IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1415.
MANUEL CHRYSOLORAS
NOTITIA
(Fabricius, *Bibliotheca Græca*, ed. Harles, vol. XI, p. 409.)
A It should be noted that there were three men of the name Chrysoloras at about the same time (as Allatius teaches against Creygthon, p. 3 sqq.): Manuel, Demetrius, and John. Manuel A, according to the account of Paulus Jovius in his *Elogia*, after seven hundred years [or even longer; see Hodius, *loc. cit.*, p. 54] brought Greek letters back to Italy. Having been sent out from Byzantium by Emperor John, he visited various kings of Europe to implore timely aid for a dying Greece. But Greece, liberated from immediate fear because Tamerlane, the terror of the Orient, had captured the Ottoman Bajazet alive, prompted him to set foot in Italy. He resided first in Venice, then soon after in Florence and Rome, and finally, at the invitation of Prince Galeazzo, at Pavia, where he excited a study of Greek literature with great rewards and such success that many men of highest praise emerged from his school. Among them were Leonardo Bruni, Francesco Barbaro, Palla Strozzi, Francesco Strozzi, Guarino Veronese, Philelphus, and Poggio. To these add Niccolò Niccoli, Pietro Paolo Vergerio, Alberto Rubei, Leonardo Giustiniani, Filippo Ugolini, Ambrogio Traversari the Camaldolese, Andrea Dominici the Florentine, Antonio Corbinelli, and Giannozzo Manetti, or, as Leander Albertus calls him, Janetto Manetti. Finally, when the Council of Constance—convened to end the controversy over the anti-popes—had drawn him there out of a desire to see such a great spectacle, he died at Constance. He was buried there in the monastery of the Preaching Friars before the altar, where the following epitaph is read: "Manuel Chrysoloras, a Constantinopolitan knight of ancient Roman lineage, who migrated with Emperor Constantine, a man most learned, most prudent, and most excellent, who died on the day of the general Council of Constance, held by all to be worthy of the priesthood, on April 15, in the year 1415."
I who was once, having driven out complex turns of speech, Taught Latium the ancient arts, and who brought to light The eloquence of great Demosthenes and Cicero, Known by the name Chrysoloras, lie here; Dying, I rest in a foreign land. The care of the Council brought me here, while schism Vexed the Church of three Pontiffs throughout the world. Rome bore my ancestors, the good Byzantine land Bore me; Constance preserves my ashes. It matters not in what place you die. Everywhere the sky And the place of punishment are the same distance away.
MANUEL CHRYSO- LORAS
A Jovius notes that he left behind no works of weightier learning other than the rules of the art of grammar (d). I, however, have read his comparison of Old and New Rome, as well as his Epistles—one to John Chrysoloras and another to Demetrius Chrysoloras—written most elegantly in Greek and published by Peter Lambeck in the latest impression of Codinus, *On the Antiquities of Constantinople* (Paris, 1665, folio) [reprinted in *Byzantine Historical Scriptores*, vol. XVIII, p. 81, Venetian ed.], as well as his short, yet sufficiently acute and solid, *Treatise on the Procession of the Holy Spirit* against the Greeks. It begins: "Writing to the Romans, the blessed Paul..." concerning the Holy Spirit, etc. To these add the Greek version of the Liturgy of Pope St. Gregory, regarding which see below, p. 700 (FABR.). In Moscow, in the synodal codex 302, no. 62, *Man. Chrysol. On the Procession of the Holy Spirit*. Incipit: "This also, from undeniable..." See Matthew's *Notitia of Greek Codices in Moscow*, p. 198. The same work is in Paris, in the public library, codex 1300. Ibid., *Encomium of Both Romes*, in codices 2012, no. 2, and 2968. *Erotemata* ibid. in codices 2609, no. 1, with a Latin translation scattered between the lines; 2610, no. 1; and 2611. In Venice, in the Marcian Library, the codex *Ordo Missæ according to the Roman rite* (see codex 37 and following, in the *Catalogue of Greek Marcian Codices*, p. 26), returned by Manuel Chrysoloras—of which the celebrated Morell discourses learnedly and fully in *Bibliotheca ms. Gr. et Latina*, vol. I, p. 59. *Erotemata* in Oxford, in codex 1, Barocci. According to Montfaucon, *Bibliotheca bibliothecarum mss.*, *Erotemata*, p. 34 D, 35 A. In Rome, in the Library of Queen Christina of Sweden in the Vatican, p. 175 E; in the Barberini Library, *Certain works of Man. Chrysol.*, p. 187 C; ibid. in the Ottoboni codex, p. 200 A. Ibid. in the Library of the Fathers of St. Basil, *Chrysoloras' epistle to Anton. de Ascula, and his response*, p. 493 C. In the Ambrosian Library of Milan, *Theoremata and Grammar*, four times. *Comparison of Old and New Rome*, p. 235 D, 256 D, 266 D, 357 and 358 B. In Florence, in the Laurentian Medicean Library, *Chrysoloras' Questions*, p. 769 D. In Paris, in the public library, ibid., p. 55; in the Vatican codex 4874, Royal Library of Sweden, *Plato's Republic*, in Latin by Man. Chrysoloras, and p. 56, no. 1886. Ibid., Francis Aleardi of Verona, *Translation of the Eulogy of the City of Rome and Constantinople*, authored by Man. Chrysoloras to Galeazzo Sforza (confer Mabillon, in *Museo Ital.*, vol. I, p. 98); ibid., p. 91 B in the Alexandrian Library of Petavius, in the Vatican, his *Eulogy of CPol and Rome to Emperor Constantine*, translated by Franc. Leon of Verona, twice. — p. 1323 E in the Mazarine Library, codex 157, *On the Procession of the Holy Spirit*. p. 1326 C in the de Mesme Library, *Man. Chrysoloras*, without adding the work's title. Ibid., p. 597 D, in Leipzig in the Pauline Library, and p. 917 A in the public library of Paris, no. 10542, *Andrew Giuliani's Funeral Oration for Man. Chrysol.* Four Epistles, in Florence in the Laurentian Library, codex 20, no. 1, 2, 3, and 6, shelf 6, and codex 23, shelf 59. See Bandini, *Catalogue of Greek Laurentian Codices*, I, p. 139, and in vol. II, p. 541 (see above, vol. VI, p. 326 ff.), and concerning Pallante Strozza, who had heard Manuel while in Greek letters. See the same in *Specimen of Florentine Literature*, vol. I, p. 71 ff. Mich. Apostolios' *Epistles to Manuel and John Chrysoloras*, Vienna in codex 69, no. 6. See Lambeck VII, p. 249. In Ferrara, manuscripts *Epitome of Grammar*, composed by Man. Chrysol., and his *Erotemata*. See Franc. Anton. Zaccaria, *Iter litterar. per Italiam*, Venice, 1762, 4, p. 157 and 158, no. 9 and 10. (HARL.)
Another is John Chrysoloras, to whom exist the Epistles of Manuel Chrysoloras and Nicephorus Gregoras concerning solar eclipses; its beginning is this: "The former parables, always the Libyan, saying..." Whether he wrote anything else is hidden from me. And perhaps he is the one whom George Phrantza mentions not without praise, although he adds that he was a follower of the opinions of Barlaam, a Calabrian monk, having been oppressed by Gregory Palamas, book 1, cap. 12. Which he said also applied to John Chrysoloras, who was similarly well-skilled in the same opinion and in speaking and disputing. And above, he had written concerning the Calabrian: "He had dispersed the persuasive words and trifles of the Calabrian Palamas like spiders' webs." Although the things which the Protovestiarius says concerning John, Jacobus Pontanus refers to Manuel. This John was the father-in-law (not Manuel Chrysoloras, as was persuaded to Vossius and others) of the most famous Francesco Filelfo. (See *Giornale de' letterati d'Italia*, vol. XIV, p. 319 ff. in Apostolo Zeno's *Vossian Dissertations*, vol. I, p. 276.) To the same John is the epistle of Michael Apostolios given to CPol, ms. in the Imperial Library. (FABR.) In codex 69, no. 6. See Lambeck VII, p. 249, Kollar. Confer Hody, *loc. cit.*, p. 63 ff., who later, p. 50 (by typographical error), teaches that the disciple of Jo. Chrysoloras at CPol and his son-in-law was Franc. Filelfo; and Moller in *Homonymoscopia*, p. 431. (HARL.)
