Manuel Chrysoloras and the Early Italian Renaissance Thomson, Ian Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Spring

1966; 7, 1; ProQuest pg. 63

Manuel Chrysoloras and the Early

Italian Renaissance
Ian Thomson

F ROM AT LEAST the eighteenth century, when scholars first began

to discuss the "Italian Renaissance" as a cultural phenomenon,
the importance of Manuel Chrysoloras, the first notable pro-
fessor of Greek in Western Europe, has been widely recognized.
Writers such as Carlo Rosmini, Jacob Burckhardt, John Addington
Symonds, and Remigio Sabbadini have given him deservedly honor-
able mention as the teacher of a number of influential humanists,
whose interest in classical studies did much to bring about the Renais-
sance as a whole. It was not until 1941, however, that Professor
G. Cammelli produced a full-length study of Chrysoloras' career and
its effect upon the early Renaissance. 1 This excellent work has made
information on the external events of Chrysoloras' life, especially for
the period 1397-1415, readily accessible.
The purpose of this article is two-fold: first, to assess the extent of
Chrysoloras' influence on his pupils and the nature of their admiration
for him, with particular reference to Guarino da Verona; second, to
suggest a possible motive for his coming to Italy which has received
little or no attention from historians.
Chrysoloras was not without honor in his own lifetime, as is well
attested in the letters and orations of his pupils and friends. 2
Indeed, during the eighteen years between his arrival in Florence in
1397 and his death at or near Constance on April 15, 1415, his consider-
able intellectual gifts and excellence as a teacher won him almost
universal respect and inspired in some of his pupils a sense of gratitude
that survived him for almost half a century.

1 G. Cammelli, I dotti bizantini e Ie origini dell'umanesimo, I: Manuele erisolora (Florence

1941). Before 1941, the most important work was R. Sabbadini: "L'ultimo ventennio della
vita di Manuele Crisolora," Giornale ligustico 17 (1890) 321ff, which established the main
chronology of Chrysoloras' life from 1395-1415.
2 See Carlo Rosmini. La vita e disciplina di Guarino Veronese (Brescia 1805) I 3-8; II 29ff;
R. Sabbadini. La scuola e gli studi di Guarino Veronese (Catania 1896) 14-16, 213-20.
63
64 CHRYSOLORAS AND THE EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

His most direct contribution to the Revival of Learning was made in

the years 1397-1400, during which he taught Greek to a small number
of humanists in Florence. 3 These men not only set the cultural tone
of their own city but were able eventually to make their influence felt
all over Italy. It should be noted that since Petrarch and Boccaccio
there had existed among the more intellectually radical scholars in
Florence and throughout northern Italy at least a theoretical desire to
learn Greek, but few of them did much about it.4 Guarino, we are told
by the so-called Anonymous Veronese,5 was "urged by the wise men
whose company he often sought" to learn Greek, but he was the first
important scholar intrepid enough to visit Constantinople for that
specific purpose. 6 Many scholars paid lip service to Greek as an in-
teresting and harmless bagatelle, but the majority of professors and
students were simply not interested or were actively averse. At the
end of the fourteenth century only Coluccio Salutati, Palla Strozzi,
Niccolo Niccoli and a few others-probably no more than ten in
number-were really enthusiastic about learning Greek. Mere num-
bers, however, are unimportant; what matters in cultural history is
breadth of influence and contribution ultimately recognized.
Leonardo Bruni, for instance, contributed to the spread of Greek
culture by a series of important translations. 7 He had cut his teeth as
a translator of Greek with Latin versions of Basilius' Homilia and
Xenophon's Hieron. By 1403 or 1404 he had produced a translation of
Plato's Phaedon. The list continued to grow over the next three dec-
8 R. R. Bolgar, The Classical Heritage and its BenefiCiaries (Cambridge [Eng.] 1954) 403, gives
the following list of Chrysoloras' pupils: "Guarino, Giacopo di Scarperia (sic), Roberto
Rossi, Niccolo Niccoli, Leonardo Bruni, Carlo Marsuppini, Ambrogio Traversari 0),
Vergerio, Uberto Decembrio, Poggio." (On p. 269 he notes that Poggio "had not been pro-
perly speaking his pupil"). All but Guarino and Decembrio were pupils at Florence.
4 For the lack of response to Greek in Italy, see Denys Hay, The Italian Renaissance in its
Historical Background (Cambridge [Eng.] 1961) 86-88. As for Petrarch, there is no doubt that
he could have progressed beyond the Greek alphabet if he had really wanted to; see
D. J. Geanakoplos, Greek Scholars in Venice (Cambridge [Mass.] 1962) 21 n.27.
5 A pupil of Guarino, otherwise unknown, who delivered a spirited defense of the latter
in 1424. The speech was published by Sabbadini, "Documenti Guariniani," Atti dell'Acca-
demia di agricoltura di Verona 18 (1916) 232-242.
6 Other Italians before Guarino went to Constantinople to learn Greek. In Guarino.
Epistolario ed. R. Sabbadini, I (Venice 1915-1919) 1, of ca. 1405, we hear of two-Carlo
Lottino and "Marcellus, a man long versed in Greek"-who were resident aliens. Lottino
and Guarino exchanged letters in Greek to improve each other's grasp of the language.
After Guarino, a fair number of other scholars, such as Filelfo (1420-27), visited Constanti-
nople but did so only after the advantages of knOWing Greek had become obvious through
the success of such men as Bruni and Guarino.
7 Cf H. Baron, Humanistic and Political Literature in Florence and Venice (Cambridge [Mass.]
1955) 114-125, "Bruni's development as a translator from the Greek."
 IAN THOMSON 65

