1. Greek Scholarship in the 15th
Century

2. Bassarion
• Cardinal Bessarion (1403-72)
born in Trebizond and
educated in Constantinople
• He became a monk in 1423
• He studied to a freethinker
George Gemistus Plethon.
• Plethon introduced him to the
emperors, then he is
employed on government
business.
• In 1438 He became a
cardinal and resided
permanently in Italy
• His house in Rome was a
centre of literary activity.

3. Politian • Politian (1454-94) is a Greek
bishop who settled in Italy
and whose scholarly activity
was devoted mainly to
theology and philosophy.
• He is famous as a poet in his
vernacular language and in
Latin, but was equally
distinguished as a scholar.
• Politian has an interesting
analogy in the Hellenistic
world
• His works include several
translations from the Greek.

4. The First Printed Greek Texts

5. Aldus Manutius
• The new art of printing in
15th to 17th century are
difficult to design a suitable
founts.
• Some of the early printers
produce expensive and
unsatisfactory in
appearance.
• The lack of demand for
Greek texts in sufficient
numbers makes a difficulty.
• Aldus Manutius (1449-
1515) had the idea of
setting up a publishing
house primarily for the

6. Marcus
• Cretan Marcus Musurus
Musurus (c. 1470-1517) was a
great scholar.
• He helps Aldine in
publishing many Greek
books.
• He corrects many
mistakes and errors in
old manuscripts.
• He was very smart and
had linguistic
competence.
• Unfortunately, his
contributions to classical

7. Erasmus (c. 1469-1536)

8. • Erasmus was also a figure who
Erasmus commands attention.
• In 1506, He went to Italy to improve
his knowledge. Then he made a
contact with Aldus.
• They collaborated together in
publishing Adagia, a collection of
proverbs with accompanying
comments and the Enchiridion militis
Christiani, in which the blunt
expression of his view of piety had
caused some offence to ecclesiastical
authorities.
• Much later in his career he wrote a
pamphlet on the correct pronunciation
of Greek, which led to the widespread