Nikephoros Choumnos
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Nikephoros Choumnos
Nikephoros Choumnos ( el, , 1250/55 – 1327) was a Byzantine scholar and official of the early Palaiologan period, one of the most important figures in the flowering of arts and letters of the so-called " Palaiologan Renaissance". He is notable for his eleven-year tenure as chief minister of emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos, his intense intellectual rivalry with fellow scholar and official Theodore Metochites, and for building the monastery of the Theotokos Gorgoepēkoos (Θεοτόκος Γοργοεπήκοος) in Constantinople. Life Choumnos was born between 1250 and 1255. He came from an already distinguished family, which since the 11th century had provided several high-ranking officials.Kazhdan (1991), p. 433 Nikephoros studied rhetoric and philosophy under the future Patriarch of Constantinople Gregory of Cyprus, and upon conclusion of his studies entered the imperial bureaucracy. He makes his first appearance in history in ca. 1275, with the lowly rank of ''qua ...
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Mesazon
The ( gr, μεσάζων, mesazōn, intermediary) was a high dignitary and official during the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire, who acted as the chief minister and principal aide of the Byzantine emperor. History and functions The term's origins lie in the 10th century, when senior ministers were sometimes referred to as the (), i.e. 'mediators' between the emperor and his subjects (cf. ). The title first became official in the mid-11th century, when it was conferred to Constantine Leichoudes, the future Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.. In the Komnenian period, it was awarded to senior government officials who functioned as ''de facto'' prime ministers, such as the and the , but had not yet acquired a permanent and specific function, nor the power that would characterize it in later years. Rather, it was a title bestowed on the principal imperial secretary of the moment, who acted precisely as an "intermediary" between the emperor and other officials. This refle ...
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Second Council Of Lyon
:''The First Council of Lyon, the Thirteenth Ecumenical Council, took place in 1245.'' The Second Council of Lyon was the fourteenth ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, convoked on 31 March 1272 and convened in Lyon, Kingdom of Arles (in modern France), in 1274. Pope Gregory X presided over the council, called to act on a pledge by Byzantine emperor Michael VIII to reunite the Eastern church with the West.Wetterau, Bruce. World history. New York: Henry Holt and company. 1994 The council was attended by about 300 bishops, 60 abbots and more than a thousand prelates or their procurators, among whom were the representatives of the universities. Due to the great number of attendees, those who had come to Lyon without being specifically summoned were given "leave to depart with the blessing of God" and of the Pope. Among others who attended the council were James I of Aragon, the ambassador of the Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos with members of the Greek clergy and the ...
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Macedonia (region)
Macedonia () is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time; however, it came to be defined as the modern geographical region by the mid 19th century. Today the region is considered to include parts of six Balkan countries: larger parts in Greece, North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ..., and Bulgaria, and smaller parts in Albania, Serbia, and Kosovo. It covers approximately and has a population of 4.76 million. Its oldest known settlements date back approximately to 7,000 BC. From the middle of the 4th century BC, the Kingdom of Macedon became the dominant power on the Balkan Peninsula; since then Macedonia has had a diverse history. Etymology Both proper nouns ...
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John Palaiologos (son Of Andronikos II)
John Palaiologos ( el, Ἱωάννης Παλαιολόγος; 1286–1307) was a son of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos (reigned 1282–1328) and his second wife, Irene of Montferrat. He received the supreme courtly dignity of Despot on 22 May 1295, and married Irene Palaiologina Choumnaina, the daughter of Nikephoros Choumnos, in 1303. The pair did not have any children. From 1304, he served as governor of Thessalonica, where he made donations of property to the Hodegetria Monastery. In 1305, the throne of the March of Montferrat became vacant and his mother wanted to send John to take it up, but was successfully opposed by the Patriarch of Constantinople, Athanasius I, so that John's younger brother Theodore was sent instead. John Palaiologos died in 1307 in Thessalonica. In 1321, his body was transferred to Constantinople and buried in the Pantokrator Monastery. Sources * 1286 births 1307 deaths 14th-century Byzantine people 13th-century Byzantine peop ...
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Despotes
Despot or ''despotes'' ( grc-gre, δεσπότης, despótēs, lord, master) was a senior Byzantine Empire, Byzantine Byzantine aristocracy and bureaucracy, court title that was bestowed on the sons or sons-in-law of reigning emperors, and initially denoted the heir-apparent of the Byzantine emperor. From Byzantium it spread throughout the late medieval Balkans and was also granted in the states under Byzantine cultural influence, such as the Latin Empire, the Second Bulgarian Empire, the Serbian Empire and its successor states (Bulgarian language, Bulgarian and sr, деспот, despót), and the Empire of Trebizond. With the political fragmentation of the period, the term gave rise to several principalities termed "despotates" which were ruled either as independent states or as appanages by princes bearing the title of despot; most notably the Despotate of Epirus, the Despotate of the Morea, the Despotate of Dobruja and the Serbian Despotate. In modern usage, the word has tak ...
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Irene Of Montferrat
Yolande of Montferrat ( – 1317 in Constantinople) (also known as Violante, then Empress Irene) was the second wife of Andronikos II Palaiologos and thus Empress of the Byzantine Empire. She was the heir of the Margraviate of Montferrat. Born in Casale, she was daughter of William VII, Marquess of Montferrat and his second wife Beatrice of Castile. Her maternal grandparents were King Alfonso X of Castile and his wife Violante of Aragon. Yolande (variation of Violante) was named after her grandmother. In 1284, Andronikos II, a widower by his first marriage with Anna of Hungary, married Yolanda (who was renamed Eirene as Empress). She and Andronikos II were distant cousins, both being descendants of Andronikos Doukas Angelos (ca. 1122–1185). With her, Eirene brought the Montferrat rights to the kingdom of Thessalonica, a dominion that, despite having been conquered half-a-century before Eirene's birth by the Byzantine state of Epirus, was still claimed by its short-lived (12 ...
