GIOVANNI ITALO. — Hellenist of the 11th century, born in southern Italy (the Calabrian origin is by no means proven). He followed his father on a military campaign in Sicily and, around 1043, went to Constantinople, where he devoted himself to the study of letters. First a disciple and then the successor of Michele Psello
in the office of ὕπατης τῶν φιλοδίφων (princeps philosophorum), he shared his enthusiasm for Greek antiquity and for the Neoplatonic philosophers Porphyry, Proclus, and Iamblichus, whose works he commented on in his very well-attended lectures.
Highly skilled in dialectic, he applied its method to theology, expounding the dogmas of Christianity according to the principles and concepts of Aristotelianism. This method of his, and especially the zeal he displayed in promoting the study of letters and ancient philosophy, provoked strong reactions in the ecclesiastical and, above all, monastic circles of Constantinople, where he was accused of adhering to Neoplatonic doctrines. In 1075–76, nine propositions were condemned in which public opinion believed it recognized the teaching of G. But his person was not molested. In March 1082, however, following a turbulent trial, G. was condemned and confined to a monastery. He subsequently made a recantation, and his punishment was mitigated.
His writings display no originality, except for a collection of 93 brief compositions of diverse origin. G. was far from upholding all the errors attributed to him. An administrator of antiquity for its own sake, he illustrated its thought, believing that he could eliminate the clear separation that distinguishes it from Christianity; in this respect he was a precursor of humanism.
Works, for the most part unpublished, G. Ceretelli, Johannis Itali, opuscula selecta, fasc. I, Tiflis 1924; fasc. II, there 1926.