GIORGIO DI TREBISONDA. - Well-known humanist of the 15th century (b. 1396, d. 1485/86). He always bore the name of Trebisonda, which was the origin of his family, although he was born in Candia. Having gone to Italy at a very young age, he soon distinguished himself as a professor of Greek in Vicenza and Venice, where he inherited the literary legacy of the famous Filelfo. Pope Eugenius IV, hearing of his fame, summoned him to Rome as his private secretary and professor of philosophy and philology at the Sapienza. Some scholars, such as Lorenzo Valla, disapproved of the criticisms made by G. against Quintilian and his polemics against Platonic philosophy, which was then defended by such prominent minds as Gemistus Pletho and Bessarion. This eventually undermined the confidence of Pope Nicholas V; indeed, when the rumor spread that his translations lacked fidelity, he was forced to leave Rome in 1453.
G.'s literary output in Greek and Latin is vast; among his most celebrated translations are the Commentary on St. John and the well-known Thesaurus of St. Cyril of Alexandria, Eusebius's Praeparatio evangelica, and not a few books of Aristotle and Plato. Although he worked very quickly, his writings are always brilliant and full of abundant erudition.