gemistus pletho -bio

7/28/2019 Gemistus Pletho -Bio

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Portrait of Gemistus Pletho, detail of a

fresco by acquaintance Benozzo

Gozzoli, Palazzo Medici Riccardi,

Florence.

One of Plethon's manuscripts, in

Greek, written in the early 15th century

Gemistus PlethoFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Georgius Gemistus (Greek: ; ca.13551452/1454) later called Plethon or Pletho (Greek:) was a Greek scholar of Neoplatonic philosophy. He wasone of the chief pioneers of the revival of Greek learning in WesternEurope. In the dying years of the Byzantine Empire, he advocated a

return to the Olympian gods of the ancient world.[1]

He re-introduced Plato's thoughts to Western Europe during the 1438- 1439 Council of Florence, a failed attempt to reconcile theEast-West schism. Here Pletho met and influenced Cosimo de'Medici to found a new Platonic Academy, which, under MarsilioFicino, would proceed to translate into Latin all Plato's works, theEnneads of Plotinus, and various other Neoplatonist works.

Contents

1 Biography1.1 Early life and study1.2 Teacher and magistrate in Mistra1.3 Lecturing in Florence1.4 Mystery school

2 Writings2.1 Reform of the Peloponnese2.2De Differentiis2.3Nmoi2.4 Summary2.5 Other works

3 See also4 References5 Sources6 External links

Biography

Early life and study

George Gemistos was born some time after 1355, probably in

Constantinople.[2] As a young man he went to study at Adrianopolis,by now the Ottoman capital following its capture by the OttomanSultan Murad I in 1365. Adrianopolis was now a centre of learning

modelled by Murat on the caliphates of Cairo and Baghdad.[2] He

admired Plato (Greek: Pltn) so much that late in life he took thesimilar-meaning name Plethon.[3] In c1407 Gemistos left Adrianopolis and travelled through Cyprus,

Palestine and other places,[2] finally settling in Mistra,[4] in the Despotate of Morea.

mistus Pletho - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemistus_Pletho

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Teacher and magistrate in Mistra

In Mistra he taught and wrote philosophy, astronomy, history and geography, and compiled digests of manyclassical writers. His pupils included Basilios Bessarion and George Scholarius (later to become Patriarch of

Constantinople and Plethon's enemy). He was made chief magistrate by Theodore II.[2]

Plethon was the author ofDe Differentiis, a detailed comparison between Plato and Aristotles' conceptions

of God. Scholarios later defended Aristotle and convinced the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos thatPlethon's support for Plato amounted to heresy. Manuel had Plethon confined in Mistra, though he remained

something of a celebrity. In 1415 and 1418[4] he wrote pamphlets to Theodore and Manuel describing howthe Empire could be reorganized according to Plato's Republic, with political, legal and economic reforms,and gained even greater reputation as a legal thinker, with rumours that he carried entire legal codes in his

memory.[2] He also wrote a Summary of the Doctrines of Zoroaster and Plato, which detailed his owneclectic polytheistic beliefs. These works did not help to clear him of the charge of heresy. He also wroteabout the condition of the Peloponnesus, compiled several volumes of excerpts from ancient authors, andwrote a number of works on geography, music, and other subjects.

Lecturing in Florence

In 1428 Gemistos was consulted by Emperor John VIII on the issue of unifying the Greek and Latin

churches, and advised that both delegations should have equal voting power.[2] Byzantine scholars had beenin contact with their counterparts in Western Europe since the time of the Latin Empire, and especially sincethe Byzantine Empire had begun to ask for Western European help against the Ottomans in the 14th century.Western Europe had some access to ancient Greek philosophy through the Roman Catholic Church and theMuslims, but the Byzantines had many documents and interpretations that the Westerners had never seenbefore. Byzantine scholarship became more fully available to the West after 1438, when Byzantine emperorJohn VIII Palaeologus attended the Council of Ferrara, later known as the Council of Florence, to discuss a

union of the Orthodox and Catholic churches. Despite being a secular philosopher, Plethon was chosen toaccompany John VIII on the basis of his renowned wisdom and morality. Other delegates included Plethon's

former students Bessarion, Mark Eugenikos and Scholarios.[5]

As a secular scholar, Plethon was often not needed at the council. Instead, at the invitation of someFlorentine humanists he set up a temporary school to lecture on the difference between Plato and Aristotle.