ades, and embraced versions of Aeschines, Plutarch, Demosthenes,

and Aristotle. Already by 1418 he was able to boast in a letter: Tam
multa etiam ex Platone, Demosthene, Plutarcho, Xenophonte in latinum
traduximus. 8 His most important translations were those of the Ethica
(before 1416), foliUca (1438), and Oeconomica of Aristotle, Book 1 of the
(pseudo-) Aristotelian Oeconomica being completed on March 3, 1420,
and Book II being added between March 25,1420 and March 24, 1421. 9
Roberto Rossi also translated Aristotle, although his work was not as
influential as Bruni's. The only extant version by Rossi is that of
the Analytica Posteriora. 10 It is worth noting, however, that in 1411
Guarino praised Rossi's translations of Aristotle and spoke of them
as being in use throughout the "gymnasia" of Italy (Guarino,
Epistolario 1.6.12-24). Rossi may also have turned his hand to other
Greek authors, for in the dedication to the Analytica Posteriora he says:
Nec quod restet Platonis, com (sic) transtulerimus quaedam et alii alia, si
vita olim dabitur et transferendi facultas, negligemus. Tum etiam Thucy-
didem ... atque dignissimos alios aggrediemur. Rossi may therefore have
been somewhat more influential in his own time than has been sup-
posed, but his real Significance in cultural history rests upon his
collection of Greek manuscripts. l l
In 1404 Pier Paolo Vergerio wrote his famous essay De ingenuis
moribus et liberalibus studiis adolescentiae,12 the very title of which sug-
gested a break with the traditions of mediaeval education. Vergerio
proposed a return to the balanced, liberal curriculum of later Greek
education-in effect, to the so-called enkyklios paideia, although he
does not use that term-in which the individual's physical and mental
aptitudes were to be equally developed. By giving physical education
such prominence and by insisting that the cultivation of good morals
8 Leonardi Bruni Arretini Epistolarum Libri VIII, ed. L. Mehus, vol. II (Florence 1741) 231

(Ep. X.26).
9 For the date of the Oeconomica see Baron, op.cit. 120, 167-8. Other translations by Bruni
were: Aeschines' Pro Diopithe (1406), In Ctesiphontem (1412), De falsa legatione (before 1421);
Demosthenes' De Chersoneso (1405), De corona (1407), Olynthiacs I-III, De pace, De falsa lega-
tione (last three before 1421) and two Philippics (before 1444); Plato's Gorgias (1409), Crito
(1423/7), Apology (1424/8), Phaedrus (part, 1424), Epistulae (1427) and Symposium (part, 1435);
Xenophon's Hellenica and Apologia Socratis (both paraphrased before 1440). See Bolgar,
Classical Heritage 434-5.
10 Sabbadini reports that this translation is extant in the Marcian Library at Venice (codex
Marcianus latinus 2.231) and dates it posterior to 1406 (Guarino Epistolario III.13).
11 See R. Sabbadini, Le scoperte dei codici latini e greci ne' secoli XIV e XV, I (Florence 1905)

15,63.
12 Translated by W. H. Woodward in Vittorino da Fe1tre and Other Humanist Educators

(Cambridge [Eng.] 1905).

S+G.R.B.S.
66 CHRYSOLORAS AND THE EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

was the sovereign aim of education, Vergerio pointed the way that
Barzizza, Guarino and Vittorino were to follow. Admittedly so far as
intellectual training was concerned, his "revised" curriculum, con-
sisting of syntax, dialectic, rhetoric, poetry, music, mathematics,
astronomy, natural history, drawing, medicine, law, ethics, and
theology, is little more than a rehashed list of the subjects of the
mediaeval trivium and quadrivium; nor does Vergerio add any recom-
mendations as to how these subjects should be taught, or for how
long, or in what order. But he did show that a balanced education de-
signed to produce a whole man was desirable; and the inspirational
effect of this upon the great humanistic educators cannot be doubted.
What was implicit in Petrarch was explicit in Vergerio.
It is possible to argue, as Bolgar does (Classical Heritage 258) that
Vergerio' s treatise owes nothing to the teaching of Manuel Chryso-
loras and that "we may reasonably assume that he was putting on
paper the principles that had guided him throughout his career," but
there is no evidence to support such an assumption, except for a dis-
puted dating of the De ingenuis moribus,13 Vergerio spent most of his
life teaching logic, and never opened an independent school in which
he could have implemented his ideas. It is more reasonable to regard
the De ingenuis moribus as Vergerio's reaction to the teaching of
Chrysoloras, especially since he is able to cite Greek authorities
directly. It is hard not to sense an echo of Chrysoloras in Vergerio's
citation of Aristotle, Politica 8.3: erant autem quattuor quae pueros suos
Graeci docere consueverunt: litteras, luctativam, musicam et designativam,
for these words contain in essence the Greek concept of education as
mousike and gymnastike. Through Vergerio, then, Chrysoloras may be
said to have given educationalists in the West a new and clearer in-
spiration to implement the ideals of Greek education, which led to the
translation by Guarino in 1411 of Plutarch's De liberis educandis and the
remarkable experiments by Barzizza at Padua (1408-1420), Vittorino
at Mantua (1423-1446), and Guarino at Venice (1414-1419), Verona
(1420--1429), and Ferrara (1430--1460).14
13 C. A. Combi, Epistole di Pier Paolo Vergerio Seniore (Misc. Pub!. della R. Deputazione
Veneta di Storia Patria, SER. IV, V [Venice 1931] p. xix, dates it 1392. W. H. Woodward,
op.cit. 113, dates it 1404, and this is generally accepted.
14 These educators each interpreted Vergerio's general recommendations in his own way.
Barzizza and Guarino lectured on ancient texts from a linguistic and literary standpoint.
Vittorino attempted to cover all the subjects in Vergerio's list but did not teach all the sub-
jects himself. Barzizza neglected physical education. but all three sought to inculcate good
morals.
 IAN THOMSON 67

There can be no dispute, moreover, about the effect of Chrysoloras'

teaching methods upon Bruni, for the latter's De studiis et litteris
(ca. 1425)15 addressed to Battista Malatesta, daughter of the count of
Urbino, was the first detailed exposition of the new pedagogic tech-
nique that Chrysoloras had brought from Constantinople. This tech-
nique stressed accurate pronunciation, the use of mnemonics, constant
and regular revision of subject matter and the preparation of copious
notes under the headings of method ice (grammar, syntax and vocabu-
lary) and historice (what we should call "background material").
Bruni recommended minute attention to linguistic detail and imita-
tion of classical models through the use of these techniques. Chryso-
loras left no account of his methods, the culmination of centuries of
Byzantine experience, but we know what they were from Bruni's
treatise, and in even finer detail from Battista Guarino's De modo et
ordine docendi et discendi,16 which was read and approved by his father
Guarino in 1459. Guarino himself wrote nothing on educational
method save for sundry recommendations scattered throughout his
letters; the honor must go to Bruni for having been the first humanist
to summarize Chrysoloras' ideas in a convenient form.
Chrysoloras' work at Florence had yielded excellent fruit in Bruni,
Rossi and Verge rio, not to mention such minor contributions to learn-
ing as Jacopo Angeli da Scarperia's translations of Plutarch's lives of
Brutus (1400) and Cicero (1410) and Ptolemy's ChorographiaP But his
influence cannot be measured only in tangibles. Such men as Poggio,
Traversari, Salutati, Marsuppini, Niccoli and Palla Strozzi acquired, in
addition to some knowledge of Greek, a deeper understanding of
antiquity and an increased confidence in themselves. It would be mis-
taken to underestimate the force of this self-confidence in shaping the
political and humanistic literature that glorified Florence as true heir
of republican Rome and the champion of popular liberty in Italy.
Those pupils who benefited from Chrysoloras' instruction at
Florence naturally expressed their gratitude. One indication of the
value they attached to him was the fact that his salary was raised on
two occasions, the final sum in 1400 standing at 250 gold florins. More
important, however, was the devotion they expressed in letters, the
15 Leonardus Aretinus, De studiis et liUeris ed. H. Baron, in Leonardo Aretinos humanistische