The third is Demetrius Chrysoloras, a philosopher, and knowledgeable in the science of astronomy, and otherwise also a friend of the wise Emperor Manuel. He, being asked whether he knew anything from the skill of his art concerning the future, responded: "As the seventh Palaiologos is about to make the union with the Latins, and there is about to be also much evil for the Christians..."—the seventh Palaiologos is about to enter into concord with the Latins, and afterwards there will be a great calamity, most fatal to the Christians. Syropulus, sect. 1, cap. 8. This Demetrius wrote a Dialogue (e), in which Thomas, Nilus, Cydones, and Chrysoloras converse.
LIFE AND WRITINGS.
ras, A Adversus Demetrium Cydonium, who had sharpened his pen against Nilus Cabasilas on behalf of Thomas Aquinas; it begins: *Great indeed is the war of those of our own race against us, and much mightier than that of those of another race.* There exists also another dialogue against the Latins, whose title is: *It is not right for the Orthodox to accuse other Orthodox persons in any matter.* It begins: *What is this accusing, O Theodosius, and who are those who engage in it?* Likewise a Treatise from the books of Nilus against the Latins concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit, which is inscribed: *A synoptic discourse against the Latins from those things which the most holy Nilus, Archbishop of Thessalonica, composed, wherein he also demonstrates the objections of his opponents and their syllogisms by their own arguments in brief, according to each syllogism.* It begins: *Ancient is the glory in the Church* [g]. There is also read his laudation of the holy martyr Demetrius, which is not inelegant; it begins: *Demetrius, that sweet thing and wondrous name.* [V. supra, vol. X, p. 218. HARL.] There is also edited an Epistle of the same man to Barlaam, Bishop of Gerace, in Latin, since, setting forth all doubts concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit, he asks to learn from him through what thoughts he had turned from his opinion—that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone—to holding that He proceeds also from the Son, perhaps also written in Latin by the same Barlaam; for it has not been my fortune to see the Greek version. Barlaam himself replied to this Epistle, and the response is read in the Cologne edition of the *Bibliotheca Patrum*. Furthermore, there is read another Epistle of Demetrius Chrysoloras to Anthony of Ascoli, who was in doubt, B *as to how, since being is better than not-being, the Lord said concerning Judas that it would be better for him if he had not been born.* It begins: *To you in your doubt, as to how being is better than not-being.* This Allatius, *Adversus Creyghtonum*, p. 3 sq., and *De consensu*, chap. 18, § 12, p. 661. One hundred Epistles of Demetrius Chrysoloras to the Emperor Manuel Palaeologus, manuscript in the Bodleian Library, [cod. Baroc. 125, and Paris, in the public library, cod. 1284, n. 10. HARL.] See *Catalogus mss. Angliæ*, p. 14. More concerning the writings of this Thessalonian Demetrius, such as his Homilies and his funeral Epigram on the despot Theodore , [may be found in] Rob. Gerus in the Appendix to the second part of the *Historia litteraria scriptorum ecclesiasticorum* of Cave, where he notes that that Disputation held with Anthony of Ascoli in the presence of the Emperor Manuel concerning the words of Christ—*it would be better for Judas that he had not been born, since however existence is not to be preferred to non-being*—exists in Latin in the version of George Tromba, published at Florence, 1618, 4. [FABR.] Cf. Henr. Wharton and Rob. Geri in the Appendix to the cited *Hist. litt.* of Cave, p. 129 sq., ed. Basil. The former of these writes that Dem. Chrysoloras flourished circa the year 1430; the latter assigns his age to the year 1398. Against Oudin, in *Comm. de SS. Eccl.* III, col. 2304 sq., who judges him to have flourished in the year 1420 and following. [HARL.]
Demetrio Cydonio, and although, he says, the dialogue is inscribed *Thomas, Nilus, Cydones, Chrysoloras*, this does not pertain to the fact that Thomas Aquinas and Nilus Cabasilas argue simultaneously, but because in the disputation of that part Demetrius C is defended, and of this part, Chrysoloras. And he judges it concerning his aptitude and style. The same author, *ibid.* p. 495, enumerates three opuscula of Demetrius Chrysoloras preserved in cod. Laur. 31, plut. 10, namely, n. 3, a sermon on the great Demetrius and on the ointments (mentioned by Fabricius in this place and above in vol. X, p. 218); n. 12, a demonstration on the truth of the miracle of the Mother of God, which happened at Constantinople on the third day. Incipit: *O maiden of the [royal city]*; and n. 13, a Sermon on the annunciation of the holy Mother of God. Init. *That most excellent David.* At Venice, in cod. Nanian. 305, n. 2, this is the inscription of the dialogue: *Dialogue of Demetrius Chrysoloras, refutatory; Objection of the Latins; Solution of the Romans.* Init. *Latin: The Pope, successor of Peter the apostle, etc.* V. *Cat. cod. Gr. Nan.* p. 514. Paris, in the public library, cod. 1284, n. 2, *Dialogue of the same against Demetrius Cydones*. *Ibid.* exists in cod. 1218, n. 18, opuscle *Adversus Latinos*. In the Escorial library many writings of Dem. Chrys. are preserved: *Sermon on the transfiguration of the Lord* at His resurrection and nativity; *in the annunciation of B. Mary* and *on her dormition*; *an act of thanksgiving to her*; *on the great Demetrius*, and *on the ointments*, and *a Sermon on the burial of Christ*. V. Pluër, *Itiner. per Hispan.* p. 465; Oxford, in the Bodleian library, cod. Guil. Laudi 78, s. n. 720, *Cat. mss. Angliæ*, vol. I, *Dialogue between a Latin and a Greek*, and *Refutatio Epistolæ*, sent to him by the legates of the pope, concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit. *Ibid.* in cod. Jo. Selden. 48, s. n. 3377, *Catalogus contra Latinos*. In cod. Mazarin. *Adversus Latinos*, and in cod. 157 *De processione Spirit. sancti*. V. Montfauc. *Bibl. biblioth. mss.* p. 1307 A, and p. 1523 E. *Ibid.* p. 496 B, at Milan in the Ambrosian library, *Orat. de transfiguratione Domini*. [HARL.]
[f] The *Antirrheticum* of Demetrius Chrysoloras against Demetrius Cydones is cited by Allatius against Hottinger, p. 49, 331, 473, and he exhibits some excerpts. V. cod. Nanian. cited above.
LIFE OF MANUEL CHRYSOLORAS.
(Hankius, *De Byzantinarum rerum scriptoribus*, p. 626.)
Author of the distich, which the likeness of our Chrysoloras from the Museum of Paulus Jovius has subscribed: *My fatherland is new Rome: my other ancient fatherland is Rome:* *To Latium through me learned Greece came.*
A What this double fatherland means, the epitaph which our Chrysoloras obtained at an altar in the monastery of the Dominicans in the city of Constance explains: *Manuel Chrysoloras, a Constantinopolitan knight, from the old lineage of the Romans who migrated with the emperor Constantine.* And after some things: *Rome brought forth my ancestors: the good Byzantine land brought forth me.*
I. It is, as is said in this epitaph, a Constantinopolitan knight. By which word among more recent Latin writers a horseman (eques)—that is, sometimes a soldier—is signified, who acts not as a foot-soldier but as a horseman; and sometimes also a nobleman, whom equestrian dignity adorns, is wont to be denoted. Guilielmus Brito, Book III of the *Philippidos*, lines 246 and 247: The Garlandic hero alone Preserves it [the city] and a few foot-soldiers with a rare knight.
Book IV, line 281 and following: But first, sufficient expenses for three years He numbers for the soldiers from his own property, To which he takes care to add a thousand times ten foot-soldiers.
Book VII, line 7 and following: Wars languish with a brief peace interrupted, The knight returning, arms laid aside, to his own affairs, And the troops of foot-soldiers rejoice to revisit the fields.
