GIORGIO di TREBISONDA. - A well-known humanist of the fifteenth century (b. 1396, d. 1485/86). He always bore the name Trebisonda, derived from 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 at Vicenza and Venice, where he inherited the literary legacy of the celebrated Filelfo. 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, for example Lorenzo Valla, disapproved of the criticisms advanced by G. against Quintilian and of his polemics against Platonic philosophy, then defended by such eminent minds as Gemisto Pletone and Bessarione. This eventually weakened the confidence of Pope Niccolò V; indeed, when it was rumored that his translations lacked fidelity, he had to leave Rome in 1453.
G.'s literary output in Greek and Latin was extensive; among his most celebrated translations are the Commentary on St. John and the well-known Thesaurus of St. Cyril of Alexandria, the Praeparatio evangelica of Eusebius, and no small number of books by Aristotle and Plato. Although he worked very rapidly, his writings are always brilliant and full of abundant learning.