THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE AND BYZANTIUM:

THE CAREER OF THE GREEK

HUMANIST-PROFESSOR JOHN ARGYROPOULOS
IN FLORENCE AND ROME ( 1 4 1 5 -1 487)
by
PROFESSOR DENO GEANAKOPLOS
Our knowledge of the activities of the Byzantine scholar-emigres to the West in
the period of the Italian Renaissance has in recent years been increasing. Nevertheless,
the careers of many, including even some of the most important, are still insufficiently
known. More precisely, their contribution to the Renaissance has not yet adequately
been integrated into the mainstream of the development of Italian humanism. Such
is the case with the Byzantine John Argyropoulos. Although his name is as well
known as that of the most famous of the Byzantine humanist-emigres Bessarion,
Chalcondyles, Chrysoloras, and Musurus no biography has been written on him
since the single, pioneering but now in some ways outdated work of Cammelli, nor
has anyone as yet attempted to delineate his career in English.* Nonetheless, his
career is of genuine significance not only because his teaching of Greek brought a
special eclat to Medici Florence but, more important, because it was primarily his
influence on Florentine humanism that served to transform its original emphasis
on rhetoric to a broader interest in metaphysical philosophy.
The career of Argyropoulos may be divided into three broad phases: the first
(obscure because of the extreme poverty of the sources) in Constantinople, where
he taught in the decade or more prior to its fall to the Turks in 1453. The second
period, longest by far and most meaningful for the Italian Renaissance, comprises
that of his tenure of instruction in Florence when that city was at the height of its
fame as a humanistic center. And third, the brief period of his sojourn in Rome,
where for some years he taught at its University and where in 1487 he died.
The precise place of Argyropoulos' birth is unknown, though it was probably
Constantinople, since the few remaining sources on this initial period mention only
that city. Of his family, about all we know is that he came from a distinguished
Byzantine lineage. That very early he was possessed of an unusual ardor for study,
with a particular bent toward philosophy, is evident from his own remarks in a
letter he later exchanged with the celebrated Italian humanist Francesco Filelfo.
* On the career of Argyropoulos see especially the book of G. Cammelli, I Dotti Bizantini e
le origini dell'umanesimo: Giovanni Argiropulo (Florence, 1941) (with bibliography); more
recently E. Garin, "Donato Acciaiuoli, Citizen of Florence," in his Portraits from the Quattrocento,
transl. V. and A. Velen (New York, 1972), pp. 69-81; J. Seigel, " The Teaching of Argyropoulos
and the Rhetoric of the First Humanist," Action and Conviction in Early Modern Europe (Princeton,
1969), pp. 237-60; and on the Byzantine emigre-scholars in general, D. Geanakoplos, Byzantium
and the Renaissance (Hamden, 1972) (reprint of Greek Scholars in Venice: Studies in the Dissemination of Greek Learning from Byzantium to Western Europe (Cambridge, Mass., 1962).