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GEMISTUS PLETHO

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 573 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GEMISTUS PLETHO [or PLETHON), GEORGIUS (c. 1355-1450), See also:

Greek Platonic philosopher and See also:scholar, one of the See also:chief pioneers of the revival of learning in Western See also:Europe, was a See also:Byzantine by See also:birth who settled at Mistra in the Peloponnese, the site of See also:ancient See also:Sparta. He changed his name from Gemistus to the See also:equivalent Pletho (" the full "), perhaps owing to the similarity of See also:sound between that name and that of his See also:master See also:Plato. He invented a religious See also:system founded on the speculative See also:mysticism of the Neoplatonists, and founded a See also:sect, the members of which believed that the new creed would supersede all existing forms of belief. But he is chiefly memorable for having introduced Plato to the Western See also:world. This took See also:place upon his visit to See also:Florence in 1439, as one of the deputies from See also:Constantinople on occasion of the See also:general See also:council. See also:Cardinal See also:Bessarion became his See also:disciple; he produced a See also:great impression upon Cosimo de' See also:Medici; and though not himself making any very important contribution to the study of Plato, he effectually shook the exclusive domination which See also:Aristotle had exercised overEuropean thought for eight centuries. He promoted the See also:union of the Greek and Latin Churches as far as possible, but his efforts in this direction See also:bore no permanent See also:fruit. He probably died before the See also:capture of Constantinople. The most important of his published See also:works are See also:treatises on the distinction between Plato and Aristotle as philosophers (published at See also:Venice in 1540); on the See also:religion of Zoroaster (See also:Paris, 1538); on the See also:condition of the Peloponnese (ed. A. Ellissen in Analekten der mittel- and neugriechischen Literatur, iv.); and the Nbµoe (ed.

C. See also:

Alexandre, Paris, 1858). In addition to these he compiled several volumes of excerpts from ancient authors, and-wrote a number of works on See also:geography, See also:music and other subjects, many of which still exist in MS. in various See also:European See also:libraries. See especially F. See also:Schultze, Geschichte der Philosophie der See also:Renaissance, i. (1874); also A. See also:Symonds, The Renaissance in See also:Italy (1877), ii. p. 198; H. F. 'Tozer, " A Byzantine Reformer," in See also:Journal of Hellenic Studies, vii. (1886), chiefly on Pletho's See also:scheme of See also:political and social reform for the Peloponnese, as set forth in the See also:pamphlets addressed to See also:Manuel II. See also:Palaeologus and his son See also:Theodore, See also:despot of the Morea; W.

Gass, Gennadius and Pletho (1844). Most of Pletho's works will be found in J. P. See also:

Migne, Pairologia Graeca, clx. ; for a See also:complete See also:list see See also:Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca (ed. Harles), xii.

End of Article: GEMISTUS PLETHO

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