Henricus Gundelfingius in the *Appendix*, which he joined to the *History of Austria* [published by Petrus Lambecius, Book II of *Commentaries on the Imperial Library of Vienna*, ch. 6], concerning the succession of the Counts of Tyrol: *She [Multeschia, Duchess of Carinthia], having held secret dealings with her barons, and especially with Engelmar, the knight of the Adige [that is, of the Adige dominion], having expelled the Bohemian from the county of Tyrol, received in marriage, de facto, Ludwig the Margrave of Brandenburg, son of the aforementioned Ludwig the Bavarian, who had been elected king.* By authors of Latinity, nobility itself is called the militia, that is, the equestrian order. Erchinfridus, Abbot of Melk, in the history [which Petrus Lambecius published, Book II of *Commentaries on the Imperial Library of Vienna*, ch. 8] concerning the martyrdom and miracles of Coloman: *The fame of so renowned and stupendous a miracle reached the ears of Margrave Henry, brought thither by rumors: who, having immediately sent the ranks of the clergy and certain of the knights of his own retinue, commanded that they should transfer the body, glorified by miracles, to his own city with honor.* Wherefore our Chrysoloras, as he was born from the most ancient lineage of the Romans who migrated to Constantinople with the emperor Constantine the Great, so when he is called a knight, he is to be judged as having been called a man of the equestrian order. It is added that certain writers explicitly commemorate him as born of a noble house. Leonhardus Brunus Aretinus in *History of the Italian Wars*: *Chrysoloras the Byzantine, a man noble at home.* Hartmannus Schedelius in the *Chronicon*: *Manuel Chrysoloras, Byzantine, by fatherland a Constantinopolitan, a man noble at home.* Jacobus Philippus Forestus Bergomas in the *Supplementum Chronicorum*: *Emanuel Chrysoloras, by nation a Greek, by fatherland a Byzantine, a man noble at home.*
B ...in the notes of Pontanus to the chronicle of Georgius Phrantza, Book I, chapter 12, we hear that among those who affirmed that the light which shone around Christ on the mountain was created, not uncreated, under the emperor Andronicus Palæologus the Younger, who died in the year of Christ 1341 immediately after the council convened concerning that controversy, he was famous. Phrantza in the aforementioned place, with the renowned Pontanus as interpreter: *Then also a certain monk, a Calabrian, he says, called Barlaam, came from Italy to Constantinople, who, exercised in the dogmas of the Latins, seemed to himself very eloquent and learned in defending them. The same man asserted that that light on Mount Tabor was created, and provoked our people to dispute over this axiom.* The emperor [Andronicus Palæologus the Younger] gave the task to Gregory Palamas, who at that time was governing the Church of Thessalonica. When they had skirmished between themselves for a long time, Palamas brushed aside the persuasive words and trifles of the Calabrian like spider webs. Which he did likewise to a certain Joannes Chrysoloras, who held the same views and was similarly well-skilled in speaking and disputing. In addition to these things, Pontanus attributes to Joannes Chrysoloras both other things that fit our Manuel Chrysoloras and also the epitaph of which we made mention in § 1; whether because, through negligence, he overlooked the praenomina, or because, persuaded that our Manuel was called Joannes Manuel Chrysoloras, he thought the one praenomen was in the epitaph and the other was omitted by Phrantza.
IV. But indeed, we do not find that our Chrysoloras was called Joannes Manuel, and the very condition of the times indicates that Joannes and Manuel Chrysoloras were different men. For consider: if you place Joannes Chrysoloras at 25 years of age when the emperor Andronicus Palæologus the Younger was ending his life—that is, in the year of Christ 1341—although you could without cause suspect him of being of a more advanced age, when the Council of Constance begins, at which our Manuel Chrysoloras arrived to act as a spectator, as we shall commemorate below—that is, in the year of Christ 1414—you would have a centenarian old man.
V. Nor does Jacobus Pontanus alone, but also Gerardus Joannes Vossius, confound Joannes and Manuel Chrysoloras. Both teach that Manuel Chrysoloras was the father-in-law of Franciscus Philelphus. Pontanus in the aforementioned place: *His [Manuel Chrysoloras’s] son-in-law, not merely his student, was Franciscus Philelphus, to whom he gave his daughter Theodora in marriage.* Vossius, Book IV, *De historicis Græcis*, chapter 19: *Manuel Chrysoloras, Fran-
- cisci Philelphi father-in-law. Poggio, in his first invective against Philelphus, praises him as much as he vituperates Philelphus. Certainly, it was not Manuel, but Joannes Chrysoloras who gave his daughter, whom he had seduced, to Franciscus Philelphus in marriage; Joannes Franciscus Poggio reports this in his first invective against Franciscus Philelphus, where he addresses him in these words: "Driven shamefully from Padua, where you had been listening to Gasparinus, on account of your insane love for a youth for whom you were pining, you fled, needy and destitute, to Constantinople as if to a sanctuary." This was done cunningly and craftily, so that you might go to those places where the author of crimes arrives sooner than his reputation. "There, you insinuated yourself into the intimacy of the most learned Joannes Chrysoloras, a man of distinguished knighthood, while putting on a show of a desire for learning. He, moved by your verbosity, and at the same time moved by your poverty [for you had brought nothing with you but an empty tongue and withered skin], received you into his home, unaware of the future; for he thought he was receiving a chaste guest, not a Parisian adulterer. But you, having changed regions but not your character, so that no place might be free of your crimes, seduced his virgin daughter, deceived by your promises and blandishments. When the wretched man, who had nourished a serpent in his home, discovered the adulterer, he formed a plan to kill you, since you had fled out of fear of punishment. But what was such a man to do, even though he was prudent? He was void of counsel; the crime was discovered, the maiden violated, the dowry of virginity lost. Italian merchants intervened, suggesting that he betroth her to you, thinking that the shame incurred could be obscured in this way above all others. And so Chrysoloras, consumed by grief, compelled by petitions, and forced by misfortune, gave you his daughter, corrupted by you, in marriage. From which it simultaneously appears that the father-in-law of Franciscus Philelphus [who it is established was born in the year of Christ 1398] was Joannes Chrysoloras, not that one whom we mentioned earlier, who was famous in the year of Christ 1341, but another, much younger."
VI. Emperor Joannes Palaeologus provides us with an indication of the age in which our Chrysoloras was alive. For he wrote a long epistle to him, in which he compares Constantinople with Rome. But there were two emperors named Joannes Palaeologus. The former, the son of Andronicus Palaeologus the Younger, brother of Manuel Palaeologus, received the empire as a boy under the guardianship of Cantacuzenus in the year 1341; he ended his life in the year 1391. The latter, the son of Manuel Palaeologus, created emperor in the year 1419, departed from the living in the year 1448.
VII. Our Chrysoloras flourished in the times of the latter Joannes Palaeologus, if we are to listen to a few of the more recent writers. Among these are found Joannes Henricus Alstedius and Gerardus Joannes Vossius. The former, in his *Thesaurus Chronologicus*, chronology 50, which pertains to philosophers, states: "In the year of Christ 1440, Theodorus Gaza, Georgius Trapezuntius, Emanuel Chrysoloras, and Mataracius flourish." The latter, in Book IV of *De historicis Græcis*, chapter 19: "In the year 1440 and thereafter flourished Manuel Chrysoloras."
VIII. But both of them stray quite far from the truth, since our Chrysoloras was so far from flourishing in the year 1440 that he had died many years before, and did not even exist among the living when Joannes Palaeologus the Younger began to reign, that is in the year 1449; as those things which we will soon bring forth will show.
IX. In the letters just praised, written to Emperor Joannes Palaeologus, our Chrysoloras, who two years earlier had been in London, Britain, testifies that he is now residing in the city of Rome. "Concerning these things," he says, "which I had to report to you at greater length, most excellent Emperor, I have written in other letters, which I think will arrive with you along with these; indeed, although I have already written much to you from here before, and not a few things in my most recent letters, it pleased me nonetheless to add these for the sake of pleasure rather than utility: for I feel how great a reward I receive when I offer my writings to your sacred majesty. I take the subject matter of my present writing from this city, since previously I admired it only from the reports of others; but now, from observing it myself, I judge it to be much more worthy of admiration than anyone could simply conjecture from those things which are told about it." Farther down: "But as for two luminaries, or suns, or whole heavens declaring the glory of God, I mean Peter and Paul, whose relics are placed here, and at whose monuments I write this, who could sufficiently admire them?" A few words later: "And here I recall with my memory the pomp and the solemn festival which, two years ago, in London in Britain, an island of the very eternal ocean sea, while I and my retinue were present and watching, was celebrated by the inhabitants of that place for these apostles." B
X. Our Chrysoloras indeed came to Italy, sent by Emperor Joannes Palaeologus to the peoples of Europe to seek aid against the Turks, as Paulus Jovius indicates in his *Elogia doctorum virorum*, chapter 23. He says: "[Emanuel Chrysoloras] was sent from Byzantium by Emperor Joannes, so that by visiting the kings of all Europe, he might implore timely aid for perishing Greece."
