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."