BESSARIONE. - A periodical of Oriental studies published in Rome from 1866 to 1923, founded by Monsignor, later Cardinal, Niccolò Marini (1843–1923). Drawing inspiration from papal documents, BESSARIONE set itself a twofold aim: to acquaint Western Catholics with the history, liturgical, dogmatic, artistic heritage, etc., of the Eastern Christian communities and to promote the union of the Churches. To better achieve this goal, a Greek edition of the publication was also planned, but the project was not pursued. From 1919 to August 1922, BESSARIONE served as the official organ of the new Pontifical Oriental Institute.
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BESSARIONE. - Greek cardinal, metropolitan of Nicaea, born in Trebizond on 2 January 1402, of humble parentage, baptized with the name Basil. Destined for the ecclesiastical state, he was entrusted, while still very young, to the metropolitan of Trebizond, Dositeo, who took him to Constantinople where he was introduced to letters, philosophy, and ascetic life by Ignatius (Giovanni) Cortesano, archbishop of Selymbria. At the school of the rhetorician Chrysococces, he was a schoolfellow of Francesco Filelfo and perhaps of George Scholarius. He took the monastic habit on 30 January 1423, adopting the name by which he became famous.
His first work was an encomium of his new patron (unpublished in cod. Marc. Gr. 533). He distinguished himself with a monody (funeral oration) for Emperor Manuel II (d. 25 July 1425); he was sent to the court of Trebizond (1426?), wrote an oration in honor of Emperor Alexios IV, and three monodies on Empress Theodora Kantakouzene Komnene (d. 17 November 1426). Deacon in 1426, priest in 1431, he went to the Peloponnese where he won the favor of Despot Theodore II and became an auditor of George Gemistos Plethon, with whom he maintained the best relations. He wrote an epitaph and a monody on Cleope Malatesta, wife of Despot Theodore (d. 1433); an epitaph for Theodora Tocco, wife of Constantine Palaiologos (who later became the last emperor of Byzantium); verses to be placed beneath a portrait of Manuel II and his consort. Twelve letters date from this sojourn, including a long one to John Lascaris Leontarios with an exposition of Christian morality; a defense of his protector Dositeo (who had moved to the see of Nomenavasi); a eulogy of his native Trebizond and a homily (unpublished in cod. Marc. Gr. 533).
Having helped to settle a dispute that arose in 1436 between Emperor John VIII and his brother Theodore, he was recalled to the capital and appointed superior of the monastery of St. Basil. Elected metropolitan of Nicaea in 1437, he sailed with the emperor to Italy on 24 November 1437.
At the Council of Ferrara-Florence, he was, together with Mark Eugenicus, the principal Greek speaker and contributed effectively to the act of union on 6 June 1439 (speeches of 9 October and 10 November 1438 in Ferrara; a major dogmatic discourse on the equivalence of the formulas “Filioque” and “ex Filio” in Florence, 13 and 14 April 1439). After the union, Eugenius IV granted him an annual pension of 300 florins, which could be increased to 600 if he settled in the Curia (11 August 1439). Bessarion returned to Constantinople with the emperor and the papal nuncio Cristoforo Garatoni (10 February 1440). He wrote three Consolations for Emperor John VIII, who had lost his wife Maria (17 December 1439), conducted research on the Fathers in the libraries of the capital, took part in the election of Patriarch Metrophanes II (10 May 1440), and probably worked on his refutations of Gregory Palamas and Maximus Planudes regarding the procession of the Holy Spirit. Created cardinal with the title of SS. Apostoli on 18 December 1439, he returned to Florence, where the Curia was still located (10 December 1440). He studied Italian and Latin, striving to achieve in these languages the perfection and elegance demanded by the humanist movement, to which he wholeheartedly devoted himself, becoming one of its luminaries. He held the archbishopric of Thebes in the duchy of Athens (1440–49?) and the Benedictine abbey of S. Giuliano in Rimini (?–1449). On 5 February 1442, he signed the decree of union with the Jacobites; in the same year, he consecrated the Franciscan church of S. Croce in Florence according to the Latin rite. He arrived with the Curia in Rome on 28 September 1443 and settled near his titular church, which he actively administered.
From his Florentine sojourn or the early days of his Roman residence date the letter to Alexios Lascaris Philanthropenos in which he defends his actions and those of the Council of Union, the preface to the Latin translation of St. Basil’s *Against Eunomius* (requested by him from George of Trebizond), and the translation of the same saint’s homily on the Nativity, dedicated to Tommaso da Sarzana, the future Nicholas V. His interest in matters concerning his homeland is reflected in a letter to Despot Constantine (1444) full of suggestions for reviving the arts of peace and war in Greece. In 1444, Bessarion dedicated his translation of Xenophon’s *Memorabilia* to Giuliano Cesarini, cardinal bishop of Tusculum. The correction of the medieval translation of Aristotle’s *Metaphysics*, dedicated to his friend Alfonso, king of Naples (d. 1458), may also date from this period.
