PSELLO (Ψέλλας), COSTANTINO (MICHELE). — Political figure at the court of Byzantium and polymath, b. in 1018 at Constantinople, d. in 1078 (?).
Endowed with an exceedingly broad culture, he initially held administrative and judicial offices; secretary at the court of Michele V (1041–42), he enjoyed the favor of Costantino Monomaco (1042–54), who in 1045 appointed him professor of philosophy at the Academy of Constantinople. Over the course of nine years he devoted himself to the renewal of Byzantine culture and of the Academy itself. Following the political-religious events that disturbed relations between Byzantium and the Roman Church, during the final years of Monomaco he fell from favor and, like other officials, became a monk (assuming the name of Michele). Nevertheless, the empress Teodora repeatedly had recourse to his counsel, and under her successors P. returned to court, where he played a leading role. In 1071 he took part in the election of Michele VII Ducas, formerly his pupil, and induced him to reject the proposals for reunion with the Roman Church. Having again and definitively fallen from favor, he died poor and obscure (the date 1078, uncertain, has been moved forward by two decades by some), himself a victim of those political arts and intrigues which he had employed extensively and without scruple.
Far more than with his political fortunes, the name of P. has remained associated with that vast movement for the restoration of Platonic thought, of which he, even if with eclectic tendencies, was the animating spirit at a time when Byzantine culture was decisively OZIO (v.). In this way he returned to the speculative impetus of the three Cappadocians and especially of St. Gregorio Nazianzeno (v.), the only one who, in his judgment, should be preferred to Plato (cf. Sathas, Μεσαιωνική Βιβλιοθήκη, IV, p. 111). In this respect he may be called a precursor of the great Byzantine Platonists who, in the 15th century, established the cult of Plato in Medicean Florence, Ficino (v.). Among P.’s works should be mentioned: Expositio in Canticum canticorum; De omnifaria doctrina; Dialogus de daemonum energia seu operatione; De anima celebrex opiniones; In psychogoniam platonicam; Expositio in oracula magica quae a Zoroastro prodiere; Expositio in oracula Chaldaica; Compendium in logicam Aristotelis (in which the mnemonic verses for the modes of the syllogism are included).