XI. Thinking that he should establish a seat for himself in Italy, he taught the Greek language, which had been neglected for seven hundred years, first in Venice, then in Florence, later in Rome, and finally in Ticinum; he had as students Leonardus Brunus Aretinus, Franciscus Barbarus, Franciscus Philelphus, Baptista Guarinus, Joannes Franciscus Poggio, and others. Joannes Franciscus Poggio on the tomb of our Chrysoloras: Here Emanuel is laid, Glory of Attic speech, Who, while he strives with affection To seek aid for his fatherland, came here. The matter turned out well for your Vows, Italy; for he restored to you the glory Of the language laid aside of old. The matter turned out well for your Vows, Emanuel; on Italian soil Having obtained eternal glory, [a glory] such As Greece did not give to you, Greece lost in war. Leonardus Brunus Aretinus in his *Historia rerum Italicarum sui temporis*: "Letters also, during the intermissions of this war, increased an astonishing amount throughout Italy, with the knowledge of Greek letters being added then for the first time, which for seven hundred years had ceased to be in use among our people." He brought back Greek dis-
discipline to us, Chrysoloras the Byzantine, a man of noble birth, and most experienced in Greek letters. Having been forced from his homeland by the Turks, he was conveyed first to Venice, then soon, his fame being heard, he was kindly invited and summoned, and taken on with a public salary, he came to Florence, intending to offer himself to the young men. I was at that time devoting myself to civil law, though not unversed in other studies. For by nature I was burning with a love of learning, and I was giving no idle effort to dialectics and rhetoric. Therefore, at the arrival of Chrysoloras, I was indeed of two minds, since I thought it a shameful thing both to abandon the study of law, and a kind of crime to let pass such a great opportunity to learn the Greek letters. In the same place a little later: Conquered at length by these arguments, I surrendered myself to Chrysoloras, with such a great ardor for learning, that the things I had perceived waking throughout the day, I would ponder even at night while dreaming. Again, a few things being interposed: I was with this master for over two years, being instructed in a truly reliable and excellent discipline. Paulus Jovius in the *Elogia of Learned Men*, chapter 23: First in Venice, and soon in Florence, Rome, and finally in Pavia, being summoned by Prince Gian Galeazzo, he stirred up the study of Greek letters, with such success that from his school emerged men of the highest and immortal praise; such as were Leonardo Bruni, Francesco Barbaro, Filelfo, Guarino, and Poggio. [XII] The time in which our Chrysoloras began to teach Greek letters in Italy is not indeed indicated distinctly, yet those who relate that the matter was received under Boniface IX [who was obtained the Roman pontificate in the year of Christ 1389, and met his death in the year of Christ 1404] indicate it. Among these is Baptista Platina in the *Life of Boniface IX*: In such great evils, however, by which our province was afflicted, one good thing was brought into Italy. For Chrysoloras the Byzantine brought Greek letters to us, which for already five hundred [others say seven hundred] years had been silent in Italy. Hence the schools of the Greek and Latin languages arose. (Raphael Maffei of Volterra, *Commentariorum* book XXI: Him [the Italians via John of Ravenna] thus already imbued with Latin letters. Emanuel Chrysoloras took him up again for his school; he who, a master of the Greek language and Byzantine by birth, had come into Italy under Boniface IX, and taught first at Venice, then at Florence. [XIII] Wherefore, since John Palaiologos the elder, that is, the son of Andronikos Palaiologos the younger, ruled the Byzantines in the year of Christ 1389—whom the better chronologists report died in the year of Christ 1391—it is not repugnant to chronology that our Chrysoloras could have been sent by John Palaiologos the elder to the West in his final days to seek aid against the Turks, and could have come into Italy under Boniface IX. [XIV] Paulus Langius in the *Chronicon Citicense* surely maintains that the year in which Chrysoloras brought Greek letters back to Italy was the first of Boniface IX, when he writes at the year of Christ 1389: In the same year Chrysoloras the Byzantine brought the discipline of Greek letters into Italy, which for seven hundred years already had not been in use among those same people. [XV] It is added that Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo narrates in his *History of Italian Affairs of his Own Time*—where he deals with events occurring before the year of Christ 1400—that our Chrysoloras, his own teacher, entered Italian lands while Constantinople was being besieged by the Turks: which passage we produced in § 11. Certainly Bayezid, prince of the Turks, harassed Constantinople with sieges for a whole decade, the beginning of which Georgius Phrantza refers to the Greek year of the world 6900, into which fall the years of Christ 1391 as the end, and 1392 as the beginning. But indeed, he says in book 1 of the *Chronicon*, chapter 19, in the translation of Jacobus Pontanus, seeing [Bayezid] that Manuel [Palaiologos, whom John Palaiologos had designated as successor many years before his death, and whom he had as successor upon his death] and the other princes, concerning whom [we spoke] above, had not stood by the agreements so as to follow him, and having been learned of everything that they had deliberated against him, declared a grave war: and in the year of the world 6900, having brought the siege to the city by land and sea, he attacked it in every way for a long time. When he moved with his army, he afflicted the Byzantine land and individual regions with most grievous devastation, and tore down all the suburbs. And because the siege of the city was not proceeding much, he returned home, and sent armies every year and continued that siege for the whole decade. [XVI] Indeed, many more authors, although at different times, assign the arrival of our Chrysoloras into Italy, or the Greek school excited by him, to those years in which Boniface IX lived. Joannes Nussiensis [so called by Melchior Goldast in his commentaries on Bohemia, book IV, chapter 4, § 33] refers the beginning of this to the year of Christ 1397 in the *Great Belgian Chronicle*: In the year [one thousand three hundred ninety-six] following, Chrysoloras the Byzantine brought the discipline of Greek letters into Italy, which already for seven hundred years had not been in use among our people. Seth Calvisius subscribes to this opinion in his chronological work at the year of Christ 1397. Jacobus Philippus Forestus of Bergamo refers it to the year of Christ 1398 in the *Supplement to the Chronicles* at this year: Emanuel Chrysoloras, a Greek by nation, a Byzantine by country, a man of noble birth at home, but nobler and more famous for all learning and virtue, at the same times as the city of Constantinople was most harshly harassed and besieged by the Turks, fleeing from it, came to Venice, and as a very learned doctor began to teach Greek letters there. Matthaeus Palmerius of Florence, continuator of the Eusebian Chronicle, refers it to the year of Christ 1399, at this year: Chrysoloras the Byzantine brought back the discipline of Greek letters into Italy, which for seven hundred years already had not been in use among our people. Christianus Massæus adds his calculations to this in his *Chronicles*, book XVII, at the year of Christ 1399: Joannes Funccius in his *Chronology* at the year of Christ 1399: Abrahamus Bucholcerus in his *Chronological Index*, at
the year of Christ 1399: Petrus Opmeerus in his *Writings of Churchmen*, ch. 430.
A XVII. As the power with which Bajazet, the tyrant of the Turks, was oppressing the Greeks was unequal to that of the Constantinopolitans, the Emperor Manuel Palaeologus left Constantine and the Empire to Joannes, the son of his brother Andronicus, whom Bajazet supported, and migrated to Italy: where he came at times to other cities, and at times also to Milan. Ducas, the nephew of Michael, in his *Byzantine History*, ch. 14, translated by Ismael Bullialdus: "For a long time he [Bajazet] had been revolving in his mind by what arts he might seize Constantinople. He did not, therefore, fail to bring forward the name of Joannes, who was the nephew of Manuel through his brother, and he ordered Manuel to withdraw from the city and command that Joannes, to whom the empire belonged by the law of nature, be introduced into it; he promised, moreover, that he would thereafter act peaceably with the citizens of Constantinople." In the same place, a little later: "Manuel then, having made a speech before the assembly of the nobles and the leaders of the people, boarded a trireme with his wife and children, yielded the city and the empire, and surrendered the supreme power to Joannes." Again, after a few words: "He boarded one of the great ships and put in at Venice, subsequently inspected Milan, Genoa, Florence, Ferrara, and traversed the whole of Italy." Georgius Phrantza, book 1 of his *Chronicle*, ch. 20: "As time went on, a desire seized the emperor to set out for Italy and to implore aid [against the Turks]." A little later: "About to depart, he left Joannes, his nephew through his brother, to rule the city meanwhile and to repel the attack of the enemy. He himself, setting sail with his spouse for the Peloponnese, deposited her at Sparta with his brother Theodore, and thereafter undertook the voyage to Italy; and he first disembarked at Venice: afterwards he proceeded to the Duke of Milan, by whom he was received most honorably and most splendidly, and was honored with gifts."
B XVIII. To the Emperor Manuel Palaeologus, Chrysoloras, who was then living among the Florentines, was invited and set out for Milan. Leonardus Brunus Aretinus, in his *History of Italian Affairs* of his own time: "I was with this teacher [Manuel Chrysoloras] for over two years; instructed indeed by a defensible and most excellent discipline." At length, when the Emperor Constantine had arrived in Italy and was calling Chrysoloras back to him, he left Florence and betook himself to Milan to his emperor.