As commendatory abbot of S. Giovanni Evangelista dell’Osservanza in 1444, he also held in commendam the abbey of S. Cristoforo di Castel Durante (Urbino; 1445–68) and that of S. Stefano in Pinis at Spalato, of which, in 1450, he ceded a priory (S. Maria della Palude) to the Observant Franciscans. As protector of the Order of St. Basil, in November 1446, in the basilica of the Twelve Apostles, he presided over a general chapter with the abbots of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, approved by Eugenius IV on 14 December 1446. For the Basilians, he composed an epitome of the rules of St. Basil. The right of visitation over the Greek monasteries in Italy was confirmed to him by Nicholas V on 22 June 1451, an opportunity that may have led him to discover in the monastery of S. Nicola di Casole, in the territory of Otranto, the codices of Quintus Smyrnaeus and Colluthus. In the domains of Alfonso of Aragon, Bessarion held in commendam the archbishopric of Manfredonia (1447–49) and the Basilian monasteries of S. Angelo di Brolo (1447–64), S. Filippo Grande (1449–64), SS. Peter and Paul of Forza d’Agrò (1450–52), and S. Giovanni a Piro (?–1468). In 1447, he was entrusted with the recognition of the relics of St. Lawrence the Martyr, and in 1449, with the canonization of St. Bernardino of Siena. Bishop of Sabina from 5 March 1449, he retained in commendam until his death the basilica of the Twelve Apostles, in which he replaced the secular chapter with a convent of Friars Minor on 30 June 1463. On 23 April 1449, he exchanged the see of Sabina for that of Frascati, another suburbicarian see, and later in the same year, he exchanged Manfredonia for Mazzara, and probably relinquished Thebes for the patriarchate of Jerusalem (1449–58). At the beginning of Nicholas V’s pontificate, he obtained permission for Lorenzo Valla to return from Naples to Rome, where Nicholas Perotti, secretary to Bessarion, was an auditor of that humanist.
In the final years of his Roman residence, Bessarion encouraged Valla when he first applied the new philological methods to biblical studies in his *Annotationes in Novum Testamentum*. The pamphlet *In illud “Sic eum volo manere”* also belongs to this sphere of studies. The origins of what later became known as Bessarion’s Academy date from the same period. His correspondence with Plethon, dating from around 1447, reveals the continuing interest he maintained in philosophy.
On 10 Sept. 1449 NICCOLÒ V appointed the B. as legate a latere for peace negotiations between Venice and Milan and between FRANCESCO SFORZA and the Ambrosian Republic, but without success. From 1450 to 1455, then, the legation of Bologna drew the B. away from the Roman humanists. In that government the B. relied on the rising lordship of the Bentivoglio; but especially to the declining university he devoted his care, arranging, among other things, for his own Perotti to teach there. Meanwhile Constantinople had fallen into Turkish hands, and a new element entered the life of the Greek Cardinal: he redeemed fellow-countrymen reduced to slavery, provided for those scattered throughout the world, exhorted princes to wage war against the invader; above all, he conceived and began to execute the plan of a library in which to gather the treasures of Greek literature, threatened, as he believed, with extinction since his people no longer had any centre of learning. This noble concern is evident in his correspondence with MICHELE APOSTOLI (1453–55).
In the conclave of 1455, from which for a time it seemed the B. might emerge as pope, CALLISTO III was elected instead, bringing to the Chair of Peter the spirit of the Spanish reconquista. An orientation most welcome to the Greek Cardinal, who, taking advantage of a cure at Pozzuoli and a reception given in his honour by King Alfonso at Naples (5 June 1457), urged him to holy war. But it was a private endeavour, for the pontificate of Callisto III marked for the B. a time of diminished political activity and, in compensation, a gain for his studies. Thus when in 1455 GEORGE OF TREBIZOND, in his *Comparisones*, attacked Plato, the B. defended the great philosopher in the four books *In Calumniatorem Platonis*, his principal work. The refutation of the *Syllogisms* of MARK EUGENICUS probably dates from the period of the Bolognese legation.
The commendatory abbacy of the Camaldolese monastery of S. Croce di Fonte Avellana (1456–72) gave him occasion to strengthen his ties with the household of the bibliophile Count FEDERICO III DA MONTEFELTRO of Urbino. He became (1456–57) coadjutor, then archimandrite, of the Basilian monastery of S. Salvatore in Messina. From 1458 to 1462 he was bishop of Pamplona. Of PIUS II, a humanist like NICCOLÒ V and as zealous for the crusade as Callisto III, the B. soon became a close friend, although in the conclave of 1458 he had at first withheld his vote. The new pope appointed the B. as protector to the Minorite Ordinary (10 Sept. 1448) and entrusted him with the canonization of CATHERINE OF SIENA (1459).