und philosophische Schriften [Quellen zur Geistesgeschichte der Mittelalter und der Renais-
sance] I (Leipzig 1928) 7-10.
16 Translated by W. H. Woodward, op.cit.
17 See Guarino, Epistolario III pp. 18, 30.
68 CHRYSOLORAS AND THE EARLY IT ALlAN RENAISSANCE

literary form most favored by the humanists. Vergerio, for instance,

in a letter of 1406,18 deplores the possibly permanent loss of Chryso-
loras to students in Italy and refers to him as "the best and most
learned man whom your city (Florence) had called from the heart of
Greece to disseminate Greek studies in Italy" (Vergerio, Epistolario
p. 244). Poggio, too, was conscious of a deep personal debt to Chryso-
lor as and expressed as much in letters to other scholars. The same is
true of the other Florentine pupils, with the possible exception of
Niccoli.19 On the whole, however, the Florentines' praise of Chryso-
loras did not run to luxuriance. They were grateful for his willingness
to answer their call for a good teacher of Greek, and aware of the
benefits they had reaped from his instruction, but they did not make
a cult of him, as did Guarino. This may have been because they were
a proud breed of men, over-partial to their own achievements and
given to intellectual pretensions that often irritated the citizens of
other states. But more probably their political pre-occupations had
something to do with it. As Baron has pointed out, the dramatic
struggle in the war against Giangaleazzo Visconti produced a series of
humanistic works glorifying Florence and her political and cultural
heritage. The Florentine attitude to great men varied with the politi-
cal climate. For example, Salutati's treatise De Tyranno, written in
1400, was a defense of Julius Caesar and the rule of a single man, but
the Invectiva in Antonium Luscum Vicentinum shows that within the next
few years he had radically altered his opinions. 2o Again, in Bruni's
Dialogus ad Petrum Paulum Histrum I Niccoli is depicted as a militant
classicist with little time for Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, and Bruni
himself seems ranged on Niccoli's side, whereas in the Dialogus II, com-
posed about three years later, in 1403 or 1404, Bruni, Niccoli, and
Salutati join in defending the Trecento tradition. 21 As is well known,
Bruni later produced lives of Dante and Petrarch in Italian. The im-
mense pride felt by the Florentines in their cultural tradition may
18 Ep. 86 in Vergerio, Epistclario ed. L. Smith, in Fonti per la stcria d'Italia 74 (Rome 1934)
243-246. For the date, see Baron, Humanistic and Political Literature 107-113.
19 Niccoli seems to have been an ungracious man, who offended many of his contem-
poraries (see Sesto Prete, "Leonardi Bruni Aretini Carmen," CW 56 [1963] 280-83). It is difficult
to assess Niccoli, however, since he wrote very little. His only extant letter is one to Cosimo
dei Medici of March 20, 1426 (published in Le Carte Strozziane del R. Archivio di Stato in
Firenze SERIE PRIMA I [Florence 1884] 590). It was said that his jealousy drove Chrysoloras out
of Florence, but G. Zippel, Niccolo Niccoli (Florence 1890) 75-91, maintains that Niccoli's
malice was aimed at John Chrysoloras.
20 See E. Emerton, Humanism and Tyranny (Cambridge [Mass.] 1925) 25-70.
21 Cf Baron, Humanistic and Political Literature 124.
 IAN THOMSON 69

have detracted somewhat from their appreciation of Chrysoloras. It

certainly saved them from the excesses of Guarino da Verona.
Guarino did not begin his study of Greek until after Chrysoloras had
ceased to be active as a teacher in Italy. In March or April of 1403, the
latter had returned with the Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus to
Constantinople. zz Guarino followed him shortly afterwards,z3 and
studied under Manuel and his nephew John until about 1406. z4 Manuel
was absent for part of the time,z5 but one cannot doubt that his was
the guiding spirit of the school,z6 and that he made an overwhelming
impression upon his young Italian student. By the end of 1407, Manuel
moved permanently to the West 27 and Guarino returned to Italy in
1408. Thereafter, the two men seem to have remained in touch, al-
though at probably sporadic intervals. The extant correspondence
between them is limited to three letters,28 one in Latin from Guarino
and two in Greek from Chrysoloras. It is known, however, that they
met in Italy on at least two occasions. 29
In the first of Manuel's Greek letters, dated January, 1412, he con-
gratulates Guarino on his success in disseminating in Italy what he had
learned in Greece, and refers to the EVYKptUtS rijs 7TaAauxs Kat vEas
·pw/LTJs30 which Guarino had received from him in October of the
33 Cammelli, 123.
23 Sabbadini, La sCHola e gli studi di Guarino 10-11, maintained that Guarino sailed with
Chrysoloras and that he accompanied the imperial flotilla. But this view, still frequently
repeated, was disposed of in Guarino, Epistolario III p. 5, where Sabbadini pointed out that a
"magister Guarinus de Guarinis" appears in a list of witnesses to a Venetian document
dated August 21, 1403 (E. Bertanza and G. della Santa, Maestri, smole e scolari in Venezia fino
al 1500 [Venice 1907] 245, in Documenti per la storia della cultura in Venezia I); and Guarino
himself says that he went to Constantinople at the expense and under the guidance of
Paolo Zane (Epistolario II.758.25-33; 873.14-19). .
24 Except where otherwise noted, I rely for events in Guarino's life on Sabbadini, "Vita
di Guarino da Verona," Giornale ligustico 18 (1891).
25 He was in Venice in December, 1404, spent most of 1405 in Constantinople, returned to
Italy before January, 1406, and was home again by the end of that year (Cammelli, 140-142).
26 It is difficult to determine if it was a school in the regular sense. F. Fuchs, Die hoheren
Schulen von Konstantinopel im Mitrelalter (Leipzig-Berlin 1926, repro Amsterdam 1964) sheds
no light on the question. The school may, after all, have been only a coterie of scholars who
gathered at the house of the Chrysolorae, and Guarino need not have been a pupil in the
regular sense.
37 Cammelli, 140-145.
28 Guarino, Epistolario I, Ep. 7, 9 and 11, of October, 1411; January, 1412; and July, 1412,