Few of Plato's writings were studied in the Latin West at that time,[6] and he essentially reintroduced muchof Plato to the Western world, shaking the domination which Aristotle had come to exercise over WesternEuropean thought in the high and later middle ages. Cosimo de' Medici attended these lectures and wasinspired to found theAccademia Platonica in Florence, where Italian students of Plethon continued to teach

after the conclusion of the council.[5]

Because of this, Plethon is considered one of the most importantinfluences on the Italian Renaissance. Marsilio Ficino, the Florentine humanist and the first director of theAccademia Platonica, paid Plethon the ultimate honour, calling him 'the second Plato', while CardinalBessarion speculated as to whether Plato's soul occupied his body. Plethon may also have been the source

for Ficino's Orphic system of natural magic.[2]

While still in Florence, Plethon summarised his lectures in a volume titled On the Differences of Aristotlerom Plato, commonly calledDe Differentiis. George Scholarius responded with aDefence of Aristotle,

which elicited Plethon's subsequentReply. Expatriate Byzantine scholars and later Italian humanists

continued the argument.[5]

Mystery school

On his return to the Peloponnese, Gemistos founded a school. He taught polytheism as opposed to


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monotheism, and some of his students prayed to statues of the pagan deities.[2]

Pletho died in Mistra in 1452, or in 1454, according to J. Monfasani. In 1466, some of his Italian disciples,headed by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, stole his remains from Mistra and interred them in the TempioMalatestiano in Rimini, "so that the great Teacher may be among free men".

Writings

Reform of the Peloponnese

Believing that the Peloponnesians were direct descendents of the ancient Hellenes, Pletho rejectedJustinian's idea of a universal Empire in favour of recreating the Hellenistic civilization, the zenith of Greek

influence,[7] In his 1415 and 1418 pamphlets urged Manuel II and his son Theodore to turn the peninsulainto a cultural island with a new constitution of strongly centralised monarchy advised by a small body ofmiddle-class educated men. The army must be composed only of professional native Greek soldiers, whowould be supported by the taxpayers, or "Helots" who would be exempt from military service. Land was tobe publicly owned, and a third of all produce given to the state fund; incentives would be given for

cultivating virgin land. Trade would be regulated and the use of coinage limited, barter instead beingencouraged; locally available products would be supported over imports. Mutilation as a punishment wouldbe abolished, and chain gangs introduced. Homosexuals, as sexual deviants, would be burnt at the stake. Inthese pamphlets Plethon touched little on religion, although he expressed disdain for monks, who "render noservice to the common good". He vaguely prescribed three religious principles: belief in a supreme being;that this being has concern for mankind; and that it is uninfluenced by gifts or flattery. Manuel and Theodore

did not act on any of these reforms.[4]

e Differentiis

InDe Differentiis Plethon compares Aristotle's and Plato's conceptions of God, arguing that Plato creditsGod with more exalted powers as "creator of every kind of intelligible and separate substance, and hence ofour entire universe", while Aristotle has Him as only the motive force of the universe; Plato's God is also the

end and final cause of existence, while Aristotle's God is only the end of movement and change.[5] Plethonderides Aristotle for discussing unimportant matters such as shellfish and embryos while failing to credit God

with creating the universe,[5] for believing the heavens are composed of a fifth element, and for his view thatcontemplation was the greatest pleasure; the latter aligned him with Epicurus, Plethon argued, and he

attributed this same pleasure-seeking to monks, whom he accused of laziness.[2] Later, in response toGennadius'Defence of Aristotle, Plethon argued in hisReply that Plato's God was more consistent withChristian doctrine than Aristotle's, and this, according to Darien DeBolt, was probably in part an attempt to

escape suspicion of heterodoxy.[5]

moi

After his death, Pletho'sNmon singraf() orNmoi ( "Book of Laws") wasdiscovered. He had been compiling it throughout most of his adult life, and it became famous as the most

heretical of his works, detailing his esoteric beliefs.[2] It came into the possession of Princess Theodora, wifeof Demetrios, despot of Morea. Theodora sent the manuscript to Scholarius, now Gennadius II, Patriarch ofConstantinople, asking for his advice on what to do with it; he returned it, advising her to destroy it. Moreawas under invasion from Sultan Mehmet II, and Theodora escaped with Demetrios to Constantinople whereshe gave the manuscript back to Gennadius, reluctant to destroy the only copy of such a distinguishedscholar's work herself. Gennadius burnt it in 1460, however in a letter to the Exarch Joseph (which still

survives) he details the book, providing chapter headings and brief summaries of the contents.[5] It seemedto represent a merging of Stoic philosophy and Zoroastrian mysticism, and discussed astrology, daemons and


