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Pietro Balbi
Pietro Balbi (or Petrus Balbus) (1399–1479), of Pisa, was an Italian humanist, a longtime member of the ''familia'' of Cardinal Bessarion who moved in the same circle as Nicolas Cusanus, whom he served with his expertise in Greek. During Pius II's pontificate, Balbi was the most prolific translator of Greek patristics in Rome, probably using the Greek manuscripts in Bessarion's own library. One of the ''quattrocento'' defenders of Plato, he translated for Cusanus the epitome of Platonic Philosophy, ''Disciplinarium Platonis epitome'', of the 2nd-century philosopher Albinus and the immense ''Theologica Platonica'' of Proclus in 1462, and circulated it in manuscript. Giovanni Andrea Bussi printed his translation of Alcinous, and Cusanus cast Balbi and Bussi as interlocutors in his dialogue ''De lì non aliud'' in the winter of 1462. Balbi played a role in the deconstructing of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (or Dionysius the Pseudo-Are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pisa
Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the city contains more than twenty other historic churches, several medieval palaces, and bridges across the Arno. Much of the city's architecture was financed from its history as one of the Italian maritime republics. The city is also home to the University of Pisa, which has a history going back to the 12th century, the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, founded by Napoleon in 1810, and its offshoot, the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies.Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna di Pisa Information statistics History ...
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Proclus
Proclus Lycius (; 8 February 412 – 17 April 485), called Proclus the Successor ( grc-gre, Πρόκλος ὁ Διάδοχος, ''Próklos ho Diádokhos''), was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major classical philosophers of late antiquity. He set forth one of the most elaborate and fully developed systems of Neoplatonism and, through later interpreters and translators, exerted an influence on Byzantine philosophy, Early Islamic philosophy, and Scholastic philosophy. Biography The primary source for the life of Proclus is the eulogy ''Proclus, or On Happiness'' that was written for him upon his death by his successor, Marinus, Marinus' biography set out to prove that Proclus reached the peak of virtue and attained eudaimonia. There are also a few details about the time in which he lived in the similarly structured ''Life of Isidore'' written by the philosopher Damascius in the following century. According to Marinus, Proclus was born in 412 AD in Cons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1479 Deaths
Year 1479 ( MCDLXXIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar). Events January–December * January 20 – Ferdinand II ascends the throne of Aragon, and rules together with his wife Isabella I, Queen of Castile, over most of the Iberian peninsula. * January 25 – The Treaty of Constantinople is signed between the Ottoman Empire and Republic of Venice; Venice will cede Argo, Negroponte, Lemnos and Shkodër, and pay an annual tribute of 10,000 golden ducats. * April 25 – Ratification of the Treaty of Constantinople in Venice ends the Siege of Shkodra after fifteen months, and brings all of Albania under the Ottoman Empire. * May 13 – Christopher Columbus, an experienced mariner and successful trader in the thriving Genoese expatriate community in Portugal, marries Felipa Perestrelo Moniz (Italian on her father's side), and receives as dowry her late father's maps and papers, charting the se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1399 Births
Year 1399 ( MCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–December * January – Timur the Lame captures and sacks Haridwar. * February 3 – John of Gaunt, uncle of King Richard II of England and father of Henry Bolingbroke, dies. * March 18 – Richard II of England cancels the legal documents allowing the exiled Henry Bolingbroke to inherit his father's lands. * July 4 – While Richard II of England is away on a military campaign in Ireland, Henry Bolingbroke, with exiled former archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Arundel as an advisor, returns to England and begins a military campaign to reclaim his confiscated lands. * August 6 – Prince of Yan (Zhu Di) of China starts a rebellion in Beijing. * August 12 – Battle of the Vorskla River: Mongol Golden Horde forces, led by Khan Temür Qutlugh and Emir Edigu, annihilate a crusading army led by former Golden Horde Kha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tropea
Tropea (; scn, label= Calabrian, Trupìa; la, Tropaea; grc, Τράπεια, Trápeia) is a municipality in the province of Vibo Valentia, in Calabria, Italy. Tropea is a seaside resort with sandy beaches, located on the Gulf of Saint Euphemia, part of the Tyrrhenian Sea, on Italy's west coast and was named “Most beautiful village in Italy” for 2021. History A legend suggests that the town was founded by Hercules when returning from his labours at the Pillars of Hercules (the modern-day Strait of Gibraltar). Graves of Magna Graecian origin have been found near Tropea. Along Tropea's coast, Sextus Pompey defeated Octavius. The Romans built a commercial port in Formicoli, approximately 3 km south of Tropea. Main sites *Franciscan monastery *Monastery of Santa Maria dell'Isola *12th century Norman cathedral * Tropea Castle, which was destroyed in 1876 The Virgin Mary of Romania A painting of the Virgin Mary from around 1330 hangs in the ''Cattedrale di Maria Santiss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudo-Dionysius The Areopagite
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (or Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite) was a Greek author, Christian theologian and Neoplatonic philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century, who wrote a set of works known as the ''Corpus Areopagiticum'' or ''Corpus Dionysiacum''. The author pseudepigraphically identifies himself in the corpus as "Dionysios", portraying himself as Dionysius the Areopagite, the Athenian convert of Paul the Apostle mentioned in Acts 17:34. Historic confusions In the early sixth century, a series of writings of a mystical nature, employing Neoplatonic language to elucidate Christian theological and mystical ideas, was ascribed to the Areopagite. They have long been recognized as pseudepigrapha, and their author is now called "Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite". Corpus Works The Corpus is today composed of: * ''Divine Names'' ('); * '' Celestial Hierarchy'' ('')''; * ''Ecclesiastical Hierarchy'' ('); * ''Mystical Theology'' ('), "a brief but powerful wor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alcinous (philosopher)
