Abstract
Bessarion was a Byzantine scholar, theologian, philosopher, and cardinal of the Roman Church. He was born in Trebizond on the Black Sea and was brought to Constantinople where he received a literary and philosophical education. In 1430–1431, he joined the circle of Georgios Gemistos’ (Plethon’s) students. in 1438–1439, he participated in the council of Ferrara/Florence as a speaker of Byzantine delegation. After the council, he was made cardinal of the Roman Church. In 1455, he nearly became pope. He was a legatus a latere to Germany, Republic of Venice, France, Burgundy, and England. Almost all of B.’s political activities were directed towards advancing the preparations for the crusade against the Turks. In addition to a number of theological works, Bessarion composed two major philosophical treatises, On Nature and Art and Against the Calumniator of Plato. In Against the Calumniator of Plato, he defends Plato against a number of charges which Georgios of Trebizond had formulated against Plato in his treatise Comparatio philosophorum Platonis et Aristotelis et de praestantia Aristotelis. In On Nature and Art he evinces an agreement between the Platonic and the Aristotelian philosophies and also suggests an accord between Platonic philosophy and Christian theology.
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Mariev, S. (2016). Bessarion, Cardinal. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_25-1
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