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the migration of the soul. He recommended religious rites and hymns to petition the classical gods, such asZeus, whom he saw as universal principles and planetary powers. Man, as relative of the gods, should strivetowards good. Plethon believed the universe has no beginning or end in time, and being created perfect,nothing may be added to it. He rejected the concept of a brief reign of evil followed by perpetual happiness,and held that the human soul is reincarnated, directed by the gods into successive bodies to fulfill divineorder. This same divine order, he believed, governed the organisation of bees, the foresight of ants and thedexterity of spiders, as well as the growth of plants, magnetic attraction, and the amalgamation of mercury

and gold.[2]

Pletho drew up plans in hisNmoi to radically change the structure and philosophy of the Byzantine Empirein line with his interpretation of Platonism. The new state religion was to be founded on a hierarchicalpantheon of Pagan Gods, based largely upon the ideas of Humanism prevalent at the time, incorporatingthemes such as rationalism and logic. As an ad-hoc measure he also supported the reconciliation of the two

churches in order to secure Western Europe support against the Ottomans.[8] He also proposed morepractical, immediate measures, such as rebuilding the Hexamilion, the ancient defensive wall across theIsthmus of Corinth, which had been breached by the Ottomans in 1423.

The political and social elements of his theories covered the creation of communities, government (hepromoted benevolent monarchy as the most stable form), land ownership (land should be shared, rather thanindividually owned), social organisation, families, and divisions of sex and class. He believed that labourersshould keep a third of their produce, and that soldiers should be professional. He held that love should be

private not because it is shameful, but because it is sacred.[2]

Summary

Plethon's own summary of theNmoi also survived, amongst manuscripts held by his former studentBessarion. This summary, titled Summary of the Doctrines of Zoroaster and Plato, affirms the existence of apantheon of gods, with Zeus as supreme sovereign, containing within himself all being in an undivided state;

his eldest child, motherless, is Poseidon, who created the heavens and rules all below, ordaining order in theuniverse. Zeus' other children include an array of "supercelestial" gods, the Olympians and Tartareans, allmotherless. Of these Hera is third in command after Poseidon, creatress and ruler of indestructible matter,and the mother by Zeus of the heavenly gods, demi-gods and spirits. The Olympians rule immortal life in theheavens, the Tartareans mortal life below, their leader Kronos ruling over mortality altogether. The eldest ofthe heavenly gods is Helios, master of the heavens here and source of all mortal life on earth. The gods areresponsible for much good and no evil, and guide all life towards divine order. Plethon describes the creationof the universe as being perfect and outside of time, so that the universe remains eternal, without beginningor end. The soul of man, like the gods is immortal and essentially good, and is reincarnated in successive

mortal bodies for eternity at the direction of the gods.[5]

Other works

Many of Pletho's other works still exist in manuscript form in various European libraries. Most of Pletho'sworks can be found in J. P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, collection; for a complete list see Fabricius,

Bibliotheca Graeca (ed. Harles), xii.

See also

Christian heresyByzantine scholars in the Renaissance

References


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^ Richard Clogg, Woodhouse, Christopher Montague, fifth Baron Terrington (19172001), Oxford Dictionaryof National Biography, Oxford University Press, Jan 2005

1.

^ abcdefghijklMerry, Bruce (2002) "George Gemistos Plethon (c. 1355/601452)" in Amoia, Alba &Knapp, Bettina L.,Multicultural Writers from Antiquity to 1945: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook.Greenwood Publishing Group.

2.

^: "the full", pronounced [plion]. Plethon is also an archaic translation of the Greek/yemists ("full, stuffed")

3.

^ abc Burns, James Henderson (ed.) (1991). The Cambridge History of Medieval Political Thought C. 350 -

C. 1450. Cambridge University Press. pp. 778.

4.

^ abcdefgh DeBolt, Darien C. (1998) George Gemistos Plethon on God: Heterodoxy in Defence ofOrthodoxy (http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Medi/MediDebo.htm). A paper delivered at the Twentieth WorldCongress of Philosophy, Boston, Mass. Retrieved 2008-11-20.

5.