XIX. With whom you would with difficulty reconcile Paulus Jovius, who, after Tamerlane [also accustomed to be called Temires], the King of the Tartars, had captured and defeated Bajazet, the prince of the Turks, narrates that Chrysoloras formed the plan of teaching Greek letters in Italy, in his *Eulogies of Learned Men*, ch. 23: "He indeed fulfilled the office," he says, "by a laborious pilgrimage, in such a way that he might settle in Italy, namely, with Greece now free from the present fear, when Tamerlane, the terror of the Orient, had captured Bajazet Othomanus—who had attained the name 'Lightning' from his terrible speed—at Mount Stella, alive. Therefore, Chrysoloras, the dire enemy of Greece having been removed, gladly [enkindled the study of Greek letters], first at Venice, and soon at Florence, and at Rome, and finally at Ticino." For Tamerlane captured Bajazet on the 28th day of July, in the Greek year of the world 6910, of Christ 1402, just as Georgius Phrantza commemorates. For in book 1 of his C *Chronicle*, when he had said in chapter 21: "Under this Emperor Manuel, while the city is being besieged, I was born into the light, in the year 6909 after the creation of man, on the 30th day of August": he subjoins in the same place in chapter 29: "On the twenty-eighth of July, Temires, King of the Massagetae, Persians, and the Northern Scythians, captured the Emir Bajazet with his wife and son Moses, and not a few other nobles of the court, and dissipated his whole army." To that same year of Tamerlane this victory [which other more recent writers ascribe to other years] is referred by Joannes Leunclavius in his *History of the Muslims*, book vi: with whom agree Paulus Interianus, Ubertus Folieta, Petrus Bizarus, Augustinus Justinianus in his *Genoese Affairs*, and Jacobus Gordus in his chronological work.
XX. This is placed beyond doubt, that after Bajazet was captured by Tamerlane, our Chrysoloras served for many years within Italy in the profession of Greek letters. At Constance, whither he had betaken himself in order to act as a spectator of the council which began to be celebrated in the year of Christ 1414, concerning the controversies of the three simultaneously existing Roman pontiffs, he died on the 24th year of the Emperor Manuel Palaeologus, of Christ 1415. Raphael Maffeus Volaterranus, in his *Commentaries*, book xxi: "Finally he also set out for the Council of Constance; he expired in that same place." Jacobus Philippus Forestus Bergomas, in the *Supplement to the Chronicles* at the year 1398: "And thence, having followed the Roman court, he also arrived at Constance, where a general council is being celebrated." In the same place, a little later: "Dying at last at Constance, he was honored by his disciple Poggio Florentino with a mellifluous oration." These things, in the same words, Hartmann Schedel transferred into his *Chronicle*. Paulus Jovius in his *Eulogies of Learned Men*, ch. 23: "Finally, when the synod indicted to resolve the controversy of the pseudopontiffs had summoned him, being desirous of so great a spectacle, after Balthasar Cossa D was deposed, he died at Constance." The latter part of the epitaph, which was placed for our Chrysoloras in the city of Constance, of which I have provided the first part in B: "A most learned, most prudent, and most excellent man who died during the time of the general Council of Constance, with such estimation, that he was considered by all worthy of the priesthood. Buried on the 25th of April in the year 1415."
MANUELIS CHRYSO-LORAE EPISTOLAE
1. Letter of the most learned Manuel Chrysoloras to Emperor John, in which is contained a comparison of Old and New Rome.
Most excellent Emperor, what things needed to be reported at length to your Majesty, I have already written in other letters, which I believe will arrive along with these; nay rather, as I had indeed written many things to you from here before, and not a few in these most recent letters, yet it pleased me to add these also for pleasure, not for utility: a pleasure which I feel I derive in no small measure while I offer my writings to your sacred Majesty. The subject matter of this present writing I shall take from this city, which previously I used to admire from the reports of others, but now, from the very sight of it, I judge it to be much more worthy of admiration than anyone might simply conjecture from those things which are told about it. A And indeed, the greatest things are reported about it, not only by those who have written about these matters in their vernacular tongue, but now also by almost all of our own people, and especially by learned men who have dwelt in it; so that some, as you know, have left behind complete orations, others books, in its praise. Others, however, have said the greatest things about it in a few words: such as that which that Sophist, a man very dear and familiar to you, declares about it in a certain letter, with a very brief compass of words, in these words, if I rightly remember the phrasing, which he uses at the beginning of his letter: "See that you keep us in your memory, after you have arrived in Rome, and see such things as you had not seen before; persuading yourself that that is not land, but a portion of heaven. For it is no wonder that we remember you. For while we dwell in the same places, and are occupied with nothing new, we might think of our friends."
Although he wrote these things to a Greek or a Syrian, his own fellow-citizen—for I do not clearly recall the name—yet we hear the beauty of Antioch celebrated both by many others and by that same author himself, in the speech wherein he commemorates the praises of his fatherland, to which he gave its name. Nay, another citizen of the same city, now, however, also a citizen of the heavens, whose mouth and tongue have received a surname from gold, proclaims C many things about it here and there: or to one of those who were inhabiting Asia at that time, in which was then Rhodes and Smyrna, and the most beautiful wonders of the world. For in that same land were the temple of Diana of the Ephesians, and the Colossus of Rhodes, and the tomb of Mausolus in Halicarnassus, of all or most of which the remains were still to be seen at that time. But if you wish, let us assume
or if you would have it that he came from Egypt or Libya, where we hear A of the city of Alexandria and, among the more celebrated spectacles, those Thebes renowned for their hundred gates and the pyramids were made; whose shadows they say, at the rising and setting of the sun, are cast to a distance of several days' journey; and of which they say that even that smallest one, Memphis itself and all the neighboring places, have from those times even to our own day continued to use for any construction whatsoever, no less than they would stone quarries, and yet it is not exhausted; nay rather, as they say, while constructing whole cities and neighborhoods from it, they have scarcely consumed a small part of it. It was likely that he, whoever he was, while sailing to Rome, also passed through the islands and Greece. And it was likely, too, that he had already seen Greece beforehand, and the eye of Greece at that time, I mean Athens. And some one of those from Greece ought to have been this person—and this one not from the common and unobservant or ignorant sort, but from the educated, to whom it was likely that such a person would write, and who himself took pleasure in such spectacles and such travels. What then, B or what was that thing which was about to strike him so much as to make him forget Greece and the spectacles in it, seeing things such as he had not seen before, and to despise both it and the friends left in it; and to persuade himself that it is not land, but some part of the heavens? Therefore, as I said, the greatest things have been written about it in both of these languages. And I think that even the Barbarians themselves, as many as are not entirely devoid of letters, have very much about it in their writings. But I, who thought these things were said by them to the point of hyperbole, now see that nothing is said beyond what the reality holds; such are the things that are seen. Although almost nothing remains intact or safe in it, nor is it possible to find anything at all immune from injury: since some things have collapsed of their own accord through the antiquity of time, and others have experienced the violent hands of men. C For it has happened to this city, just as it has to our own, that it serves as its own mine and stone quarry, and as we say of the whole of this, it is nourished and consumed by itself. It has failed, so to speak, in all things; nevertheless, even within the very ruins and rubble, it is apparent what it was like in the beginning, and what the magnitude and beauty of the buildings were. For what was there not beautiful in it? And it was not only that its assembled and standing things were beautiful, but its separated and divided parts also appear beautiful; just as in a whole, beautiful body, the hand or foot or head is beautiful; and in a great body, each of the limbs is great. And not a few of these have even remained in their greater part. And many of those things which once existed in Greece, as it is possible to see from the inscriptions, are visible in it; columns and remarkable stones, and pillars and statues, and images, and very many Greek inscriptions of the most beautiful and ancient style. Many things, too, were made here in the city itself D by the Greeks, as it is possible to see from the inscriptions; and it is apparent that its citizens, as we hear from the histories, were vehemently delighted by Greek things, and that very many of our own lived as Greeks in it.
