer to stay in the Roman Curia, but returned to Constantinople in February 1440.

Bessarion had made an extremely favourable impression on Pope Eugenius IV, who recalled him in December 1440 to the Council of Florence, and created him a cardinal.  In

September 1443 he moved with the Council and Curia to Rome, and remained in

Italy for the rest of his life.

Bessarion had brought with him a large collection of Greek manuscripts, including several on the mathematical sciences, and he began to study Latin and Italian, establishing himself as the major Greek scholar in Italy. During the late 1440s he built a circle of Greek and Italian humanist scholars to whom he offered his patronage and protection, and which met regularly at his residence.

This circle included the Italian scholars [patron of] Bracciolini* and [patron of] Valla*.   During this period Bessarion himself translated [translated into Latin] Aristotle's* “Metaphysics”  and translated most of his own Greek writings into Latin. He was also greatly preoccupied with the defence of the ecclesiastical union, which was generally unpopular in the East, and in 1444 wrote a "Justification of the Union."

In 1450 he was appointed papal governor of Bologna, and during the following five  years, proved an exceptionally able administrator, resolving many of the city's problems by arbitration, making popular new laws, rebuilding many churches, and greatly improving academic standards at the university, only returning to Rome in 1455 on the death of Pope [worked for] Nicholas V*.

Back in Rome, Bessarion was almost elected pope, but was prevented by the opposition aroused by his Greek birth. Instead, he continued his scholastic research, contributed to the development of the Academy of History and of Archaeology, and attracted to Rome a circle of philosophers devoted to the study of [popularized] Plato*.

After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Bessarion tried unsuccessfully to persuade Western leaders to join a crusade against the Turks,  to restore the Eastern empire to Christianity. To this end he travelled as papal legate to the Holy Roman Empire,  on diplomatic missions to Naples in 1457, and later to Germany (1460-61), where the he failed to raise support from Emperor Frederick III and the German princes for a crusade to recapture Constantinople.

In Vienna in 1460, on meeting the German astronomer and mathematician

[commissioned] Regiomontanus* and the Austrian mathematician [commissioned] Peuerbach*, he commissioned them to work on another important project: his proposed translation from the original Greek of  [worked on] Ptolemy's* astronomical and mathematical encyclopedia known as the “Almagest.” First Peuerbach, then Regiomontanus, joined Bessarion in Rome in 1461, and by 1463 Regiomontanus had completed his translation, which appeared as the “Epitome of the Almagest,” dedicated to Bessarion.

Meanwhile, the fall of Constantinople had also persuaded Bessarion to collect as much Greek literature as possible, and over the following decade he built a large collection of Greek manuscripts. He also spread knowledge of Greek language and scholarship by his patronage of Greek scholars. However, his most important work is the “Against Calumniators of Plato,” (originally written in Greek in 1459 in response to a violent attack on Platonism and its devotees, and a defence of Aristotelianism, by George of

Trebizond).

Bessarion's work, which he revised and translated into Latin in 1469, was the first balanced account of Plato in the Western world. It was also the first literary demonstration of the possibility of a Christian-Neoplatonist philosophy (in which Christianity, Platonism and Aristotelianism are reconciled) which was then taken up and

developed so effectively in the second half of the 15th century by the Italian philosopher Marsilio Ficino.

On the death of Isidore of Kiev in 1463, Bessarion was made patriarch of Constantinople by Pope Pius II, and the same year he went on another papal embassy to Venice. In 1468 he bequeathed his library of over 500 Greek books and manuscripts to St. Mark's in Venice, where they formed the foundation of the Biblioteca Marciana.

He remained devoted to the cause of Constantinople, and in 1470 he wrote an “Oration to Princes” (calling them to a crusade in the East).  . On his last mission, in 1472, Bessarion was sent to bring about a reconciliation between two life-long enemies, King Louis XI of

France and [negotiated with] Charles the Bold*, Duke of Burgundy.

On his homeward journey from this unsuccessful mission, Bessarion was taken ill and died at the Abbey of St. John the Evangelist at Ravenna.

Assessment: A major figure in introducing Greek ideas to Renaissance Europe.

Oneliner: Cardinal Bessarion,  prime mover of Renaissance culture

Bibliography:

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