Everything about Demetrius Chalcondyles totally explained
Demetrius Chalcocondyles or
Demetrios Chalcocondylis or
Chalcocondylas or
Chalcondyles (
1423 –
1511), born in
Athens, was one of the most eminent Greek scholars in the West. He contributed also to
Italian Renaissance literature. He was associated with
Marsilius Ficinus,
Angelus Politianus, and
Theodorus Gaza in the revival of letters in the Western world. One of his pupils at Florence was the famous
Johann Reuchlin. Demetrius belonged to one of the noblest Athenian families. He was a first cousin of the chronicler of the
fall of Constantinople,
Laonicus Chalcondyles, and the last of the Greek humanists who taught Greek literature at the great universities of the Italian Renaissance (Padua, Florence, Milan).
Life
He was from the
Peloponnisos, where his Athenian family had moved after its persecution by the
Florentine dukes. He was brought to Italy in 1447 by Cardinal
Bessarion and arrived at
Rome in 1449, where he became the student of Gaza and,later gained the patronage of
Lorenzo de Medici, serving as a tutor to his sons. Chalcondylas spent the rest of his life as a teacher of Greek and philosophy at
Perugia,
Padua,
Rome,
Florence, and
Milan. In 1463 he was made professor at
Padua and later, in 1479 at
Francesco Philelpho's suggestion, he took over the place of
Ioannis Argyropoulos, as the head of the Greek Literature department and was summoned by
Lorenzo de Medici to
Florence. It was during his tenure at the Studium in Florence that Chalcondyles edited
Homer for publication. He assisted Marsilio Ficino with his Latin translation of
Plato. His edition of Homer, dedicated to
Lorenzo,
Piero de' Medici's son, is his major accomplishment. Finally, invited by
Ludovico Sforza, he moved to
Milan (1491/1492), where he taught until he died.
Work
He wrote in
Ancient Greek the grammar handbooks "Summarized Questions of the Eight Parts of Word After Their Rules" (Ερωτήματα Συνοπτικά Τον Οκτώ Του Λόγου Μερών Μετά Τινών Κανόνων). He translated
Galen's
Anatomy into Latin.
As a scholar, Chalcondyles published the
editio princeps of Homer, ('Ομήρου τα Σωζόμενα', Florence, 1488),
Isocrates, (Milan, 1493) and the
Suda (Σούδα), the
Byzantine lexicon (1494).
- Greek Grammar, edited 1546 by Melchior Volmar in Basel
- Latin translation of the Anatomical Procedures of Galen, edited and published in 1529 by Jacopo Berengario da Carpi
- 1488, editio princeps of Homer's Ilias and Odyssey, Poiesis Hapasa, edited by Bernardus Nerlius and Demetrius Chalcondylas, appeared in Florence, not before 13 January 1489, in two folio volumes. It was the first Greek book to be printed in Florence. The Greek type used to print the 1488-89 Homer is believed to have been cast by the Cretan Demetrius Damilas from the type that he'd used to print Constantinus Lascaris’ Erotemata (Milan, 1476), the first book to be printed entirely in Greek, based upon the hand of Damilas’s fellow scribe Michael Apostolis.
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