Bessarion | |
|---|---|
| Cardinal Latin Patriarch of Constantinople | |
 Bessarion byJean-Jacques Boissard | |
| Diocese | Constantinople |
| Predecessor | Isidore of Kiev |
| Successor | Pietro Riario |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | 1437 |
| Created cardinal | 18 December 1439 byPope Eugene IV |
| Rank | Cardinal bishop |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Basileios 2 January 1403 |
| Died | 18 November 1472(1472-11-18) (aged 69) |
| Nationality | Greek |
| Denomination | Catholic (formerlyEastern Orthodox) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | Renaissance philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Neoplatonism |
| Main interests | Metaphysics,theology |
Bessarion (Greek:Βησσαρίων; 2 January 1403 – 18 November 1472) was aByzantine GreekRenaissance humanist, theologian,Catholiccardinal and one of the famed Greek scholars who contributed to the revival of letters in the 15th century.[1] He was educated byGemistus Pletho inNeoplatonic philosophy and later served as the titularLatin Patriarch of Constantinople. He eventually was named a cardinal and was twice considered for thepapacy.[2]
His baptismal name wasBasil (Greek: Βασίλειος,[3]Basileios[4] orBasilios[5]). He took the name Bessarion upon entering the monastery.[6] He has been mistakenly known also asJohannes Bessarion (Italian:Giovanni Bessarione) due to an erroneous interpretation ofGregory III Mammas.
Bessarion was born inTrebizond, theBlack Sea port in northeasternAnatolia that was the heart ofPontic Greek culture and civilization during theByzantine andOttoman periods. The year of his birth has been given as 1389, 1395 or 1403.[7]
Bessarion was educated inConstantinople, then went in 1423 toMystras,Peloponnese to study Neoplatonism underGemistus 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 includePythagorean number-mysticism, Plato's cosmological geometry and the Neoplatonic arithmetic which connected the material world with the world ofPlato'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.
On becoming a tonsured monk, he adopted the name ofBessarion of Egypt, whose story he has related. In 1436 becameabbot of a monastery in Constantinople and in 1437, he was mademetropolitan of Nicaea by the Byzantine EmperorJohn VIII Palaeologus, whom he accompanied toItaly in order to bring about a reunion between theEastern (Orthodox) andWestern (Catholic) churches. The emperor hoped to use the possibility of re-uniting the churches to obtain help from Western Europe against theOttoman Empire. Bessarion participated in the Byzantine delegation to theCouncil of Ferrara-Florence as the most eminent representative of unionists, although he originally belonged to the party of anti-unionists. On 6 July 1439, he read the declaration of the Greek Association of Churches in Florence cathedral, in the presence ofPope Eugene IV and John VIII.
Some historians have impugned Bessarion's sincerity in adhering to the union.[11] However, Gill upholds Bessarion's sincerity in being convinced of the truth of the Roman position in the matters discussed at the Council, quoting from Bessarion's own workOratio 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]
| Styles of Bessarion | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Religious style | Cardinal |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | Constantinople |
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 ofcardinal at theconsistory of 18 December 1439.[7]
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 theNew Learning.[7] Hispalazzo in Rome was a virtual academy for the studies of newhumanistic learning, a center for learned Greeks and Greek refugees, whom he supported by commissioning transcripts of Greek manuscripts and translations into Latin that made Greek scholarship available to Western Europeans.[citation needed] He supportedRegiomontanus in this fashion and defendedNicholas of Cusa. He is known in history as the original patron of the Greek exiles (scholars and diplomats) includingTheodore Gaza,George of Trebizond,John Argyropoulos, andJanus Lascaris.
He held in succession thearchbishopric of Siponto and thesuburbicarian sees ofSabina andFrascati.[7] At thepapal conclave of 1455 which elected the Aragonese candidate, Alfons de Borja, asCallixtus III, Cardinal Bessarion was an early candidate, favored on account of his disinterestness in the struggle between candidates pushed forward by the Roman factions of theOrsini andColonna.[13] He was opposed for his Greek background by the French CardinalAlain de Coëtivy.
_01.JPG)
For five years (1450–1455), he waslegate atBologna, and he was engaged on embassies to many foreign princes, among others toLouis XI of France in 1471.[7] Other missions were to Germany to encourage Western princes to help their fellow Christians in the East. For these efforts, his fellow humanist Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, thenPius II, gave him the purely ceremonial title ofLatin Patriarch of Constantinople in 1463. Asprimus Cardinalium (from April 1463) – the titleDean of the Sacred College of Cardinals was not yet in use – Cardinal Bessarion presided over thePapal conclave, 1464[14] andPapal conclave, 1471.[15]
He died on 18 November 1472 atRavenna. He was subsequently buried in the basilica of theSanti Apostoli, Rome in a large funerary chapel of which he had overseen the renovation during his life.[16]
Bessarion was one of the most learned scholars of his time. Besides his translations ofAristotle'sMetaphysics andXenophon'sMemorabilia, his most important work is a treatise directed againstGeorge of Trebizond, a vehement Aristotelian who had written a polemic againstPlato, which was entitledIn Calumniatorem Platonis ("Against the Slanderer of Plato").[17] Bessarion, though a Platonist, was not so thoroughgoing in his admiration asGemistus Pletho, and he strove instead to reconcile the two philosophies. His work, by opening up the relations ofPlatonism to the main questions of religion, contributed greatly to the extension of speculative thought in the department oftheology.[18]
It was thanks to him that theBibliotheca, an important compendium ofGreek mythology, has survived to the present. His library, which contained a very extensive collection of Greek manuscripts, was presented by him in 1468 to theSenate of theRepublic of Venice, and forms the nucleus of the famous library of St Mark's, theBiblioteca Marciana.[18] It comprised 482 Greek and 264 Latin manuscripts.[19] Most of Bessarion's works are inMigne,Patrologia Graeca, volume 161.
Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bessarion, Johannes".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 821–822.
Media related toBasilius Bessarion at Wikimedia Commons| Catholic Church titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | — TITULAR — Latin Patriarch of Constantinople 1463–1472 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