respectively. Ep. 7 opens: Quod si rariores Jortasse quam velles a me litteras acdpis ...
29 In Ep. 11, Chrysoloras talks of a meeting with Guarino, which Sabbadini guesses took

place at Florence in April, 1411 (Epistolario III p. 18). The other meeting occurred when
Guarino accompanied Chrysoloras on a journey from Bologna to Venice in July, 1414, re-
ferred to in one of Guarino's commentarioli published by Sabbadini in La smola e gli studi 173.
30 Published in Scriptores historiae bizantinae (Paris 1655) 107. Actually a Greek work, it is
sometimes referred to by the Latin title Epistulae III de comparatione veteris et novae Romae.
70 CHRYSOLORAS AND THE EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

previous year (Guarino, Epistolario 1.7). It appears that Guarino had

been distributing copies of this work-a comparison between Rome
and Constantinople, designed in essence to foster good relations be-
tween the East and West-throughout Northern Italy. Chrysoloras
was signally grateful for this service, but Guarino probably felt that
he was only fulfilling the demands of pietas. Most humanists felt
obliged to spread the fame of their friends and teachers as widely as
possible. 3! For that reason, Guarino rarely missed an opportunity,
both during and after Chrysoloras' lifetime, of reminding his fellow
scholars in letters, conversation, orations, and lectures of their debt
to Chrysoloras. 32
It is noteworthy, however, that in his correspondence, in which the
bulk of these tributes appears, Guarino seldom refers to Chrysoloras
specifically as a teacher of Greek, but rather as the one man most re-
sponsible for the restoration of the "best studies" to Italy. By "best
studies" (optima studia), the "rebirth of letters" (renata humanitas) and
other such expressions the humanists-and Guarino was no exception
-generally meant that critical approach to the content of ancient
literature and the close, prescriptive study of classical Latin 33 which
we associate with the Revival of Learning. At first sight, then, Guari-
no's praise seems paradoxical, for Chrysoloras' reputation in cultural
history rests upon his success as a teacher of Greek. It is known that he
never mastered Latin as well as did some of the Greek emigres later
in the fifteenth century,34 and certainly could never have taught it at
a professorial level to Italians. Guarino must have been thinking more
31 Cf Guarino, Epistolario 1.7.68-70: Est vero benignum et plenum ingenui pudoris fateri per
quos proftceris, ut conterraneus meus Plinius ait, an echo of Pliny, NH Praefatio 21. Examples of
this sentiment in humanistic literature could be multiplied.
32 See in particular Guarino, Epistolario I, Ep. 7, 25, 27, 47, 49, 54; II. Ep. 861,862,863,864,

865, 866, 867, 892, 893.

33 Among the humanists the prescriptive study of classical models was more marked in
Latin scholarship than in Greek, pOSSibly because there was no dominant model for Attic
prose, such as Cicero was bound to be for classical Latin. It is true, as Geanakoplos points
out in Greek Scholars in Venice 292, that the Greeks in Italy" emphasized reading, memoriza-
tion and imitation of the style of the original texts" and that Plato, Aristotle and Plutarch
emerged as the authors most generally imitated; but the Atticizing movement did not
appear in Italy until the Greeks had established themselves there by the middle and latter
part of the fifteenth century. With the exception of Guarino and Filelfo, the early humanists
confined their writing of Greek to a few safe snippets-usually direct quotations-with
which to decorate their Latin letters; and even the few samples of Original Greek com-
position by Guarino and Filelfo strike one as influenced by the habits of Latin syntax and
markedly un-Attic.
34 The one extant Latin letter by Chrysoloras is poorly composed (Sabbadini, "L'ultimo
ventennio della vita di M. c." 330). In Lombardy he produced a Latin version of Plato's
 IAN THOMSON 71

of the good effect that Chrysoloras had exerted upon classical studies
in general. He believed, undoubtedly, that Chrysoloras had given the
Italians much more than a narrow specialty. Further, he believed that
a proper understanding of Latin could not be achieved without a
knowledge of Greek. To illustrate both of these points, three quota-
tions will perhaps suffice.
The first is from a letter written by Guarino in 1452: Quae illius
(Chrysoloras) cura et diligentia latas adeo sparsit per Italiae regna radices
grandesque et uberes fructus disseminavit, ut Italorum studia immo vero
Latinitatis disciplina cuncta quae dudum per inextricabiles vagabantur um-
bras et errores, Chrysolorae ductu et luminis accensione illustrata et directa
perdurent (Guarino, Epistolario 11.861.45-49). The second occurs in a
letter to his son, Niccolo: Longa itaque desuetudine infuscatus ante latinus
sermo et inquinata dictio Chrysolorinis fuerat pharmacis expurganda et ad-
moto lumine illustranda (Guarino, Epistolario 11.862.68-70). The third
quotation is from a letter of Guarino's youngest son, Battista, and it
shows, incidentally, how thoroughly he had absorbed his father's
veneration for Chrysoloras: Nam cum graecas ipse (Chrysoloras) doceret,
a qUibus nostrae, ut Quintilianus ait, e.1Jluxere tunc demum nostri veram
latinarum cognitionem habere easque cognoscendo exercere et in lucem re-
vocare coeperunt (Guarino, Epistolario 1I.863.134-137). It seems that both
Guarino and his son thought that the Latin and Greek languages, not
merely their literatures (which is certainly what Quintilian meant in
De Institutione Oratoria I.1.12), are more intimately related than modern
philologists would concede; but this does not invalidate the point that
to them Chrysoloras appeared to have made possible a fuller under-
standing of the Latin tongue itself. It was natural for Guarino to see
the spread of Greek as marking the dawn of a new era in Latin studies
and to invest Chrysoloras with a special significance, as not merely
having supplied a knowledge of Greek, but also the humanizing spirit
and sovereign stimulus needed to rouse Italian scholarship out of its
long sleep.

