CRISOLORA, MANUEL. - Greek humanist of the 14th-15th century, b. at Constantinople around 1350, d. at Constance during the Council on 15 April 1415. He was the first Greek to hold a chair of his language in Italy. He landed for the first time at Venice around 1394-1395 "with the mission of soliciting aid against the Turks from the powerful Republic." In March 1396, under the patronage of Coluccio Salutati, he was called to lecture on Greek grammar and literature at Florence, where he remained until 1400. Virtually all Italian humanists were his disciples, both because for a time they learned Greek from the grammar, in the form of questions and answers (Erotemata), which he compiled at that time, and because the translation into Latin from Greek authors, the mission and anxiety of the 15th century, took its start from his school.
"The C. - says one of his scholars - has a true and proper theory of his own of the art of translating: he takes care, yes, to preserve fidelity to the Greek text, but also to respect the requirements of Latin, thus conforming to a sound artistic criterion." From Florence he moved to Milan at the invitation of Gian Galeazzo and of his emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, who entrusted him with various embassies to the Western sovereigns to obtain aid against the Turks. He was seen subsequently at Genoa, at London, at Paris, at Rome, where the Pope charged him with a message to the ecumenical patriarch Matthew I (d. in 1410) on the question of the union of the Churches: which should not surprise, because Manuel was Latin-minded, indeed Catholic. In 1413, Pope John XXII gave him as companion to the two cardinals sent to the emperor Sigismund to prepare the Council of Constance. The following year he accompanied the Pope to the Council. He was buried at Constance in a chapel of the convent of the Dominicans.
Bibliography
Giuseppe Toffanin