Bessarion

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Eastern Orthodox)
Philosophy career
EraRenaissance philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolNeoplatonism
Main interests
Metaphysics, theology
Coat of armsBessarion's coat of arms
Styles of
Bessarion
Constantinople

Bessarion (

Renaissance humanist, theologian, Catholic cardinal and one of the famed Greek scholars who contributed to the so-called great revival of letters in the 15th century.[1]

He was educated by

Neoplatonic philosophy and later served as the titular Latin Patriarch of Constantinople. He eventually was named a cardinal and was twice considered for the papacy.[2]

His baptismal name was Basil (Greek: Βασίλειος,

Gregory III Mammas
.

Biography

Wood engraving from Bibliotheca chalcographica, B1

Bessarion was born in

Byzantine and Ottoman periods. The year of his birth has been given as 1389, 1395 or 1403.[7]

Bessarion's Neoplatonism

Bessarion was educated in

Gemistus Pletho.[8] Under Pletho, he "went through the liberal arts curriculum…, with a special emphasis on mathematics…including the study of astronomy and geography" that would have related "philosophy to physics…cosmology and astrology" and Pletho's "mathematics would include Pythagorean number-mysticism, Plato's cosmological geometry and the Neoplatonic arithmetic which connected the material world with the world of Plato's Forms. Possibly it also included astrology…"[9] Woodhouse also mentions that Bessarion "had a mystical streak…[and] was proficient in Neoplatonic vocabulary…mathematics…and Platonic theology".[9]

Bessarion's Neoplatonism stayed with him his whole life, even as a cardinal. He was very familiar with Neoplatonist terminology and used it in his letter to Pletho's two sons, Demitrios and Andronikos, on the death of his still-beloved teacher in 1452.[10] Perhaps the most remarkable thing about his life was that a Neoplatonist could have played such a significant role in the Catholic Church for at least a brief time, though he was attacked for his views by more orthodox Catholic academics shortly after his death.

Role in the Council of Ferrara

On becoming a tonsured monk, he adopted the name of

John VIII Palaeologus.[7]

Some historians have impugned Bessarion's sincerity in adhering to the union.[11] However, Gill upholds Bessarion's sincerity in being convinced to the truth of the Roman position in the matters discussed at the Council quoting from the bishop's own Oratio Dogmatica:

But if we had discerned error in the doctrine of the Latins or distortion in their faith, not even I would have counseled you to embrace union and agreement with them in that case, that for fear of bodily ills you should prefer the values of the present world to spiritual values, the freedom of the body to the betterment of the soul, but I myself would have undergone all that is worst and I would have exposed you to it before I would have urged you to union with them and have recommended such action.[12]

Upon his return to the East, he found himself bitterly resented for his attachment to the minority party that saw no difficulty in a reconciliation of the two churches. Pope Eugene IV invested him with the rank of

cardinal at a consistory
of 18 December 1439.

The suburban residence of the bishops of Tusculum along the Appian way in Rome, believed to have been built and utilized by Cardinal Bessarion during his episcopate (1449–1468).

From that time, Bessarion resided permanently in Italy, doing much (by his patronage of learned men, by his collection of books and manuscripts, and by his own writings) to spread abroad the

.

He held in succession the

Colonna factions.[13] He was opposed for his Greek background by the French Cardinal Alain de Coëtivy
.

For five years (1450–1455), he was

Latin Patriarch of Constantinople
in 1463.

As primus Cardinalium (from April 1463) – the title

He died on 18 November 1472 at Ravenna. He is buried in the basilica of Santi Apostoli, Rome.

Works

Epistolae et orationes, 1471
Tomb of Bessarion in the Santi Apostoli, Rome.

Bessarion was one of the most learned scholars of his time. Besides his translations of

Gemistus Pletho, and he strove instead to reconcile the two philosophies. His work, by opening up the relations of Platonism to the main questions of religion, contributed greatly to the extension of speculative thought in the department of theology
.

It was thanks to him that the Bibliotheca, an important compendium of Greek mythology, has survived to the present.

His library, which contained a very extensive collection of Greek manuscripts, was presented by him in 1468 to the Senate of the Republic of Venice, and forms the nucleus of the famous library of St Mark's, the Biblioteca Marciana. It comprised 482 Greek and 264 Latin manuscripts.[17]

Most of Bessarion's works are in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, vol. 161.

Editions

  • Monfasani, John, ed. (2023). Liber Defensionum contra Obiectiones in Platonem: Cardinal Bessarion's own Latin translation of his Greek defense of Plato against George of Trebizond. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter. .

See also

References

  1. ^ "Bessarion | Byzantine theologian". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 20 July 2021.
  2. ^ George Gemistos Plethon, the Last of the Hellenes, by C. M. Woodhouse, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986, pp. 32–33.
  3. ^ Primary source: Jacques Paul Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 161, 1866, "Letter from George Amiroutzes to Bessarion," pp. 723–728, esp. 725.
  4. ^ Ierodiakonou, Katerina; Bydén, Börje. "Byzantine Philosophy". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  5. ^ Craig Martin, Subverting Aristotle: Religion, History, and Philosophy in Early Modern Science, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014, p. 41.
  6. ^ Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). "Basil [Cardinal] Bessarion". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  7. ^ a b Chisholm 1911.
  8. ^ James Hankins, Humanism and Platonism in the Italian Renaissance, Volume 1, Ed. di Storia e Letteratura, 2003, p. 207.
  9. ^ a b C.M. Woodhouse, George Gemistos Plethon, the Last of the Hellenes (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), p. 33
  10. ^ Woodhouse, George Gemistos Plethon, p. 13
  11. ^ Miscellanea marciana di studi bessarionei, Antenore, 1976, p. 121.
  12. ^ Joseph Gill, "The Sincerity of Bessarion the Unionist," Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 26 (1975), p. 387.
  13. ^ "Johannes Bessarion", Catholic Encyclopedia (1907).
  14. ^ J. P. Adams, Sede Vacante of 1464. Retrieved: 6 April 2016.
  15. ^ J. P. Adams, Sede Vacante 1471. Retrieved: 6 April 2016.
  16. ^ Ludwig Mohler, Bessarionis in calumniatorem Platonis libri IV [Kardinal Bessarion als Theologe, Humanist und Staatsmann. Funde und Forschungen Band 2]. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1927 (repr. 1967).
  17. ^ Emblem of Cardinal Bessarion Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine

Attribution

Sources

External links

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by — TITULAR —
Latin Patriarch of Constantinople

1463–1472
Succeeded by