Republic, but the style had ro be improved by Uberro Decembrio and later by Pier Candido
Decembrio (Cammelli, 16, 123). The later Greeks Theodorus Gaza, Musurus, Bessarion,
Lascaris, and Georgius Trapezuntius were excellent Latin scholars (Geanakoplos, Greek
Scholars in Venice 299). The latter, for example, had only primorum elementorum confusa cog-
nitio in 1418 (Guarino, Epistolario II.707.36-37) but by 1434 knew enough Latin to produce
his impressive Rhetoricorum libri V (publ. Basle 1522).
 72 CHRYSOLORAS AND THE EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

Guarino's insistence that Chrysoloras had been the harbinger of a

new age did not go without notice. In the first place, his prestige as a
scholar enabled him to command the attention of the educated public.
Although his letters were not collected and edited for publication in
his own century, they were nevertheless passed around as models of
style and collectors' items. 35 Any praise of Chrysoloras contained in
them was thereby assured of a fairly wide circulation. This helped to
keep the name of Chrysoloras alive in the later fifteenth century and
brought it again to the fore in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
when Guarino's letters began to be collected and published in small
batches. 36 Second, and perhaps more important, is the fact that from
1436 at least, Guarino was the most influential teacher in Italy, if not
in Europe. 37 He was in a unique position to pass on his reminiscences
to large numbers of young students who could never have seen or met
Chrysoloras. Some of these pupils were inevitably affected by
Guarino's admiration for Chrysoloras and referred to him in their own
writings. For example, Janus Pannonius describes him thus in his
Sylva Panegyrica ad Guarinum 135-139:
Vir fuit hic patrio Chrysoloras nomine dictus,
candida Mercurio quem Calliopaea crearat,
nutrierat Pallas, nec solis ille parentum
clarus erat studiis, sed rerum protinus omnem
naturam magna complexus mente tenebat.
These lines, written in 1454 when the poet was still a young man, seem
remarkably like an echo of Guarino's words in the lecture room
or around the supper table. Examples of such tralatitious praise
of Chrysoloras are not uncommon in the writings of Guarino's pupils.

35Guarino, Bpistolaria III pp. vii-x.

36Ibid. pp. i-iii.
37 For the popularity of his teaching at Ferrara, see Janus Pannonius, Sylva Panegyrica ad
Guarinum (Venice 1553) 320-321:
Curritur ad bifidi suavissima jlumina fontis,
atria nec capiunt studiasas ampla catervas
and 339-341 :
Omnis conditio, sexus simul omnis et aetas
accelerant, plebi stipatur curia, mixti
primaevis cani, maribus sedere puellae.
Lodovico Carbone says much the same in his funeral speech on Guarino published by
E. Garin in La letteratura italiana: Storia e testi, XIII: Prosatori latini del quattrocento (Milan
1952) 382-416 (see especially pp. 392, 394).
 IAN THOMSON 73

Shortly after Chrysoloras' death, Vergerio suggested to the Venetian

Niccolo Leonardi, a physician with humanistic leanings, that their
common friend, Guarino, ought to write a formal commemoratio of the
great Byzantine. Guarino, however, claimed that his own powers were
unequal to such an undertaking, and referred it to Verge rio himself
(Guarino, Epistolario 1.25). Verge rio composed a very fine epitaph,38
and the Venetian Andrea Zulian wrote a funeral speech which had a
wide circulation and is extant in many manuscripts. 39 The lack of
some worthwhile memorial to Chrysoloras, however, weighed upon
the consciences of his pupils and friends for many years. Guarino, for
example, wrote in July, 1416, to Giacomo dei Fabbri: "Many a time I
have set myself to write a splendid work in praise of this man ... for
I think it unfair and a mark of ingratitude that he whose industry
helped us not merely to speak but to speak with eloquence, should be
immersed in silence ... but I am overwhelmed by the amount there
is to say and the importance of the subject, and I give up." He goes on
to praise the funeral speech by Zulian, and concludes: "After Zulian,
silence would seem the better course, unless one had a mind to unfold
in detail the life of the aforesaid Manuel from the cradle up" (Guarino,
Epistolario 1.54). No one, however, wrote the projected biography,
perhaps because details of Chrysoloras' earlier life were lacking,40 but
more likely because most scholars did not consider him important
enough to warrant a detailed biography. It is perhaps surprising that
Guarino never fulfilled his own suggestion. Poggio shared something
of Guarino's hero worship of Chrysoloras, and as late as June, 1455,
was still sufficiently disturbed by his own failure to write at length in
praise of Chrysoloras that he confessed to Guarino: "As to your writ-
ing of a rumor that I had composed a laudation of the late brilliant
and learned gentleman, Manuel Chrysoloras-I wish it were true !"41
38 Guarino, Ep. 1.54, 77-84: Ante aram situs est dominus Manuel Chrysoloras, eques Constantino-
politanus ex vetusto genere Romanorum qui cum Constantino imperatore migrarunt : vir doctissimus
prudentissimus optimus, qui tempore generalis concilii Constantiensis diem obiit ea existimatione ut ab
omnibus summa sacerdotio dignus haberetur. XVI Kalendas maias conditus est anno Incarnati
Verbi MCCCCXV. Sabbadini notes in his apparatus criticus that the actual inscription reads
Chrissolora miles for Chrysoloras eques and die XV aprilis conditus est MCCCCXV for XVI
Kalendas maias conditus est anna Incarnati Verbi MCCCCXV. Poggio also wrote an epitaph
for Chrysoloras (lovii Elogia [Venice 1546] p. 16).
39 It was published by Don A. Calogera. Raccolta d'opuscoli XXV (Venice 1728-57) 325ff.
&0 Perhaps for the same reason. Cammelli concentrates on the period after 1397, in which
year Chrysoloras was in his mid-forties. The Vita Chrysolorae by Pontico Virunio in Chryso-
loras' Erotemata (Venice 1502) is so short as scarcely to merit consideration.
&l Poggii Epistulae ed. T. Tonelli, III (Florence 1832) 178. In the same letter, Poggio says:

Laudas-sem ilium (Chrysoloras) cum defunctus esset Constantie; ego autem otiosus essem, si licuisset
5*
74 CHRYSOLORAS AND THE EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

