Andronikos Kallistos: A Byzantine Scholar and His Manuscripts in Italian Humanism

Luigi Orlandi

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9783111203331
• eBook ISBN:
  9783111203447
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: Literature

The interest in Andronikos Kallistos, a leading personality among the Greek émigrés who participated in Italian Humanism, arose at the end of the nineteenth century within the frame of the studies on Byzantine scholars of the Renaissance. Researchers have only glimpsed the depth of Kallistos' erudite personality. To date, nearly 130 manuscripts have been found bearing evidence of his work as a copyist and philologist. However, research into both his scribal and scholarly activity remains fragmented into many isolated contributions, mainly concerning specific chapters of the manuscript tradition of classical Greek authors. Adopting a synergistic approach to historical, philological, codicological, and paleographic data within this framework, this monograph study aims to fulfil the following tasks: outlining an updated biography; defining Kallistos' scribal activity better by means of a thorough examination of all surviving manuscript sources; attempting to reconstruct the development of his book collection; acknowledging Kallistos' scholarly activity both as a teacher and philologist; making an inventory of all the manuscripts which bear traces of his writing; and, finally, publishing Kallistos' works.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 Towards a New Biographical Profile
• 2 Tracing Manuscripts in Time and Space: On Kallistos’ Scribal Activity!"
• 3 The Fate of Andronikos’ Books
• 4 Writing and Learning Greek at the School of Andronikos Kallistos
• 5 From the Desk of a Byzantine Philologist
• 6 Andronikos’ Traces in Manuscripts: A Summary Catalogue
• Appendix: Texts
• 1 Defence of Theodoros Gazes against Michael Apostoles
• 2 Monody on wretched Constantinople
• 3 Diairesis on the science of physics
• 4 Letter to Palla Strozzi!
• 5 Letters to Demetrios <Chalkondyles>
• 6 Letter to Georgios Disypatos Palaiologos
• 7 Epigram to Homer
• 8 Epigram in praise of Bessarion’s book In Calumniatorem Platonis!
• 9 Epigrams on the death of Albiera
• Plate
• Reference
• Index of names
• Index of manuscripts, incunabula, and archival sources
• Index of main watermarks