Manuel (or Emmanuel) Chrysoloras (c. 1355 – April 15, 1415) was a pioneer in the introduction of Greek literature to Western Europe during the late middle ages.
He was born in Constantinople to a distinguished family. In 1390, he led an embassy sent to Venice by the emperor Manuel II Palaeologus to implore the aid of the Christian princes against the Muslim Turks. Roberto de' Rossi of Florence met him in Venice, and, in 1395, Rossi's acquaintance Giacomo da Scarperia set off for Constantinople to study Greek with Chrysoloras. In 1396, Coluccio Salutati, the chancellor of the University of Florence, invited him to come and teach Greek grammar and literature, quoting Cicero:
Chrysoloras arrived in the winter of 1397, an event remembered by one his most famous pupils, the humanist scholar Leonardo Bruni, as a great new opportunity: there were many teachers of law, but no one had studied Greek in Italy for 700 years. Another very famous pupil of Chrysoloras was Ambrogio Traversari, who became general of the Camaldolese order. Chrysoloras remained only a few years in Florence, from 1397 to 1400, teaching Greek, starting with the rudiments. He moved on to teach in Bologna and later in Venice and Rome. Though he taught widely, a handful of his chosen students remained a close-knit group, among the first humanists of the Renaissance. Among his pupils were numbered some of the foremost figures of the revival of Greek studies in Renaissance Italy. Aside from Bruni and Ambrogio Traversari, they included Guarino da Verona and Pallas Strozzi.
While teaching at the University of Bologna, Chrysoloras and his disciples formed a society for mutual protection against then-governor of Bologna and future papal usurper, Baldassarre Cossa. Cossa would routinely use his power to rob and otherwise harass students at the university. This protective society would later be used as the basis for the founding of the Kappa Sigma fraternity in the United States in 1869.
Having visited Milan and Pavia, and having resided for several years at Venice, he went to Rome on the invitation of Bruni, who was then secretary to Pope Gregory XII. In 1408, he was sent to Paris on an important mission from the emperor Manuel Palaeologus. In 1413, he went to Germany on an embassy to the emperor Sigismund, the object of which was to fix a place for the church council that later assembled at Constance. Chrysoloras was on his way there, having been chosen to represent the Greek Church, when he died suddenly. His death gave rise to commemorative essays of which Guarino da Verona made a collection in Chrysolorina.
Chrysoloras translated the works of Homer and Plato's Republic into Latin. His own works, which circulated in manuscript in his lifetime, include brief works on the Procession of the Holy Ghost, and letters to his brothers, to L. Bruni, Guauni, Traversari, and to Pallas Strozzi, as well as two which were eventually printed, his Erotemata Civas Questiones which was the first basic Greek grammar in use in Western Europe, first published in 1484 and widely reprinted, and which enjoyed considerable success not only among his pupils in Florence, but also among later leading humanists, being immediately studied by Thomas Linacre at Oxford and by Desiderius Erasmus at Cambridge; and Epistolæ tres de comparatione veteris et novæ Romæ (Three Letters Comparing Ancient and Modern Rome). Many of his treatises on morals and ethics and other philosophical subjects came into print in the 17th and 18th centuries, because of their antiquarian interest. He was chiefly influential through his teaching in familiarizing men such as Leonardo Bruni, Coluccio Salutati, Giacomo da Scarperia, Roberto de' Rossi, Carlo Marsuppini, Pietro Candido Decembrio, Guarino da Verona, Poggio Bracciolini, with the masterpieces of Greek literature.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
MANUEL CHRYSOLORAS [or ] (c. 1355-1415), one of the pioneers in spreading Greek literature in the West, was born at Constantinople of a distinguished family, which had removed with Constantine the Great to Byzantium. He was a pupil of Gemistus. In 1393 he was sent to Italy by the emperor Manuel Palaeologus to implore the aid of the Christian princes against the Turks. He returned to Constantinople, but at the invitation of the magistrates of Florence he became about 1395 professor of the Greek language in that city, where he taught three years. He became famous as a translator of Homer and Plato. Having visited Milan and Pavia, and resided for several years at Venice, he went to Rome upon the invitation of Bruni Leonardo, who had been his pupil, and was then secretary to Gregory XII. In 1408 he was sent to Paris on an important mission from the emperor Manuel Palaeologus. In 1413 he went to Germany on an embassy to the emperor Sigismund, the object of which was to fix a place for the assembling of a general council. It was decided that the meeting should take place at Constance; and Chrysoloras was on his way thither, having been chosen to represent the Greek Church, when he died suddenly on the 15th of April 1415. Only two of his works have been printed, his Erotemata (published at Venice in 1484), which was the first Greek grammar in use in the West, and Epistolae III. de comparatione veteris et novae Romae. John Chrysoloras, a relative of the above (variously described as his nephew, brother or son), who, like him, had studied and taught at Constantinople, and had then gone to Italy, shared Manuel's reputation as one of those who spread the influence of Greek letters in the West. His daughter married Filelfo (q.v.).
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