^Timaeus in the partial translation of Calcidius was available; Henricus Aristippus' 12th century translation oftheMeno and Phaedo was available, but obscure; Leonardo Bruni's translations of the Phaedo,Apology, Critoand Phaedrus appeared only shortly before Plethon's visit. (DeBolt)

6.

^James Henderson Burns,The Cambridge history of medieval political thought c. 350-c. 1450, CambridgeUniversity Press, 1988

7.

^ Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 7, p.3568.

Sources

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed.(1911). Encyclopdia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.Darien C. DeBolt Paper on De Differentiis (http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Medi/MediDebo.htm)Benakis, A. G. - Baloglou, Ch. P., Proceedings of the International Congress of Plethon and HisTime, Mystras, 2629 June 2002, Athens-Mystras, 2003 ISBN 960-87144-1-9Brown, Alison M., 'Platonism in fifteenth century Florence and its contribution to early modernpolitical thought',Journal of Modern History 58 (1986), 383-413.Harris, Jonathan, 'The influence of Plethon's idea of fate on the historian Laonikos Chalkokondyles',

in: Proceedings of the International Congress on Plethon and his Time, Mystras, 2629 June 2002,ed. L.G. Benakis and Ch.P. Baloglou (Athens: Society for Peloponnesian and Byzantine Studies,2004), pp. 21117Keller, A., 'Two Byzantine scholars and their reception in Italy',in:Journal of the Warburg andCourtauld Institutes 20 (1957), 363-70Mandilas, Kostas, Georgius Gemistos Plethon (Athens 1997)* ISBN 960-7748-08-5Masai, Franois, Plthon et le platonisme de Mistra (Paris, 1956)Monfasani, John, 'Platonic paganism in the fifteenth century', in: John Monfasani,Byzantine Scholarsin Renaissance Italy: Cardinal Bessarion and Other migrs, (Aldershot, 1995), no. XRunciman, Steven, The Last Byzantine Renaissance (Cambridge, 1970)Setton, Kenneth M. 'The Byzantine background to the Italian Renaissance', in: Proceedings of the

American Philosophical Society, 100 (1956), 1-76.Tambrun, Brigitte. Plthon. Le retour de Platon, Paris, Vrin, 2006 ISBN 2-7116-1859-5Tambrun-Krasker, Brigitte, Georges Gmiste Plthon, Trait des vertus. dition critique avecintroduction, traduction et commentaire, Corpus Philosophorum Medii Aevi, Philosophi Byzantini 3,Athens-The Academy of Athens, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1987.Tambrun-Krasker, Brigitte,Magika logia tn apo Zoroastrou magn, Georgiou Gemistou PlthnosExgsis eis ta auta logia. Oracles chaldaques. Recension de Georges Gmiste Plthon . Editioncritique avec introduction, traduction et commentaire par Brigitte Tambrun-Krasker.La recensionarabe des Magika logia par Michel Tardieu, Corpus Philosophorum Medii Aevi, Philosophi Byzantini7, Athens-The Academy of Athens, Paris, Librairie J. Vrin, Bruxelles, ditions Ousia, 1995,

LXXX+187 p.Tambrun, Brigitte, Pletho (article) in: W.J. Hanegraaff, A. Faivre, R. van den Broek, J.-P. Brached.,Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, Leiden, E.J. Brill, 2005, 2006.Vassileiou, Fotis & Saribalidou, Barbara, Short Biographical Lexicon of Byzantine Academics

Immigrants in Western Europe, 2007.


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Viglas, Katelis, 'Alexandre Joseph Hidulphe Vincent on George Gemistos Plethon', AnistoritonJournal, Vol. 13, No 1, 2012-2013, 1-12 (http://www.anistor.gr/english/enback/2012_1e_Anistoriton.pdf)Woodhouse, Cristopher Montague, George Gemistos Plethon - The Last of the Hellenes (Oxford,1986)

"Georgius Gemistus Plethon". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.

External links

Gemistus Pletho (http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=131575) at the MathematicsGenealogy Projecthttp://lem.vjf.cnrs.fr/fichecerl/tambrun.htmlhttp://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00293398/fr/http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00293417/fr/Works by or about Gemistus Pletho (http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n84-1448) in libraries(WorldCat catalog)

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Categories: 1355 births 1452 deaths Byzantine philosophers Greek Renaissance humanistsNeoplatonists Hellenism and Christianity Despotate of the Morea 14th-century Byzantine people15th-century Byzantine people 15th-century Greek people

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