A Nor is it permitted only to see—from these remains of statues, columns, tombs, and buildings—the wealth, the manual skill, and the art, or if you will, the greatness and the dignity, and furthermore the disposition, the love of beauty, the robustness, and the luxury of the city; but one may also discern its superstition, its greatness of soul, its ambition, its judgment, its victories, and its entire prosperity, as well as its empire, its honors, and its expertise in weaponry. For it is possible to see not only the lofty aqueducts arriving from afar, and the mass of the walls, and the porticoes, and the royal houses, and the curiae, and the fora, and the hot baths, and the theaters, all conspicuous for their number, their size, and their beauty; but also many splendid and frequent temples, each marked by a different name, and shrines, and signs, and images, and monuments, and statues of those ancient and illustrious men, set up at public expense for their merits toward the city. We see also monuments of virtue and triumphal arches, constructed as a memorial of those triumphs and processions, upon which the battles themselves, the captures, the spoils, and the storming of walls are carved in relief, as well as the sculptures of sacrifices, of victims, of altars, and of votive offerings. B To these are added naval, infantry, and equestrian battles, and, so to speak, every kind of battle, as well as engines of war and types of armament; further, the conquered princes—perhaps Medes or Persians, or Iberians, or Gauls, or Assyrians—each in his own national dress, and the subject peoples, and the commanders celebrating triumphs over them. Item, one may see the chariots and the quadrigae with their charioteers, along with the guards and the attendants who followed, and the spoils going before, all as if alive in these effigies; and it is possible to ascertain what each thing was from the letters added to them. Thus it is clearly possible to perceive what arms and what dress they used in the past, what badges of office, what methods of battle formation and fighting, and what ways they had of besieging cities and C laying out camps; and finally, with what ornaments and in what attire they appeared in war or at home, in the assemblies, in the senate, or even in the forum: whether traveling by land or sailing by sea, or whether intent on work, or exercising their bodies, or watching games, or in the public meetings, or in the workshops, and this according to the diverse rites of the nations. While Herodotus and some other historians explain these things, they seem to have done a work of great value. But in these monuments, one is permitted to see all things as they stood in those times and as they existed among diverse peoples; so that it is a kind of accurate history, or rather not so much a history as an ocular inspection, if I may put it so, and a present knowledge of all the things that happened at that time; and truly the art of imitation contends and competes with the very nature of things, so that you seem to see an entire man, a city, a horse, or an army, or a breastplate, or a sword, or a full suit of armor; or even those captured, fleeing, D laughing, weeping, disturbed, or angry. Then, besides all these things, inscribed in uncial letters: Senate
A and the People of Rome, to Julius Caesar, it may be, or to Titus, or to Vespasian, on account of some exploit performed well and bravely: for having conquered these or those peoples, or for having preserved the fatherland, or for having routed the barbarians, or for any other such glorious deed. But why should I speak of those ancient Meleagers, Amphions, and Triptolemuses, or, if you will, Pelops, Amphiaraus, and Tantalus, and whatever else of this kind the fabulous and ancient history of the Greeks recounts? The streets are full of these, full are the monuments and tombs of the ancients, full are the walls of the houses; all works of the most excellent and consummate art, of a Phidias, or a Lysippus, or a Praxiteles, or the like. So that, as you walk through the city, you are drawn by your eye now hither and now thither; just as happens to those who are smitten with love and who contemplate living beauty with curiosity and wonder. Added to this is the circuit of the walls and the site of the whole city, and then too the flow of the river, and the former pleasantness of the fields and suburbs and villas therein.
C But this city was not lacking in harbors and naval stations either; some were within the walls, others at the very mouths of the river, and others a little below the walls, the remains of which are still visible today; and whose demolition, I think, would be difficult for all the rulers of our time, if indeed it is right to call that difficult which anyone would pronounce impossible. Moreover, for the sake of pleasure and entertainment, and also for the exercise of the citizens, they even used naval battles within the walls in the city itself—I do not mean in the river, but in a sea or lake created inside the city for this very purpose. And just as there were gymnasia and theaters for contests, for gladiatorial combats, and for wild beast hunts, and for chariot races, so too there were places where triremes could clash. So that it is truly permissible to say, "There was nothing else besides Rome," as one of our own ancients said of it.
Those were the ancient things; but what might one say of the more recent things, and those pertaining to our own true religion? Or what, as is to be expected, could have been made from such an abundance of stones and materials of such a kind, with such art flourishing at that time, and with such great piety and devotion? Among these, some of the ancient monuments were refashioned, while others were made holy from profane and unclean temples, and divine churches were fashioned out of idol temples. How many churches of the apostles are there? How many of the martyrs? How many of the holy and righteous ones? How many of the holy women and virgins? And then as for their very bodies, and their relics, whether entire or divided into parts, and whatever is recounted for their remembrance and for the glory of the common human race—who could enumerate them? One might truly call this city a treasury of holy relics and a storehouse of sacred things in D a few words. So that what he, whom I mentioned at the beginning, said at that time, might with better reason be said in these present times: that it is a part of heaven, because of such inhabitants.
A But I pass these things over. Yet who could worthily admire the two luminaries, or suns, or indeed the whole heavens declaring the glory of God—I mean Peter and Paul, whose relics lie here, and in whose memory I write these things? And who could worthily admire the gathering of the whole world to these men, as if to certain communal satraps, leaders, or consuls? It is truly a marvel to see from Spain, or Iberia, and Gaul, and the British islands, and if there be any lands further to the west or north; and then also from Germany, Sarmatia, and Pannonia, and some from Greece and Asia, and from whatever other places B (for who could recount everyone?)—not only men of every age and profession, but also women, arriving here after such long journeys, such dangers and labors, through cold, mud, dust, heat, and tribulations, in order that they may adore the shrine, the casket, and the tomb of the Apostles, and this even from afar and through curtains and lattices. That they may apply their faces and heads to the dust, to the ground, and to the surrounding stones and iron barriers, and proclaim them as the saviors, lords, and, as I said, the suns of the world. That after so many years, they may give thanks for the preaching of the truth, and for the conversion from error and darkness, and this in that city and in that empire where they themselves met death for preaching these things, where so much superstition and so much error had been introduced by the adversaries of the truth, as can be demonstrated by their idols, statues, and temples. Whence edicts against Christians were carried throughout the whole world, and executioners were sent against them. Where, in one place, one sees the now collapsed and demolished houses—and mutilated and semi-broken statues—of that impious murderer Nero, in another those of Diocletian, and in another those of Maximian, the persecutors. But they pass by these C monuments, even though they were of emperors, and of those who once brought them before courts and treated them like slaves; and what do I say "pass by"? Rather, they trample them with spiteful heels, strike them with their fists, and, as I said, mutilate, spit upon, and overturn them. But they incline their heads—with how much joy and pleasure, or if you prefer, with beating of the breast, devotion, and tears—to these poor and foreign men, or rather, to the servants and subjects of those emperors, men who by their profession and way of life were tent-makers and fishermen, calling them, as I said, saviors and protectors, and not only lords of the present and earthly things, but also doorkeepers of the heavens, asking from them salvation for themselves, their friends, their kin, and the whole world. But they sit in an elevated and conspicuous place, magnificently fashioned in the ancient style, and on a larger scale, with mosaic pebbles, or marbles, or colors, or even with pure silver and gold, just as if they were kings or princes, or common lords of all, bearing the keys, the symbol of the power to bind and to loose, and the mark of the virtue and authority of Him who gave that power. D For the monuments of the Roman people, or of Julius Caesar, or of Augustus, or of any other, even here in
A their own fatherland are unknown to most, have lost their former beauty, and lie everywhere in ruins. But these things flourish and thrive throughout the whole world. I remember the pomp and solemn festival which, two years ago, I—in the company of those present with me—witnessed being celebrated by the inhabitants of the place in London in Britain, upon that very island of the outer sea and ocean, in honor of these apostles. Caesar, who first subdued them and whose forts still stand there to this day—one at the crossing and the other in the aforementioned place—they do not know. And I myself think that all those things, and the Roman Empire, and the monarchy and dominion of the emperors, and the subjection of the nations, came into being for this reason, that these things might follow. But what need is there to admire and behold the glory of the apostles and the reverence and honor shown to them in their very bodies and their tombs? For it is permitted to see and admire this both regarding the authority of the Church, and regarding those who are in the long series of successors after them; for I believe that never, under the rule of that old Rome, did so many edicts of those emperors, and [so many] plebiscites and senatusconsulta, go forth through so great a part of the world as now go forth far and wide from the Church. And those who ever decree these things and make them authoritative through their seals are the images and heads of Peter and Paul; who can no longer say: B *Silver and gold I have none* (Acts 3:6). But who could count the wealth conferred by them? I might perhaps appear to some to be exaggerating, but I believe that all the princes of the world, as many as have come to our knowledge, gathered together, could not confer as much from their customary revenues and goods, the power of distributing which belongs by right to them. But Peter and Paul do confer these things, and it is necessary that they confer them, nor would they who distribute them wish to keep them for themselves. It is necessary, moreover, that the successors of Peter and Paul and their household should distribute them. And those who receive them seem to receive them from masters: yet those who confer them, confer them as masters. Nor does any man gainsay it, unless some should quarrel with one another about the validity or invalidity of a collation. And it is fitting that they themselves should judge this matter again, and be the judges and arbiters of the things which they themselves have done; and more often it happens that appeal to them is made even from those things which others have established. But why should I mention the spiritual largesses, and the judges of the nations? For in the temple of the holy apostles, because of the diversity of languages, one may see here one sitting on a throne, listening C to the confessions of those who have come from the British islands for this very reason; there, those who have come from Spain or Gaul; elsewhere, those who have arrived from Dalmatia or Dacia. And in the squares, or through the city, or in the church, you may hear these men promiscuously uttering, one a different voice, and another a different one. D
A Wherefore, B the apostles will not sit on twelve thrones then only, according to the promise, judging the twelve tribes of Israel; but even now these men sit on many thrones, as it were certain judges, judging the world. And not only in the primitive Church, but even now, according to their own voice, they speak things intelligible to all. And outside, as I have said, the decrees and constitutions of the holy apostles go forth everywhere; and hither they flow together from every quarter, not only by a journey of many days, but even of months, with no one pursuing them, accusing themselves, as Plato in the *Gorgias* commands those who desire to become just to do, that they may fulfill the enjoined penalty by the work of those whose judgment they have accepted. For I say nothing of those who, by command, run from the farthest ends of the earth or are dragged against their will. Who indeed would not be astonished when he hears the Pope in a public consistory giving answers and uttering oracles? Who would not marvel when he sees these things? But why should I say more about these matters? C That, however, which I was saying concerning the relics of the apostles, how much they contribute to this city, may be seen from the Commentaries of Chrysostom on the Epistle of Paul to these very Romans, if I remember rightly, toward the end; where that man, truly golden not only in mouth but also in soul, concluding the whole discourse and that golden writing, as if stirred by a divine frenzy, twice or thrice and more often exclaims: "I would desire to see that city," meaning Rome, "in which these and other things concerning the apostles and the burial and presence of their bodies in it are reported," saying that he desired to see those feet, desired the hands, desired those heads. And he does not cease, like those who labor under an impotent love, to enumerate the individual members, and to say the same things a thousand times.