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Alexios II Of Trebizond
Alexios II Megas Komnenos ( el, Αλέξιος Μέγας Κομνηνός , translit=Alexios Megas Komnēnos; Sept./Dec. 1282 – 3 May 1330), was Emperor of Empire of Trebizond, Trebizond from 1297 to 1330. He was the elder son of John II of Trebizond, John II and Eudokia Palaiologina. Alexios proved to be a skillful and energetic ruler, under whose rule the Empire of Trebizond reached the climax of its prosperity. He rebuffed the inroads of the marauding Turkish people, Turks, and adequately handled the encroachment of Republic of Genoa, Genoa and Republic of Venice, Venice. He also cultivated the arts and sciences at his court serving as a patron to the Byzantine astronomer Gregory Chioniades and the scholar Constantine Loukites. Life He ascended the throne at the age of 14 after the death of his father. He came under the care of his uncle, the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos. The latter wanted to marry his young ward to a daughter of the high court official Nik ...
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Classicism
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthetic attitude dependent on principles based in the culture, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome, with the emphasis on form, simplicity, proportion, clarity of structure, perfection, restrained emotion, as well as explicit appeal to the intellect. The art of classicism typically seeks to be formal and restrained: of the ''Discobolus'' Sir Kenneth Clark observed, "if we object to his restraint and compression we are simply objecting to the classicism of classic art. A violent emphasis or a sudden acceleration of rhythmic movement would have destroyed those qualities of balance and completeness through which it retained until the present century its position of authority in the restricted repertoire of visual images." Classicism, as Cl ...
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Patriarch Athanasius I Of Constantinople
Athanasius I (1230 – 28 October 1310) was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople for two terms, from 1289 to 1293 and 1303 to 1309. He was born in Adrianople and died in Constantinople. Chosen by the emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus , image = Andronikos II Palaiologos2.jpg , caption = Miniature from the manuscript of George Pachymeres' ''Historia'' , succession = Byzantine emperor , reign = 11 December 1282 –24 May 1328 , coronation = 8 Novembe ... as patriarch, he opposed the reunion of the Greek and Roman Churches and introduced an ecclesiastic reform that evoked opposition within the clergy. He resigned in 1293 and was restored in 1303 with popular support. The pro-Union clerical faction forced him into retirement in early 1310. He is commemorated as a saint in the Orthodox Church with his feast day observed annually on 28 October.Great Synaxaristes: Ὁ Ὅσιος Ἀθανάσιος ὁ Α’ Πατριάρχης Κωνσταντι ...
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George Pachymeres
George Pachymeres ( el, Γεώργιος Παχυμέρης, Geórgios Pachyméris; 1242 – 1310) was a Byzantine Greek historian, philosopher, music theorist and miscellaneous writer. Biography Pachymeres was born at Nicaea, in Bithynia, where his father had taken refuge after the capture of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204. Upon the recovery of Constantinople from the Latin Empire by Michael VIII Palaeologus, Pachymeres settled there, studied law, entered the church, and subsequently became chief advocate of the church and chief justice of the imperial court. His literary activity was considerable, his most important work being a Byzantine history in thirteen books, in continuation of that of George Acropolites from 1261 to 1308, containing the history of the reigns of Michael and Andronicus II Palaeologus. Pachymeres was also the author of rhetorical exercises on philosophical themes; of a ''Quadrivium'' (arithmetic, music, geometry, astronomy), valuable for the history ...
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Epi Tou Kanikleiou
The ( el, κανίκλειος), more formally or ( el, αρτουλάριοςἐπὶ τοῦ κανικλείου) was one of the most senior offices in the Byzantine imperial chancery.. Its holder was the keeper of the imperial inkstand, the ''kanikleion'', which was shaped as a little dog ( la, canicula) and contained the scarlet ink with which the Byzantine emperor signed state documents. The office first appears in the 9th century, and was usually held in tandem with other government offices. In the ''Kletorologion'' of 899 it is ranked among the "special dignities" (, ), following the '' synkellos'' and preceding the ''protostrator''. In the overall order of precedence, he ranked behind the ''chartoularios tou vestiariou'' and before the ''protostrator'', and is recorded as usually holding the rank of ''protospatharios''. His proximity to the imperial person and the nature of his task made the very influential, especially in formulating imperial chrysobulls. The office ...
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Mesazon
The ( gr, μεσάζων, mesazōn, intermediary) was a high dignitary and official during the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire, who acted as the chief minister and principal aide of the Byzantine emperor. History and functions The term's origins lie in the 10th century, when senior ministers were sometimes referred to as the (), i.e. 'mediators' between the emperor and his subjects (cf. ). The title first became official in the mid-11th century, when it was conferred to Constantine Leichoudes, the future Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.. In the Komnenian period, it was awarded to senior government officials who functioned as ''de facto'' prime ministers, such as the and the , but had not yet acquired a permanent and specific function, nor the power that would characterize it in later years. Rather, it was a title bestowed on the principal imperial secretary of the moment, who acted precisely as an "intermediary" between the emperor and other officials. This refle ...
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