LEONARDO di CHIO. - Dominican, born at Chio in 1395 or 1396, died in 1459, probably at Genoa. He studied in Italy, was lector at Genoa and Perugia (1426), master of theology, vicar general of the Congregation of the Pilgrim Friars (1428 [?]-31), inquisitor in the Levant, and archbishop of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, under the lordship of the Genoese Gattilusi (1444, 1 July).
There he wrote a dialogue De vera nobilitate (1446). Dorino I Gattilusio, lord of Mytilene, sent him as ambassador to Genoa (1449). In 1452 he accompanied Cardinal Legate Isidoro di Kiev to Constantinople. Having escaped the sack of the city, he wrote a celebrated account of that siege (1453). He was then ambassador in the West for Niccolò Gattilusio (1458). Besides the aforementioned treatises, several sermons by him are known.