Guarino did, however, make some reparation by collecting a series of

works about Chrysoloras, which he edited and disseminated in 1452
under the title of Chrysolorina. 42 This collection helped to preserve the
fame of Chrysoloras, as did the fact that his Erotemata, a Greek gram-
mar that followed the usual method of question and answer, con-
tinued to be widely used until well into the sixteenth century. Its first
printing was at Venice in 1484, but it had been used in manuscript
long before that; in fact, until the publication of Constantine Lascaris'
Erotemata at Milan in 1476, it had been the sole Greek grammar in
general use in Italy.43
In a letter to Verge rio in 1415 Guarino remarks that Chrysoloras
had provided the perfect example to follow in leading "the good and
blessed life," and even advances the extravagant notion that if Homer
had been fortunate enough to have had Chrysoloras as his hero in the
Iliad instead of the bloodthirsty and uncouth Achilles, he would have
been inspired to write a better poem (Guarino, Epistolario I.27.28-29
and 45) ! Ludicrous as this may seem to us, Guarino probably meant it
seriously, for he subscribed to the ancient and mediaeval notion that
the aim of literature is moral edification and for that reason inter-
preted the Aeneid and the Homeric epics allegorically. Thirty-eight
years later, Guarino's devotion had not been diminished, for in com-
plimenting his son Battista on a literary sketch of Chrysoloras he says:
"You set him before my eyes in such a way that as I behold Manuel's
stature, expression, beard, complexion, mannerisms, and the whole
set of his body, I almost shout for joy, <even such his eyes and hands,
and such the face he showed'."44 It is not perhaps surprising that a man
capable of such loyalty should have exaggerated his master's true
importance.
It is interesting to note that in the entire epistolary of Guarino, which
runs to over 700 letters from him and about 200 from others to him,
there is no mention of Dante or Boccaccio, and only one passing ref-
per Cincium romanum eiusdem discipulum, qui eius laudandi munus sibi desumpsit-sed et ipse
nihil edidit et mihi scribendi sustulit facultatem.
U It comprised the letters listed in n.32, two other letters now lost, the funeral speech by
Zulian, and two of Guarino's Commentarioli about Chrysoloras (Guarino, Epistolario III. 460).
'3 Geanakoplos, Greek Scholars in Venice 286.
u Epistolario II.864.24-27. There is no detailed description of Chrysoloras' appearance in
humanistic literature, but one gathers that it was majestic. Girolamo Guarino refers to him
thus: veneranda corporis dignitate qua praestitit ... veste pretiosa qua fuit usus . .. opibus amp lis
qui bus floruit (Guarino, Epistolario 11.865.26-27). Battista Guarino says that Chrysoloras was
of medium height, had a red beard, fresh compleXion, and a cheerful, yet serious
expression (Ibid. II.863.55-70).
 IAN THOMSON 75

erence to Petrarch (Guarino, Epistolario 11.826.19-20). Any reader of

Guarino's letters must be struck by the fact that he was either blind
to or willfully ignorant of the achievements of scholars in the fifteenth
century. Presumably he had read some at least ofPetrarch's works, but
his silence prompts one to conclude that he did not consider them
important. Nor does he ever mention that other great precursor of
the Renaissance, the celebrated Giovanni Conversino da Ravenna, to
whom he probably owed a great dea1. 45 Typical of Guarino's patroniz-
ing attitude to scholars of the previous century is the sneer he casts at
the Latin style ofSalutati's mentor, Pietro da MugHo: Adeo enim inepte,
obscure et inusitate dicit, ut non tam loqui quam mugire videatur. 46 There is
here a play upon "Muglio" and mugire. The fact is that to Guarino and
many of those he influenced, their predecessors seemed little better
than cattle lowing in the darkness. The figure of Chrysoloras, by con-
trast, assumed the proportions of a colossus ushering in a new and
better age.
Historical perspective has enabled us to assess Chrysoloras' con-
tribution to learning more accurate! y. His instruction in Greek
certainly led to the translations made by the Florentine pupils and by
Guarino,47 and in a less direct way helped to stimulate the recovery
of lost manuscripts 48 and the study of Latin; but it could be argued
that these advances would have been made in any case. Further, there
was a demand for Greek in Florence and if the Florentines had not
secured Chrysoloras they would probably have found some other
teacher of Greek. If Chrysoloras made a unique contribution to the
humanistic movement, it surely lay in the protreptic force of his per-
sonality and the educational methods to which he introduced the
45 He definitely seems to have taught a notarial course to Guarino at Padua in the early
1390'S. He is frequently confused with Giovanni dei Malpaghini da Ravenna, the teacher at
Florence and one-time amanuensis ofPetrarch, since both men are commonly called "John
of Ravenna" in English, or "Giovanni da Ravenna" in Italian. This confusion would not
arise ifhe were referred to as "John of Bud a," after the place of his birth. See E. M. Cosenza,
Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary of the Italian Humanists V (Boston 1962) col. 934.
46 Epistolario 1.34.57-59. For Pietro da Muglio see E. Wilkins, Life of Petrarch (Chicago
1962) 188, 193, 250.
47 Up to 1416, Guarino had translated Lucian's Calumnia, Plutarch's De pueris educandis
and lives of Flaminius, Marcellus, Alexander, Caesar, Coriolanus, Dion and Brutus (Episto-
lario 1.47.88-93); Isocrates' In Nicoclem (Epistolario III p. 6) and (pseudo-) Isocrates' Ad
Demonicum (Epistolario 1.2).
48 All the important discoveries were made by 1430 and the best of them, with the ex-
ception of the codex Ursinianus of Plaut us and Tacitus' Agricola, Germania, and Dialogus, by
1422. For a convenient list of the discoveries, see Raoul Morc;ay, La Renaissance I (Paris 1933)
18-19.
76 CHRYSOLORAS AND THE EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

