ANDRONIKOS KALLISTOS : a byzantine scholar and his manuscripts in italian humanism

Open Access 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. product_pages 1 32 Andronikos Kallistos A Byzantine Scholar and His Manuscripts in Italian Humanism 2 Contents 6 Introduction 10 1 Towards a New Biographical Profile 22 2 Tracing Manuscripts in Time and Space: On Kallistos’ Scribal Activity!" 72 3 The Fate of Andronikos’ Books 152 4 Writing and Learning Greek at the School of Andronikos Kallistos 190 5 From the Desk of a Byzantine Philologist 212 6 Andronikos’ Traces in Manuscripts: A Summary Catalogue 278 Appendix: Texts 386 1 Defence of Theodoros Gazes against Michael Apostoles 386 2 Monody on wretched Constantinople 480 3 Diairesis on the science of physics 508 4 Letter to Palla Strozzi! 520 5 Letters to Demetrios 524 6 Letter to Georgios Disypatos Palaiologos 540 7 Epigram to Homer 548 8 Epigram in praise of Bessarion’s book In Calumniatorem Platonis! 550 9 Epigrams on the death of Albiera 556 Plate 558 Reference 590 Index of names 624 Index of manuscripts, incunabula, and archival sources 634 Index of main watermarks 644