GAZA, Teodoro. — Greek humanist, born in Thessalonica around 1398, died at the Abbey of St John at Piro in 1475. He took part in the Council of Ferrara-Florence and contributed to the union of the Greek and Latin Churches. Remaining in Italy, he learned Latin under Vittorino da Feltre at Mantua (1442–46); then taught Greek at the University of Ferrara; from 1449 to 1455 he held in Rome, at the behest of Nicholas V, the chair of philosophy and the commission to translate Greek authors into Latin. After a few years spent at the court of Naples, he returned to Rome and, with the support of Cardinal Bessarion, obtained the commendam of the Abbey of St John at Piro (diocese of Policastro), where he lived in retirement until his death.
He composed a Greek grammar that was the first in the West, remained the only one for a long time, and went through numerous reprints. With great elegance he translated into Latin treatises by Aristotle (*De historia plantarum*), by Alexander of Aphrodisias (*Problemata*). A learned Aristotelian, he wrote various philosophical works against Plato (*Adversus Platonem pro Aristotele de substantia*; *Antirrheticon*) and took an active part in the controversy between Platonists and Aristotelians. His austerity of life and integrity of character made him one of the most admirable figures among the humanists of his time.
Editions: *Institutiones grammaticae libri IV* (Basel 1540); *Laudatio cumis* (PG 161, 985–88); *De origine Thraecorum* (ibid., 997–1006); *Epistolae* (ibid., 1005–1014); the treatises of the Platonic-Aristotelian controversy, discourses and letters in L. Mohler, *Aus Bessarion’s Gelehrtenkreis* (*Quellen und Forschungen aus dem Gebiete der Geschichte*, 2–4), Paderborn 1942.