At the Congress of Mantua (autumn 1459) the pope and the Greek Cardinal laboured without success to secure the adherence of princes to an offensive league against the Turk. The ensuing legation of the B. to Germany (1460–61) was a failure attributable less to the legate than to unfavourable circumstances. He made good use of the journey to acquire manuscripts and to establish relations with German scholars. On his return to Italy he was created a Venetian patrician (2 Dec. 1461) and administrator of the see of Negroponte in Venetian Euboea (13 Dec. 1461), pending the episcopal title which he received on 1 Apr. 1463. In 1462 he took part in the solemn translation of the head of St Andrew the Apostle, brought to Italy by the refugee despot of the Morea, THOMAS PALEOLOGUS (oration of 13 Apr. 1462), and exchanged the archimandry of Messina for the Basilian abbey of S. Maria in Grottaferrata, whose buildings he restored, its administration reorganized, and its library and sacristy enriched.
Having been promoted patriarch of Constantinople, on 27 May 1463 he addressed an encyclical to his Greek faithful living under Venetian rule, returning to the great theme of union. The short treatise on the words of consecration also belongs to this period. Meanwhile his native Trebizond had fallen into Turkish hands (1461). Once again he had to succour countless miseries. GEORGE AMIRUTZES, a fellow-citizen once a friend but long since numbered among his adversaries, did not hesitate in these circumstances to address to the B. a letter as curious as it was memorable.
In 1463 the fall of Argos and the conquest of Bosnia matured a new crusade project. PIUS II sent the B. as legate a latere to Venice, where he helped to secure the adoption by the Venetian councils of the cause of war. But when, with the Venetian fleet under the doge, the B. arrived at Ancona where the army was assembling, he found the pope dying: with the death of the prime mover the enterprise collapsed.
After the conclave of 1464, when the newly elected PAUL II declared himself not bound by the “sworn capitulations” limiting the exercise of papal power, a misunderstanding arose between him and the B., who now devoted himself more intensively to his studies. It was probably at this time that he composed the *De natura et arte* and translated into Latin his own theological-polemical writings. In 1465 the sons of the despot Thomas Paleologus arrived in Italy, of whom he became protector: we possess three letters in the vernacular Greek in which he lays down rules of conduct for the tutors of the exiled princes.
In 1466 he restored at Viterbo (where since 1462 he had been in the habit of taking the waters) the baths known as those of King Pepin. He was camerlengo of the Sacred College for 1467–68. In that year he made his will and donated his library, then the richest collection of Greek manuscripts, to the Republic of Venice (14 May 1468). The trial of the Pomponian Academicians (1468), some of whom belonged to the circle of the B., gave him occasion once more to intercede for humanists, especially for PLATINA, who the following year repaid the benefactor by writing a panegyric of him. We see here and in other documents the B. reconciled with Paul II, in whose confidence he stood. On 4 July 1468 he received a pension from the revenues of the Benedictine abbey of S. Pietro di Vilanova near Lusiana, in the diocese of Vicenza. He is also found, at his death (though it is unknown from when), commendatory of the Cluniac priory of S. Giacomo di Pontida in the Bergamasque. On 14 Oct. 1468 he was translated from the see of Tusculum to that of Sabina. In Aug. 1469 there appeared in print the Latin version of the *In Calumniatorem Platonis*, occasioning an exchange of letters with many scholars, among them Marsilio Ficino. Nor were controversies lacking, one courteous with JOHN ARGYROPOULOS, another vehement with GEORGE OF TREBIZOND.
The Turkish conquest of Euboea (1470) moved the B. to write an oration to Christian princes which his friend GUILLERMO FICHET, rector of the University of Paris, immediately circulated in print, while at Rome a cardinalitial commission, meeting at the B.’s house, took up the Turkish question. SIXTUS IV, a friend of the B., who succeeded Paul II, appointed him legate a latere to France, Burgundy and England (22 Dec. 1471) in favour of the crusade. But soon the legation was restricted to settling pending issues between the Holy See and France; nevertheless the B. was persuaded by his friends (especially FICHET and IACOPO ANNAMNANTI) and by a personal invitation from King Louis XI to undertake this difficult mission. If in his heart he hoped to draw that powerful monarch into the holy war, he was disappointed, and on the whole his French legation met with no greater success than his German one.
Broken by illness and the fatigues of travel, the B. returned to Italy and died a holy death at Ravenna on 18 Nov. 1472. His remains were taken to Rome, where on 3 Dec., in the basilica of the Twelve Apostles, funeral rites were held in his presence. NICCOLÒ CAPRANICA, bishop of Fermo, delivered the funeral oration in Latin, while in Crete the faithful Apostoli composed another in Greek. The cardinal rests in the tomb he had caused to be prepared (1466) in the same basilica. There may be seen his effigy in bas-relief and his coat of arms: d
They support the cross: emblem of the cause to which he dedicated his life and of which he himself has remained the symbol.
