Intellectual Routes of the Greeks Volume I 13th to mid-16th

Intellectual Routes explores the role of written documents in the transmission of knowledge and education among the Greek-speaking population and the gradual formation of national conscience, from the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the years preceding the Greek War of Independence of 1821-1829.

This is the first volume of the series and deals with the teaching of Greek language and literature in Italy, and later on in Northern Europe, and its crucial place in the humanist movement which developed from the mid-14th century. Specific questions include the search and collection of Greek manuscripts by Byzantine and Italian scholars, translations, the debate over the primacy of Plato over Aristotle or vice versa, the establishment of the Greek chair at the University of Padua and the role of the printed book in spreading Classical Greek and Byzantine literature.

Finally, special attention is given to the part played by the Church, that is, the three Patriarchates of the East and the monastic centres (Mount Athos and Meteora), which offered a safe haven to the intellectual world and the role of codex copyists in preserving and passing down the cultural tradition.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CHAPTER I
From the Capture of Constantinople in 1204
to the Fall of the City in 1453
Political and religious liberties,
economy, migration

Historical and ideological context

Byzantine states
The Empire of Nicaea
The Empire of Trebizond
Intellectual life
The library of the Academy
The Despotate of Epirus
Intellectual centres
The School of Philanthropenon Monastery
The Empire of Thessalonica

Latin kingdoms
The Kingdom of Cyprus
Venetian rule
Characteristics of intellectual life
Mainland Greece
Principality of Achaea
The “Catalan plague”
Venetian territories
Crete
Euboea, Sporades islands and the “Duchy of the Aegean”
Dodecanese
Chios
Lesbos
Ionian islands
Corfu
Cephalonia, Ithaca, Zakynthos
Lefkada
Cythera
Rhodes
The siege and fall of Rhodes (1522)
Greek presence in Southern Italy and Sicily

Cultural influence of the Latins in Greece

Administration and finances in the territories ruled
by the Venetians and the Ottomans

Agricultural and artisanal production
Products
Animal husbandry
Trades
Workforce

Commerce and shipping
Distant commerce
Shipping

Distribution of ethnicities
Colonization
Armenians
Ragusians
Jews
Albanians
Romani

Coins

Notes

CHAPTER II
The transmission of Greek language
and literature in Italy

Greek letters in the West
The teaching of Greek

Education

Palaeologan education
Education and publishing programme

The humanistic school of Guarino Veronese

Humanist philosophy

The translators’ movement in Italy

The Catholic Museum at Constantinople

The discovery of Greek manuscripts during the Renaissance

The contribution of Greek codex copyists to humanist education

Discontinuity in the teaching of Chrysoloras
Council of Ferrara-Florence (1437-1439)

Revival of the dispute between Platonists and Aristotelians in Italy

The intellectual circle of Pope Nicholas V

The Despotate of Moreas
Intellectual activity

Pletho, the school and the book activity surrounding him

Bessarion’s Academy

Religious humanism

Notes

CHAPTER III
Centres of Greek book publishing in Italy

Greek works translated into Latin in the early printing era

Appeals of Greek scholars for a new Crusade

The linguistic and philological question
Grammars as tools for learning Greek
Dictionaries

Reservations towards the printed book in East and West

Origins of Greek printing
The first Greek printer
Two Cretan clergymen and editors
The first printing press owned by Greeks
Greek type

On the printed first edition (Editio princeps)

Greeks at the Universtiy of Padua
The teaching of Thomaeus
Censorship

The Greek university textbook

Dedications and prologues to the editions

Greek letters in Rome

The role of Kalliergis in the circulation of Greek books in Rome

Ideology of the alumni of the Greek college of Rome
The case of Nikolaos Loukanis
Angelos Fortias
Nikolaos Sophianos
The first “theological” book in the vernacular: I. Kartanos
Andronikos Noukios
Antonios Eparchos
Iakovos Trivolis
Dimitrios Zinos
Matthaios Devaris

Epigrams

Revival of earlier literary forms

Notes

CHAPTER IV
The propagation of Greek studies in Northern Europe

Paris: The greatest humanist centre of the North

Laskaris, apostle of Greek spirit in the North

The church of France and ancient literature

Jacques Lefevre d’Etaples: His lectures on Aristotle

The French critical outlook vis-a-vis Greek and
Latin literature

The great chapter of Greek printing in France

The Greek editions of Stephanus (1545-1551)

The position of Angelos Vergikios in the Court of France

The Royal Library of France

Greek letters in Spain
Dimitrios Doukas

From Paris to Geneva. A book centre and bastion of the Reformation

Major printing houses of Geneva: Stephanus and Crespin

The problem of manuscripts

Erasmus’s edition of the New Testament

Greek letters in Germany

Notes

CHAPTER V
The organization of Orthodoxy
in East and West

Organization of the Greeks on the ecclesiastical plane

Relations between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches

Theological tradition in the Orthodox East
The Patriarchal School
The Scholarchs

The Patriarchate: Administration and finances

Athos: A Christian community, refuge of the faithful and ark of the Greek intellectual tradition
Organization of the monasteries
Legal status
Beginnings of regeneration
Spiritual tradition
Theological questions
Codex-copying workshops

Libraries on Mount Athos

The Greek community of Venice

Religious freedom

The Greek Brotherhood

Notes

ABBREVIATIONS – BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEXES
Index of Persons and Subjects
Index of Place Names