Italians. He obviously used those methods in his teaching at Florence,

because Bruni refers to them, but none of his pupils there, except for
Vergerio, was a practising teacher, and if Guarino had not passed on
the methods to Vittorin0 49 and others they might not have become
widespread; but as it was, thousands of students in the Renaissance
were enabled to absorb massive amounts of grammar, syntax and
cultural background. The fountain-head of all this activity was
Chrysoloras. Bolgar is surely right when he says that in the last anal-
ysis the difference between the age of Petrarch and that of Guarino
was "the appearance and widespread adoption of a pedagogic tech-
nique" (Classical Heritage 268).
It remains to ask why Chrysoloras came as a teacher to Italy. The
answer seems obvious: he came because the Florentines wanted a
teacher of Greek. But this explanation may be altogether too facile. In
what follows, I hope to indicate that Chrysoloras may have had a
political motive aside from his teaching activities.
Chrysoloras first came to Italy in 1394 to implore aid for the Eastern
Empire in its struggle against the Turks. The diplomatic mission
failed, but his intellectual verve and interest in education attracted
favorable notice in Florence. In 1395, Coluccio Salutati sent Jacopo
Angeli da Scarperia to Constantinople to contact Chrysoloras. 5o On
March 28, 1396, Salutati wrote Chrysoloras with a definite offer of
employment. Chrysoloras accepted, and arrived at Venice in August,
1396, and at Florence on February 2, 1397. He remained in Florence
for almost three years. So much for the external circumstances of his
visit. We should, however, examine what his real inducements were,
or could have been. Did he come out of an altruistic desire to intro-
duce the Greek alphabet to Florentine bankers, or did he have some
deeper purpose in mind? To find the answer, we must examine first
the political situation at Constantinople and second Chrysoloras' own
position there.
The political scene in 1395 was dark indeed. 51 Osman's victory over
the Empire in 1301 at Baphaion had secured vast areas of its Asian
territories for the Turks. His successor, Orhan (1326-1362), had by
1340 advanced the banners ofIslam right up to the Empire in Europe.
"Vittorino was Guarino's pupil at Venice from 1418-1419.
50 See Roberto Weiss, "Jacopo Angeli da Scarperia c. 1360-1410," Medioevo e RilU1Scimento,
studi in onore di Bruno Nardi II (Florence 1955) 803-837.
51 See Bernard Lewis, Istanbul and the Civili{ation of the Ottoman Empire (Norman 1963)
dt.1.
 IAN THOMSON 77
In 1345, John VI Cantacuzenus fought a civil war with John Palaeo-
logus, in which he used Turkish mercenaries, who went home with
tales of the riches to be had by further conquest. Murad I (1362-1389)
took the hint and attacked the Balkans. Following a victory at Kosovo
Polje, by 1389 the Turks had control of Serbia. By 1394, Bayezid I ruled
practically all of what had been the Eastern Roman Empire, except
for Constantinople itself. He declared himself "Sultan of Rum," thus
laying claim to the throne of the Caesars; and in 1395 he began to
blockade Constantinople.
The ruling classes of Constantinople knew that the empire must
find armed support or perish. The only aid they could hope to get lay
in the West. But East and West in the old Roman Empire had been
politically divorced since A.D. 476, and now the Holy Roman Emperor
of the West had too many problems of his own to be concerned with
what probably seemed to him and the other great powers of Europe
a meaningless, sentimental appeal for rescue. Much more serious than
the political division was the Great Schism between Rome and the
Eastern Church, which had existed since 1054. The Papacy was obdu-
rate in its claim for spiritual supremacy and would neither end the
schism nor do much in the way of inciting political assistance except at
its own price, which was total submission. To those who were
genuinely of the Eastern persuasion, this was repugnant.
There were men in the West far-sighted enough to realize that the
safety of Constantinople was strategically important to the West, but
they were unable to make their voices heard with enough authority.
It was therefore left to the East to take the initiative. The obvious move
was to send embassies, such as the one in which Chrysoloras partici-
pated in 1394, to ask for troops or money. The situation was desperate
enough for the Emperor himself to come in 1400, and he spent two
years touring the courts of Europe in a vain attempt to drum up sup-
port. The West had proved notoriously laggard in responding to
straight appeals for help. Something more than arguments and
appeals was needed, and I believe that Salutati's invitation to Chryso-
loras may have suggested a secondary approach to him and his friend
the Emperor.
It would encourage them to find a spark of interest in things Greek
in Florence, for in general the Western Europeans were ignorant of or
indifferent to Greek culture. But would they not also be quick to see
in Salutati's invitation an opportunity to promote Eastern interests?
78 CHRYSOLORAS AND THE EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

If someone, somehow, could convince the right people in the West

that the East had something worth saving-the entire heritage of
Greek learning-then perhaps help would be forthcoming.
Florence was a major power and virtually the financial capital of
Europe, with an influence out of all proportion to her size. Further,
some of the financial magnates, such as Palla Strozzi, were the very
men who were showing an interest in Greek. Strozzi and Salutati him-
self, the chancellor of the republic, were Chrysoloras' chief sponsors.
Chrysoloras was a diplomat, a patriot and a scholar; he could not have
failed to appreciate the possible advantages of conciliating such men.
Admittedly, one is here in the realm of speculation-there is no
evidence that Chrysoloras ever discussed the matter with Manuel
Palaeologus but it would seem so obvious a move that one must
suppose that such a conference took place.
The suggestion that Chrysoloras' visit was politically inspired seems
even more plausible when one considers his social position in Con-
stantinople. He was of noble rank and had access to court; he was the
acknowledged head of a coterie of scholars who met in his beautiful
house with its cypresses and hanging garden; he was neither poor nor
unsuccessful. All this we know from the reminiscences of his pupil,
Guarino. 52
The financial inducement of 150 gold florins could hardly have been
enought to tempt a man in middle age to leave a comfortable home,
a flourishing school, high social standing and the company of kindred
spirits in the most civilized city in Europe, and commit himself to a
teaching post he did not require in a foreign land whose manners and
religion were alien to his whole background. There is no indication
that he knew Italian, although he had taught himself Latin as an aid
to diplomacy. Anyone who expected to deal with the West would
naturally learn Latin. 53
The original terms offered in February, 1396, were a salary of
100 gold florins and a ten-year contract. Chrysoloras stipulated 150
gold florins and a five-year contract. 54 The raise of salary can be ex-
plained as a "prestige" increase, but why a five-year contract? The
tendency with emigres is to provide long-term security for themselves.

52See in particular Epistolario 1.25: also Girolamo Guarino's words (n.46 above).
53Geanakoplos, Greek Scholars in Venice 47 n.48: "We know that Planudes was sent to
Venice because he knew Latin."
54 See Cammelli, 40-41.
 IAN THOMSON 79

Could it have been that he had no wish to commit himself for ten
years to what might prove an abortive undertaking? Another condi-
tion imposed by Chrysoloras was the right to teach students in his
own home rather than from a public platform in the university. Does
this not suggest that he wanted a more intimate relationship with
small groups of leading citizens? To convert them was to convert the
effective power of Florence to the Greek cause; and how better to
proselytize than in the congenial atmosphere of a home? Chrysoloras
does not seem to have been much interested in uninfluential students.
In coming to Florence, moreover, he must have realized the risk of
lowering his social status-a risk one would scarcely take whose
motives were not strong. Patriotism and loyalty to his emperor, I
believe, were his motives. Manuel Palaeologus could not have chosen
a better emissary to win over the West on the cultural front, for
Chrysoloras united in himself the best of Greek scholarship with the
sharpest of Byzantine diplomacy.
His three years in Florence led to a stir of interest in Greek but not
in the Greek cause. It seems to me, indeed, that he left Florence when
he finally realized his failure to arouse the kind of support his country
needed. Before his five-year contract had expired he left Florence on
March 10, 1400, despite every effort on the part of the citizens to keep
him, and virtually defected to the court of Giangaleazzo Visconti, the
bitterest enemy of Florence.
Why did he leave? It used to be said that Niccoli's jealousy drove
him out; but this reason is derived from invectives against Niccoli by
other humanists,55 and evidence drawn from invectives is always
questionable. Besides, the carpings of one malcontent would hardly
have been enough to drive Chrysoloras into the arms of Giangaleazzo
Visconti, who had a reputation for being himself a ferocious individual.
Vergerio attributed Chrysoloras' departure to <Cfear of the onrushing
wars," but Cammelli (pp. 100-101) dismisses this. Nor could plague
have been to blame. Admittedly, one occurred in Florence at the end
of 1399, from which Chrysoloras took shelter in the villa of Palla
Strozzi. But he then went on to Pavia, which at that time was also
stricken. 56 Guarino tells us that Chrysoloras went to Pavia because