Alcinous (Greek: ''Alkinoos'') was a Middle Platonist philosopher. He probably lived in the 2nd century AD,"Alcinous fits most comfortably into a period bounded by the writings of Plutarch on the one hand, and Galen and Alexander of Aphrodisias on the other, with Apuleius, Albinus, Atticus, Numenius, the Peripatetic Aspasius, ... and Maximus of Tyre as approximate contemporaries." John Dillon, 1993, ''Alcinous, The Handbook of Platonism'', page xiii. Oxford. although nothing is known about his life. He is the author of ''The Handbook of Platonism'', an epitome of Middle Platonism intended as a manual for teachers. He has, at times, been identified by some scholars with the 2nd century Middle Platonist Albinus. Writings Alcinous is the author of work called ''The Handbook of Platonism'' (, also ; la, De doctrina Platonis), one of the few surviving works from the Middle Platonist period (c. 90 BC – 250 AD). The book contains 36 chapters which cover topics ranging from l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giovanni Andrea Bussi
Giovanni Andrea Bussi (1417–1475), also Giovan de' Bussi or Joannes Andreae, was an Italian Renaissance humanist and the Bishop of Aleria (from 1469). He was a major editor of classical texts and produced many incunabular ''editiones principes'' (first editions). In his hands the preface was expanded from its former role as a private letter to a patron, to become a public lecture, and at times a bully pulpit. Bussi was a Platonist and a friend of Nicholas Cusanus and Johannes Bessarion, in whose philosophical circle he moved. From 1458 to the Cardinal's death in 1464 he had served Cusanus as a secretary at Rome, where he helped his master edit a ninth-century manuscript of the ''Opuscula'' and other works of Apuleius.Julia Haig Gaisser, ''The Fortunes of Apuleius and the Golden Ass: A Study in Transmission and Reception'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008), pp. 160–62. The Apuleius was printed in 1469. From 1468 Bussi was the chief editor for the printing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albinus (philosopher)
Albinus ( el, Ἀλβῖνος; fl. c. 150 AD) was a Platonist philosopher, who lived at Smyrna, and was teacher of Galen. A short tract by him, entitled ''Introduction to Plato's dialogues'', has survived. From the title of one of the extant manuscripts we learn that Albinus was a pupil of Gaius the Platonist. The original title of his work was probably ''Prologos'', and it may have originally formed the initial section of notes taken at the lectures of Gaius. After explaining the nature of the Dialogue, which he compares to a Drama, the writer goes on to divide the Dialogues of Plato into four classes, logical, critical, physical, ethical, and mentions another division of them into Tetralogies, according to their subjects. He advises that the Alcibiades, Phaedo, Republic, and Timaeus, should be read in a series. Some of Albinus's fame is attributed to the fact that a 19th-century German scholar, J. Freudenthal, attributed Alcinous's ''Handbook of Platonism'' to Albinus. This ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Renaissance Humanism
Renaissance humanism was a revival in the study of classical antiquity, at first in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the term ''humanist'' ( it, umanista) referred to teachers and students of the humanities, known as the , which included grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy. It was not until the 19th century that this began to be called ''humanism'' instead of the original ''humanities'', and later by the retronym ''Renaissance humanism'' to distinguish it from later humanist developments. During the Renaissance period most humanists were Christians, so their concern was to "purify and renew Christianity", not to do away with it. Their vision was to return ''ad fontes'' ("to the sources") to the simplicity of the New Testament, bypassing the complexities of medieval theology. Under the influence and inspiration of the classics, humanists developed a new rhetoric and new learning. Some scho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epitome
An epitome (; gr, ἐπιτομή, from ἐπιτέμνειν ''epitemnein'' meaning "to cut short") is a summary or miniature form, or an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment. Epitomacy represents "to the degree of." An abridgment differs from an epitome in that an abridgment is made of selected quotations of a larger work; no new writing is composed, as opposed to the epitome, which is an original summation of a work, at least in part. Many documents from the Ancient Greek and Roman worlds survive now only "in epitome," referring to the practice of some later authors (epitomators) who wrote distilled versions of larger works now lost. Some writers attempted to convey the stance and spirit of the original, while others added further details or anecdotes regarding the general subject. As with all secondary historical sources, a different bias not present in the original may creep in. Documents surviving in epitome differ from those su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution of higher learning on the European continent. Along with his teacher, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato is a central figure in the history of Ancient Greek philosophy and the Western and Middle Eastern philosophies descended from it. He has also shaped religion and spirituality. The so-called neoplatonism of his interpreter Plotinus greatly influenced both Christianity (through Church Fathers such as Augustine) and Islamic philosophy (through e.g. Al-Farabi). In modern times, Friedrich Nietzsche diagnosed Western culture as growing in the shadow of Plato (famously calling Christianity "Platonism for the masses"), while Alfred North Whitehead famously said: "the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
