Constantine Lascaris

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Constantine Laskaris.

Constantine Lascaris as depicted by Paolo Fidanza (18th century).

Constantine Lascaris (Greek: Κωνσταντῖνος Λάσκαρις Kostantinos Láskaris; 1434 – 15 August 1501) was a Greek scholar and grammarian, one of the promoters of the revival of Greek learning in Italy during the Renaissance, born in Constantinople.

Life

Constantine Lascaris was born in

Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, appointed him Greek tutor to his daughter Hippolyta. Here was published his Grammatica Graeca, sive compendium octo orationis partium, remarkable as being probably the first book entirely in Greek issued from the printing press, in 1476.[1]

Constantine Lascaris writing his Grammatica as depicted by Pierre de Nolhac. (1887)

After leaving Milan in 1465, Lascaris taught in Rome and in Naples, to which he had been summoned by Ferdinand I to deliver a course of lectures on Greece. In the following year, on the invitation of the inhabitants, and especially of Ludovico Saccano, he settled in Messina (Sicily). On the recommendation of Cardinal Bessarion, he was appointed to succeed Andronikos Galaziotes to teach Greek to the Basilian monks of the island. He continued to work in Messina until his death, teaching many pupils who came on purpose to Sicily, from all over Italy, to learn grammar and Greek culture from him.

Among his numerous pupils in Milan was

Spanish National Library in Madrid.[1] In the second half of the sixteenth century his tomb in Messina was totally destroyed during the repression of the Counter-Reformation.[2] He was a typical Renaissance humanist, with polymathic interests, but especially in Neoplatonism combined with Pythagoreanism (which was dear to many contemporary Byzantine scholars).[3] Through his pupils Antonio Maurolico, Francesco Faraone and Giacomo Notese-Genovese his knowledge reached the scientist Francesco Maurolico.[4]

Lascaris died in Messina in 1501.

Work

The Grammatica, which has often been reprinted (including the famous

John Edwin Sandys, Hist. Class. Schol., ed. 2, vol. ii (1908), pp. 76 foll.[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Chisholm 1911.
  2. ^ Russo (2003-2004), pp. 22-28.
  3. ^ Russo (2003-2004), pp. 46-78.
  4. ^ Russo (2018), pp. 50-51, 70-71 note 69.

Attribution:

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lascaris, Constantine". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 232.

References

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Constantine_Lascaris&oldid=1211888355"