Basilios Bessarion
Also recorded as Nicolaus Bessarion · Basilius Bessarion · Basileios Bessarion · Cardinal Bessarion
Basilios Bessarion

Theodor de Bry · Uni Mannheim Mateo (Mannheimer Texte Online) · Public domain
- Born
- 1403 · Trabzon.
- Died
- 1472 · Ravenna.
- Occupation
- diplomat · catholic priest · philosopher · theologian · humanist · politician · orator · translator
- Fields
- politics · Christian Church · theology · rhetoric
- Teachers
- Gemistus Pletho · John Chortasmenos
- Known for
- In calumniatorem Platonis
- Languages
- Latin · Italian · Ancient Greek
Reference Check
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q299446
In this article
Biography
Biography
Training under Gemistus Pletho and John Chortasmenos is recorded. The recorded working language is Latin, Italian and Ancient Greek. The field of work recorded is politics, Christian Church and theology. Places of work recorded in the authority are Byzantine Empire. Positions recorded include Dean of the College of Cardinals and Catholic archbishop. Works named in the authority record are In calumniatorem Platonis.

Half-length portrait of Basilios Bessarion, Patriarch of Constantinople, facing to the right. Engraved by Nicolas de Larmessin. Isaac Bullart. Académie Des Sciences Et Des Arts. -
Nicolas de Larmessin III, Esme de Boulonais · Isaac Bullart. Académie Des Sciences Et Des Arts. Amsterdam: Elzevier, 1682.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1403
Basilios Bessarion born at Trabzon.
1472
Basilios Bessarion died at Ravenna.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Trabzon.
Birth place
Ravenna.
Death place
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Bessarion Byzantine theologian. Encyclopedia Britannica.
- 2.George Gemistos Plethon, the Last of the Hellenes, by C. M. Woodhouse, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986, pp. 32–33.
- 3.Primary source: Jacques Paul Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 161, 1866, "Letter from George Amiroutzes to Bessarion," pp. 723–728, esp. 725.
- 4.Ierodiakonou, Katerina. Byzantine Philosophy.
- 5.Craig Martin, Subverting Aristotle: Religion, History, and Philosophy in Early Modern Science, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014, p. 41.
- 6.Eva Del Soldato. Basil [Cardinal] Bessarion. 2018.
- 7.James Hankins, Humanism and Platonism in the Italian Renaissance, Volume 1, Ed. di Storia e Letteratura, 2003, p. 207.
- 8.C.M. Woodhouse, George Gemistos Plethon, the Last of the Hellenes (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), p. 33
- 9.Woodhouse, George Gemistos Plethon, p. 13
- 10.Miscellanea marciana di studi bessarionei, Antenore, 1976, p. 121.
- 11.Joseph Gill, "The Sincerity of Bessarion the Unionist," Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 26 (1975), p. 387.
- 12."Johannes Bessarion", Catholic Encyclopedia (1907).
- 13.J. P. Adams, Sede Vacante of 1464. Retrieved: 6 April 2016.
- 14.J. P. Adams, Sede Vacante 1471. Retrieved: 6 April 2016.
- 15.James Blake Wiener. Sophia Palaiologina: Russia’s Byzantine Dynasty. The Medieval Magazine. 4 August 2020.
- 16.Judith Herrin. Women and Gender in Medieval Europe: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. 770. 20 September 2006. 978-1-135-45967-3.
- 17.Muijtjens, Philip. The Funerary Chapel of Cardinal Bessarion in the Basilica of SS XII Apostoli in Rome: Commemoration and Competition. Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte. 88. 1. 1–33. 2025-03-26. 2569-1619.
- 18.Ludwig Mohler, Bessarionis in calumniatorem Platonis libri IV [Kardinal Bessarion als Theologe, Humanist und Staatsmann. Funde und Forschungen Band 2]. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1927 (repr. 1967).
- 19.Emblem of Cardinal Bessarion
Bibliography printed in the source article · 17
- Bardi, Alberto. "Islamic Astronomy in Fifteenth-Century Christian Environments: Cardinal Bessarion and His Library", Journal of Islamic Studies, Volume 30, Issue 3, September 2019, pp. 338–366 (online).
- (not fully exploited)
- Francis A. Burkle-Young, "The election of Pope Calixtus III (1455)" Bessarion an early candidate, opposed by the French.
- Geanakoplos, Deno John. Greek Scholars in Venice: Studies in the Dissemination of Greek Learning from Byzantium to the West (Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard, 1962).
- Gill, Joseph. The Council of Florence (Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press, 1959).
- Harris, Jonathan. Greek Emigres in the West (Camberley : Porphyrogenitus, 1995).
- De Gruyter. "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus": Bessarion zwischen den Kulturen. 2013. 978-3-11-031621-6.
- Keller, A. "A Byzantine admirer of 'western' progress: Cardinal Bessarion", in, Cambridge Historical Journal, 11 (1953[-]5), 343–8.
- Kraye, Jill. Cambridge Translations of Renaissance Philosophical Texts: Moral and Political Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. 1. 28 August 1997. 978-0-521-42604-6.
- Labowsky, Carlota. Bessarion's Library and the Biblioteca Marciana (Rome : Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1979).
- Legrand, Émile. Bibliographie Hellenique (Paris : E. Leroux (E. Guilmoto), 1885–1906). volume 1.
- De Gruyter. "Inter graecos latinissimus, inter latinos graecissimus": Bessarion zwischen den Kulturen. 2013. 978-3-11-031621-6.
- Mohler, Ludwig Kardinal Bessarion als Theologe, Humanist und Staatsmann (Aalen : Scientia Verlag; Paderborn : F. Schöningh, 1923–42), 3 volumes.
- Monfasani, John. Byzantine Scholars in Renaissance Italy: Cardinal Bessarion and other Émigrés (Aldershot, UK : Variorum, 1995).
- Setton, K.M. "The Byzantine background to the Italian Renaissance", in, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 100 (1956), 1–76.
- Vast, Henri. Le Cardinal Bessarion (Paris : Hachette, 1878), see also (Geneva : Slatkine, 1977).
- Wilson, Nigel Guy. From Byzantium to Italy. Greek Studies in the Italian Renaissance (London : Duckworth, 1992).
References
Citations
References
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reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q299446: Basilios BessarionWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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