But let us now leave these things aside; for neither does the nature of a letter admit of so prolix a discourse, and whatever we may have said, we shall seem to have said nothing worthy of the subject. Moreover, I intended only to say a few things at the beginning, but I did not observe that I had exceeded the measure too far. Yet I wished to write these things as an appendix to my letters for the sake of amusing the mind, especially since in your letters to me I found this also laid down among other things, that I write too little. I am hastening, however, to send these letters, lest before they arrive at Venice, the triremes of that city shall have already departed. But indeed, in a matter of this kind, it is by far the most difficult thing to begin rightly and to end well; for the whole thing is defined by its extremities and receives its form from them. And as many do not know where to begin, so neither do they know where a limit should be imposed—those who, once they have begun, it is necessary should always speak. I, however, for such a length of time in this manner have kept silent before your Highness, that now having at last begun an oration, I can with difficulty cease quickly. But as you will pardon the silence of my interrupted oration in the past, so now you will pardon my loquacity. But since, when such matters have been set forth before you, a limit must necessarily be put, I do not wish, however, on that account, to D
commit an injury against our city. A I would, however, be doing it an injury if I were to end here. For seeing these things, as many as I have spoken of regarding the buildings and the natural beauties and those fashioned by hand, I marvel indeed at the ancient magnificence and power of the city, and I delight in these things—especially because I see that they are very similar to those among us. And that similarity alone, as you know, is naturally apt to stir us, when we see things that are very similar; especially when we observe a son to be like his father, or a daughter like her mother, or brothers like each other; and these all the more if they chance to be related to us in any way. B And I think that this also exists in the case of our own city—and this is no small thing, for it can stir a man, especially a patriot, who is sojourning away from his own people. For I think that no daughter was ever so accurately similar to her mother as that one is to this one. But even with things being thus (for I think there is no envy for a mother when a daughter is praised, just as conversely it is not right for a daughter to harbor envy when her mother is being praised), I consider our own to be the winner. C For I compare the ancient things as best I can. For what has been produced in that one, whether of natural or artificial works, that has not also been produced among us? And the remains themselves are similar to our remains. For if in some things that one seems to have the advantage, we have other things to set against these as well. And there are many things that have been and are among us, which you would not find in that one. And truly, very many have progressed to a better state. For naturally, that one, looking to no specific model at all, so to speak, was content with its superiority over all things simply; but this one, looking to that one as a model, and as if to an archetype—as it is possible to see accurately—has progressed in many things to a better and more brilliant state. D For the works of men, when competing with others, can advance to a better state; and the beauties of parents, for the most part, contribute to a better state in the beauties of their children, and magnitudes to magnitudes, especially, as we hear, in the case of mothers—not only among men, but now also among other living creatures. It is therefore no wonder that, being so great and accordingly so beautiful, it has given birth to a daughter greater and more beautiful; and this becomes praise for the mother herself. And the beauties of the mother increase those of the daughter; and it is not a case of comparing one with another, but in a way the same one with itself, namely, the New Rome with the Old. So it is not right for us to be unfair judges in such matters, especially for us who are heirs to both its goods and ours, being sons of the former and grandsons of the latter. But we ought rather to take pride in both, just as those who are accustomed to trace their nobility back to many, and can count not only parents who are great and beautiful, but also ancestors of such a kind, or perhaps even superior. And for parents, it is, as someone said, the work of a prayer to be surpassed by their children, so that it is right for us to harbor this suspicion in these matters. I say, therefore, that the mother is very beautiful and lovely, but the daughter is, by many degrees, the more beautiful; and it is not fitting that this one should call another the metropolis and mother,
A nor that the other should be called its colony and daughter; nor, as I said, that there should be such similarity between mother and daughter as there is in these. Rather, the beauty of this one has taken its increase from the other, like the kindling of a fire or a ray of light from elsewhere. For if we had nothing else to say, yet its situation with regard to both continents, I mean Europe and Asia, and the connection of both the northern and southern seas, so that it joins and at the same time divides the world and its nations as if by a common bond, situated as it were at the gates—who, I ask, would not deem this not only useful and beautiful, but also imperial? As for the harbor, which I believe surpasses all others anywhere in size and safety, capable of receiving all the triremes and merchant ships that have ever existed anywhere; and the fact that it is, so to speak, surrounded on all sides by sea and land, so that it is at once both mainland and island, and both inland and maritime; and the crown or circuit of its walls, which I know not whether in any respect it could yield to the Babylonian walls; and the density, size, and height of the towers therein, such that each one of them, even if it stood alone, would be able of itself to strike wonder into spectators as a whole structure in its own right—nay, B even the size, bulk, and structure of the steps alone by which one ascends them are worthy of admiration—and then the splendor of the walls, the gates, and the towers rising above them; and the outer defense in front of the walls, which alone would suffice as a secure fortification for another city; and then the excavation and structure of the moats, and their breadth and depth, and the abundance of water in them: so that in the only part where it was lacking, even there by this benefit it appears to be a maritime city; just as, conversely, where it is maritime, because of the neighboring islands it appears to adhere to the continent. So that, what someone said about the city of the Athenians—that it can be passed by sea, and circumnavigated, and traversed on foot—this city is even belted by a double circuit, and yet for all that, because of the abundance of water, it is maritime. I ask, what is left by which it could be surpassed by anyone? Nay, by what could any other city even approach it or be equal to it? And as for the interior of the city, it truly corresponded to the walls and to the model on which, as I said, it was founded in the beginning, and to the metropolis, and the mother, and the glory and power of its founders. C For the two most powerful and wisest nations, one of which at that time held the empire, and the other having held it a little while before, excelling in every kind of art and ambition and luxury—I mean the Romans and the Greeks—having joined their efforts, have fashioned this city, and they made use of the work and service of all other nations, and of their own people, in this endeavor. And in the beginning, they chose a site and ground for the city that was worthy of the impending city which they had conceived in their minds, and of the empire, so that by residing in it they might be able to manage the whole world conveniently. They chose it, therefore, not only for the government of the whole world, but also from every...