55 See n.19 above.

56 The studio had moved to Piacenza in 1398 because of plague at Pavia and did not return
until 1403 (Magenta, I Visconti e gli Sforza nel castello di Pavia I [Milan 1883] 252; II 85, 87;
also R. Maiocchi, Cod ice diplomatico nell' universitd di Pavia I [1905] 392, 408).
80 CHRYSOLORAS AND THE EARLY ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

"the duke himself was unbelievably desirous of glory" (Epistolario

II.862.78-79), a rather vague reason which can only be half the story.
Giangaleazzo was the rising power in Italy in 1400 and seemed
poised to wrest power and prestige from Florence. Perhaps Chryso-
loras reasoned that where he had failed in Tuscany he might succeed
in Lombardy; and this accords with CammelIi's statement (p. 128)
that the real reason for Chrysoloras' departure was the arrival of the
Greek emperor in Italy. If Chrysoloras' primary purpose had been to
teach the Florentines Greek, his loyalty would have been to his pupils.
Instead, he broke his contract and placed himself under the protection
of their worst foe.
His subsequent career was almost entirely that of a diplomat. He
did not remain constantly in Pavia from 1400-1402 but moved around
in Lombardy trying to raise support for the emperor, for whose re-
turn he was paving the way. Cammelli points out (p. 117) that he re-
mained in constant touch with the emperor, and also states: "Possia-
mo d'altra parte stabilire per mezzo di prove sicure che ... 1'impera-
tore 10 avera chiamato con uno scopo ben diverso, quello cioe di
trovare in lui un efficace cooperatore alIa missione per cui egli stesso
si era deciso ad intraprendere il viaggio, e venuto in Italia, suI punto di
partime per la Francia, gli aveva affidato il preciso incarico di racco-
gliere denaro e procurare aiuti di ogni genere alIa patria per la lotta
contro il Turco."57
When Giangaleazzo Visconti died unexpectedly in September, 1402,
Chrysoloras seems to have lost interest in remaining in Lombardy.
The Florentines would have welcomed him back, but he had no de-
sire to continue as a teacher in Italy. Manuel Palaeologus arrived in
Venice about March 21, 1403, and was joined by Chrysoloras. Dis-
appointed in their hopes, they returned to their capital.
In the next twelve years, Chrysoloras travelled extensively in
Europe on diplomatic missions. From 1407-10 he visited Venice,
Genoa, Paris, London, Salisbury, Spain and Bologna; from 1411-13 he
was based in Rome but visited Florence with Pope John XXIII; in 1413
he was sent to the Emperor Sigismund to select a place for the Church
Council, rejoined the Pope at Florence in 1414 and arrived in Constance
as representative of the Greek Church on October 28 of that year.

57 See also Guarino, Epistolario III p. 462, where Sabbadini comments that Chrysoloras
went to Lombardy to win sympathy for the Greeks against the Turks.
 IAN THOMSON 81

Andrea Zulian tells us in the funeral speech that Chrysoloras in-

variably refused the offers of European princes to live with them;
after visiting almost all the courts of Europe he returned to Greece
"preferring to fulfill his true task, which was to save his country from
danger rather than give delight to Italy."58 It seems that his true pur-
poses in Italy were an open secret to the discerning. It might also be
added that Vergerio's phrase "fear of the onrushing wars" could easily
refer to Chrysoloras' growing anxiety over the imminent threat from
the Turks to Constantinople.
One cannot leave this matter without dealing with his conversion
to the Latin rite at the end of 1405. Dr. Baron (p. 111) cites a letter of
Vergerio of 1406 in which Chrysoloras is mentioned as wanting to
become a Latin: cum cupiat esse Latinus. It seems better to interpret
this not as a desire to become a permanent resident of Italy but as a
willingness to celebrate mass according to the Latin rite. At the end of
1405, Chrysoloras applied from Constantinople-his location is per-
haps significant-for permission of Pope Innocent VII to take holy
orders in the Western Church. His conversion was perhaps sincere,
but it is also possible to see it as yet another conciliatory move to win
favor in the West. If so, it was well-timed, for in 1406 Gregory XII took
his famous oath to end the Great Schism. Chrysoloras was, after all, a
famous man in Italy and a servant of the Eastern Crown, so that his
submission could have been expected to oil the wheels of diplomacy.
It need not surprise one that Chrysoloras could have indulged in an
act of political expediency. Friedrich Heer has discussed political ex-
pediency on the part of the East and lists a number of political con-
versions to Rome. 59 Could Chrysoloras have been encouraged by the
Eastern Emperor to gain the confidence of the Western Church? It is
perhaps rash to speculate whether his eventual aim was the Papacy
itself;60 but anything could have happened in the melting pot at
Constance, and in this connection it is worth pondering Vergerio's
words in the epitaph for Chrysoloras: "He died at the time of the
General Council of Constance in such esteem that he was considered
by all fit for the supreme office of priesthood." This may have been
merely a pretty compliment, or it may reflect a genuine feeling at
Constance that Chrysoloras would have made a good pope. It is
58 Cited by Rosmini, La vita e disdplina di Guarino I 67.
59 The Mediaeval World (Eng. trans. Mentor Books, 1962) 128-130.
60 A Greek Cretan, Alexander V, had been elected pope in 1409 at the Council of Pisa.
82 CHRYSOLORAS AND THE EARLY ITALlAN RENAISSANCE

interesting to wonder what might have happened had Chrysoloras

been elected.
The evidence, though largely circumstantial, is enough to make us
consider a political motivation for Chrysoloras' visit, which we should
view against the wider background of international affairs. No doubt
Chrysoloras derived some satisfaction from his teaching activities in
Italy, but his chief purpose may well have been, as Andrea Zulian
says, "to save his country from danger rather than give delight to
Italy."

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

January, 1966