Giorgi of Trebisonda

GIORGI OF TREBISONDA. - A well-known humanist of the 15th century (b. 1396, d. 1485/86). He always bore the name of Trebizond, from his family, although he was a native of Candia. Having gone to Italy very young, he soon distinguished himself as a professor of Greek at Vicenza and Venice, where he inherited the literary legacy of the famous Filelfo. Eugene IV, hearing of his fame, summoned him to Rome as his private secretary and professor of philosophy and philology at the Sapienza. Certain scholars, for example Lorenzo Valla, disapproved of the criticisms G. leveled against Quintilian and of his polemics against Platonic philosophy, which was then defended by minds as prominent as Gemistus Pletho and Bessarion. This ended by weakening the confidence of Pope Nicholas V; indeed, when word spread that his translations lacked fidelity, he had to leave Rome in 1453.

G.'s literary output in Greek and Latin is vast; among his most celebrated versions are counted the Commentary on St. John and the well-known Thesaurus of St. Cyril of Alexandria, the Praeparatio evangelica of Eusebius, and not a few books of Aristotle and Plato. Although he worked very quickly, his writings are always brilliant and full of abundant erudition.

Emanuele Candal