Italian Adepts of Greek Studies, Collectors and Book-dealers of the Greek Manuscripts in Byzantium, 1390-1453
Abstract
Since the last decade of Trecento raising interest among the Italian humanists in mastering the Greek language and obtaining the original text of Greek classical past was two-side process, symbiotically linked. The present article is focused on the Italian scholars, collectors, and book-dealers, which were active within Byzantine milieu since 1390 until 1453 in this cultural transmission.
From this point of view the most important personalities were: Jacopo (Iacopo) Angeli da Scarperia (ca. 1360-1410/11), Guarino Guarini da Verona (Guarino Veronese) (1374-1460), Giovanni Aurispa di Noto (1376-1459), Rinuccio Aretino da Castiglione (ca. 1395-ca. 1456), Francesco Filelfo (1398-1481), Cyriac of Ancona (1391-1452), Cristoforo da Buondelmonti (ca. 1380-ca. 1430), Bartolomeo Aragazzi da Montepulciano (ca. 1385-1429), Antonio Cassarino (ca. 1400-1447), Giovanni Tortelli (ca. 1400-1466), Cristoforo Garatone (ca. 1398-1448). The aim of this paper was mainly to delineate the character of acquisitions of the Greek manuscripts, their content, and their subsequent peregrinations within the Italian culture sphere of the first half of Quattrocento.
In case of Guarino Guarini da Verona and Francesco Filelfo we focused more on their pedagogical activities as tutors of Greek literature and language.