George Amiroutzes

George Amiroutzes (b.1400-d.1470) was a Greek Renaissance scholar and philosopher.

He was born in Trebizond, lived and taught in Italy and eventually died in Constantinople. He is considered as a controversial figures of the late Byzantine era. He was praised and respected for his outstanding knowledge not only of theology and philosophy, but also of the natural sciences, medicine, rhetoric and poetry, all of which earned him the epithet, "the Philosopher", ("o Φιλόσοφος" ).

He is first attested as a lay advisor to the imperial delegation to the Council of Ferrara-Florence. [Bart Janssens, Jacques Noret, Bram Roosen, Peter van Deun, "Studies in Greek Patristic and Byzantine Texts Presented to Jacques Noret for his Sixty-Fifth Birthday", 2004, Peeters Publishers, ISBN 9042914599] [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=ekUIqCRAEhAC&pg=PA297&dq=George+Amiroutzes&sig=rVt_sqX0Mv5ESpQL5j1eC_OQ8eQ Bart Janssens, Peter van Deun, "George Amiroutzes and his poetical oeuvre"] ] There he strongly supported the union of churches but upon return to Constantinople he made statements against the papal primacy and Filioque. According to a papal document 100 florins were given to "protonotarios George" as a subsidy; it was conjectured that Amiroutzes was thus bribed to support the union. [cite book |title= Трапезундская империя и западноевропейские государства в XIII-XV вв. ("Trebizond Empire and Western European states in XIII-XV centuries") |last= Карпов|first= С. П. ("Karpov S. P.")|year= 1981|publisher= Moscow University publishing house|location= Moscow|pages= 141]

However, he was denounced by his fellow Greeks as an opportunist, a traitor and a renegade for his familiarity with Mehmed the Conqueror.

Known works

* "Dialogus de fide"
* "Letter to Bessarion on the Fall of Trebizond"
* "various poems dedicated to Mehmed II and others"
* "Letters to Theodore Agallianos about Agallianos's book "On Providence""
* "dubious letter on the Council at Florence"

References

ee also

* Greek scholars in the Renaissance