B consideration of what was fitting. And that they judged well is shown to us now by experience. Furthermore, they brought all the arts from everywhere for its embellishment; immediately the rich built sumptuously, the great magnificently, and the kings royally. For how could men who had come from such a city and such houses have lived uncomfortably and squalidly? And those who came after always imitated their predecessors, as usually happens with buildings. Nature, then, had prepared for them, even before the very gates, the marble island for their construction, as if she were not ignorant of what sort of city and by what sort of authors it was destined to be founded there, and she placed before them the materials and the preparation necessary for its beauty C and dignity. But they, being in no way content with white marble, and those variegated stones from Thessaly, Paros, and the Peloponnese, cared to have stones brought even from Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Marmarica, and from the very scorched region of the world for the building of this city; so that they immediately established houses that, on account of their size, could be entire towns. They also built temples of such a kind that one could hardly believe they were constructed by human art and by men—a matter which, when piety toward God is also brought to bear, was rightly done by them. For if the works of sacrilegious and impious men have been so many and of such a kind, what sort and how great ought those to be of them who worship the true God? And if such buildings were D constructed and offered to demons by those who served them, what monuments of gratitude ought to have been offered to the Savior for having liberated us from those same demons? But I pass over these things. I pass over the roofed and walled pathways that were once shown throughout the whole city, so that it was possible to pass through it entirely without mud or sun. I omit the monolithic columns, each of which could well constitute a tower or a fortress. I pass over the porticoes, the bases of statues, and the pyramids. I omit the multitude, size, and beauty of other royal buildings in different parts of the city, as well as the theaters, the military quarters, the courts, the circuses, the gymnasia, and the hippodromes; and further, the shipyards, the embankments of the walls and harbors, and the moats, and the defenses
A of the foundations and of the walls extending to the sea, and the stations suitable for receiving ships from any quarter; and even towers in the middle of the sea and in the deep ocean, and in the very vortex of the receding tides, and in these towers, fresh water. Beyond these, there are elevated and suspended aqueducts through the arches of the walls, which you could call aerial rivers, brought from more remote places at a distance of some days' journey, as they say; furthermore, through the excavated ridges of the intervening mountains. I also omit the reservoirs and cisterns in which those waters are first received—which for the water conduits serve as a sea or lake; some of which are covered by slabs and lie hidden from view, while others are open and exposed, and can be navigated by boats. Some of these now nourish the largest trees within their vaulted interiors, and others on their roofs, and take the place of fields and gardens for their neighbors. I omit the multitude of columns and vaults in those cisterns; then the other underground and excavated channels that render the whole city as if it were a suspended floor and hollow beneath; also the sewers and public passages: all of which are very numerous in this city. But what shall I say of the baths, the number of which, if I were to relate it, I would not find belief? And of the abundance of water, which is derived from springs through houses and publicly throughout the city? What of the suburbs? Which, if you look at their size, extend for some days' journey outside the city; if at their beauty, convenience, and equipment, they vie with urban buildings in every way. For from Abydos, and Sestos, and the Hellespont B as far as the Thracian Bosporus, and the Phana, and the Cyanean islands, whether from the side of Asia or of Europe, the circuit of the Propontis, and the islands situated around the city within it, and then also the horn of the harbor, and whatever extends from there to the Pharos—whoever has circled these would find they were continuous suburbs to this city. Whose temples and buildings (if anyone wished to enumerate them), a history—and that not a small one—would have to be written. And these suburbs themselves, in no small part, through what they call the Long Wall, extending from the lower sea to the upper sea and the Euxine Pontus, coalesce into one continuous city: which could constitute an entire province; for it embraces within itself solely in its magnitude as much as one might perhaps not easily find in all the others combined. The Long Wall itself, however, not only would it be rightly called long, but also a wide and high wall; C since it is of such a nature and so great, that even if it had been constructed indiscriminately from any stones whatsoever, and from the gravel of rivers and torrents, and from small rocks, it would certainly deserve admiration. But it consists of such a mass of stones, and is constructed with such art, that if it extended only a few fathoms, it would not undeservedly bring astonishment to those watching it; for it is more truly a mountain than a wall. To such a degree, indeed, that if it were suspended like a rope or beam, it would possess a thickness proportionate to its length: which is indeed required in those things D so that they do not break. Since, however, the wall
A and the other fortifications of the city, which I have mentioned, were constructed in the time of a powerful and mighty empire, those other works of that city were built for magnificence rather than for use. For the less the city stood in need of the magnitude of its walls at that time, by so much the more and greater were they encompassed; since they believed that the city first appeared through its walls, and from there received its name, and that these were built not for the present age alone but for all future time: in the course of which many things might happen to men, among which the envy of the many holds even the chief place, and then also the greatest changes of affairs come about, so that these might remain for as long as possible as proofs not only of the power of the founders, but also of their foresight regarding the future and their prudence.
But if I wished to commemorate the monuments, tombs, B columns, and statues of our city, which either exist even now or existed formerly, perhaps even here the material would not fail me; but although they are perhaps fewer in number than those there, yet I would commemorate some that are far more beautiful and more splendid than they. For what of the tomb of that emperor, the founder and guardian whom the city acknowledges? What of the neighboring monuments of the others in the place where the burials of the emperors are seen? A thing to be wondered at by the mere sight: of which not a few still survive around the church of the Holy Apostles; many also have already perished; others, too, exist here and there in the vestibules of churches. What, indeed, of the statue of that emperor who was the author of the laws? And how many other statues, if I remember rightly, on the other hand, in turn surrounded it, placed upon the greatest columns from the east? C But that there were very many other statues of this kind throughout the city, the bases of them and the inscriptions which are still seen show: of which some were in other places, but the most were in the Hippodrome; and I myself formerly saw other and many more, which I know have now been removed. There are those who even say that the column which stands on the Xerolophos, and the other one opposite to it, facing the sunrise on the hill which takes its name from the Bull, supported statues made of silver: of which indeed one was of the greater, the other of the lesser Theodosius, for by these names they are commonly distinguished. But how great, how precious, and how beautiful they must have been, is clear from the beauty, height, splendor, and magnificence of the bases. D Yet while I, revolving these things in my mind, was thinking of them, there came into my memory the gate of the city which once existed on the same road and in the same line towards the west; so wide that it could have received at its place whole towers or fortresses, if it were possible to move them, and merchant ships with their tackle and masts: then also the portico above it sparkling far and wide, and the magnitude of the marbles in the portico itself: as well as the column before the gate, which itself also once supported a statue. And furthermore, the pillar on the other hill, which overhangs the house in which you now dwell; as also those that exist in the Strategion; then the one which is seen to the right of the church of the Holy Apostles, and many other bases, were worthy of statues appropriate to them. For what should I say of the porphyry column to the east on the same square, again rising to a great height, which bears the cross, and which was fixed and established on the courtyard of the palaces of the great Constantine, all the statues
》A and indeed surpassing all other columns; for we have a great abundance of relief work, such as is seen on those columns carved all around, which were executed with the utmost precision in imitation of those that exist here. Yet those statues, which, made of porphyry stone, sit on seats at the crossroads—which some call the Agoranomia and the Principate—surpass that work. There is also another on the same street, a little above the head of the stream that flows through the city, made of white stone or marble, which seems to recline on its elbow. And there are many other things of this kind, which, though I have not seen them myself, I have heard exist in certain hidden places. For I omit those that are before the Golden Gate. But who could worthily admire this very gate and its marble towers, and the labors of Hercules, and the torment of Prometheus, and other such things expressed in marble with the highest and most admirable art? The reason why that city does not have more of these works is that it was founded at a time when even here these things lay neglected on account of religion. I believe that people then avoided the likeness of statues and signs; for who here would have made those things then, when those already existing here lay neglected? Yet they made and discovered others: tablets, I say, images, paintings, and tessellated or mosaic work, an art truly most beautiful and most durable. And here, indeed, such tessellated works are quite rare; they are certainly peculiar to Greece alone, or rather to that city; for if any such thing is seen here or in other places, it derived both its material and its art from there. I think that this also happened in the art of statuary; namely, that it began there and came hither, yet received admirable growth here: which perhaps one could affirm of many other things as well. B C D But I leave these things aside, as I said, and I pass over the other things, as many as one might call unspeakable and unsurpassable regarding that city; but that church—to which he who did well imposed the name of the Wisdom of God (for it is truly not a work of human wisdom)—when someone has beheld it, what other things thereafter can he commemorate, or admire, or of what others can he thereafter be mindful? For I think that neither has there been, nor will there ever be, anything similar created by human hands. Whence, even I, once I have made mention of it, will leave aside all discourse regarding such things. For it is not possible to say anything of it worthy of its dignity; and once you have made mention of it, it is not permitted to speak of anything else at all. For when you consider this in your mind, nothing else can be thought of. But of it, as I said, it is impossible to say anything worthy of its dignity; and if anyone were to begin to speak, he would be compelled to spend more time on this than on all the rest, and yet he would not say anything as befits it. But I will willingly concede this, yet by no means at the end of a speech, nor in passing, nor without a specific plan, as was to be said of the prior things. But if, neither immediately from the beginning, nor by a certain plan, nor when intending another plan, can we describe any part of that temple in words, in any case...