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BESSARION, JOHANNES

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 822 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BESSARION, JOHANNES , or BASILIUs (c. 1395-1472), titular See also:patriarch of See also:Constantinople, and one of the illustrious See also:Greek scholars who contributed to the See also:great revival of letters in the 15th See also:century, was See also:born at See also:Trebizond, the See also:year of his See also:birth being variously given as 1389, 1395 or 1403. He was educated at Constantinople, and in 1423 went to the Peloponnese to hear Gemistus Pletho expound the See also:philosophy of See also:Plato. On entering the See also:order of St See also:Basil, he adopted the name of an old See also:Egyptian anchorite Bessarion, whose See also:story he has related. In 1437 he was made See also:archbishop of See also:Nicaea by See also:John VII. Palacologus, whom he accompanied to See also:Italy in order to bring about a See also:union between the Greek and Latin churches with the See also:object of obtaining help from the See also:West against the See also:Turks. The Greeks had bitterly resented his See also:attachment to the party which saw no difficulty in a reconciliation of the two churches. At the See also:councils held in See also:Ferrara and See also:Florence Bessarion supported the See also:Roman See also:church, and gained the favour of See also:Pope See also:Eugenius IV., who invested him with the See also:rank of See also:cardinal. From that See also:time he resided permanently in Italy, doing much, by his patronage of learned men, by his collection of hooks and See also:manuscripts, and by his own writings, to spread abroad the new learning. He held in See also:succession the archbishopric of Siponto and the bishoprics of Sabina and See also:Frascati. In 1463 he received the See also:title of Latin patriarch of Constantinople; and it was only on See also:account of his Greek birth that he was not elevated to the papal See also:chair. For five years (1450—1455) he was See also:legate at See also:Bologna, and he was engaged on embassies to many See also:foreign princes, among others to See also:Louis NI. of See also:France in 1471.

Vexation at an insult offered him by Louis is said to have hastened his See also:

death, which took See also:place on the 19th of See also:November 1472, at See also:Ravenna. Bessarion was one of the most learned scholars of his time. Besides his See also:translations of See also:Aristotle's See also:Metaphysics and See also:Xenophon's Memorabilia, his most important See also:work is a See also:treatise directed against See also:George of Trebizond, a violent Aristotelian, entitled In Calumniatorem Platonis. Bessarion, though a Platonist, is not so thoroughgoing in his admiration as Gemistus Pletho, and rather strives after a reconciliation of the two philosophies. His work, by opening up the relations of See also:Platonism to the See also:main questions of See also:religion, contributed greatly to the See also:extension of speculative thought in the See also:department of See also:theology. His library, which contained a very extensive collection of Greek See also:MSS., was presented by him to the See also:senate of See also:Venice, and formed the See also:nucleus of the famous library of St See also:Mark. See A. M. See also:Bandini, De Vita et See also:Rebus Gestis Bessarionis (1777) ; H. Vast, Le Cardinal Bessarion (1878) ; E. Legrand, Bibliographie Hellenique (1885); G. Voigt, See also:Die Wiederbelebung See also:des klassischen Altertums, ii.

(1893); on Bessarion at the councils of Ferrara and Florence, A. Sadov, Bessarion de Nicee (1883); on his philosophy, monograph by A. Kandelos (in Greek: See also:

Athens, 1888); most of his See also:works are in See also:Migne, Patrologia Graeca, clxi.

End of Article: BESSARION, JOHANNES

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