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Demetricocondyles or Demetrios Chalcocondylis (Greek: Δημήτριος Χαλκοκονδύλης) 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

Demetrius Chalcondyles was born in Athens in 1424 of Greek ancestry. He soon moved to the Peloponnisos, with his Athenian family who had migrated after its persecution by the Florentine dukes. He migrated to Italy in 1447 and arrived at Rome in 1449 where Cardinal Bessarion became his patron. He became the student of Theodorus 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" (Ἐρωτήματα συνοπτικὰ τῶν ὀκτὼ τοῦ λόγου μερῶν μετὰ τινῶν κανόνων). He translated Galen's Anatomy into Latin.

As a scholar, Chalcondyles published the editio princeps of Homer, ('Ὁμήρου τὰ σωζόμενα', Florence, 1488), Isocrates, (Milan, 1493) and the Suda (Σοῦδα), the Byzantine lexicon (1499).

• 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 had 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.

References

1. Beckett, William à (1834). A universal biography: including scriptual, classical and mythological memoirs, together with accounts of many eminent living characters, Volume 1. Mayhew, Isaac and Co. p. 730. OCLC 15617538. CHALCONDYLES (DEMETRIUS), a learned modern Greek, and a native of Athens, came over into Italy about 1447, and after a short abode at Rome
2. Valeriano, Pierio; Gaisser, Julia Haig (1999). Pierio Valeriano on the ill fortune of learned men: a Renaissance humanist and his world. University of Michigan Press. p. 281. ISBN 0472110551, 9780472110551. Demetrius Chalcondyles was a prominent Greek humanist. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
3. Cubberley, Ellwood P. (2004). The History Of Education. Kessinger Publishing. p. 160. ISBN 1419166050, 9781419166051. Another Greek of importance was Demetrius Chalcondyles {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
4. Hochman, Stanley (1984). McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of world drama: an international reference work in 5 volumes, Volume 5. Verlag für die Deutsche Wirtschaft AG. p. 43. ISBN 0070791694, 9780070791695. Finally, in 1505, he was able to go to Milan to study under the famous Greek scholar Demetrius Chalcondyles. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
5. Stanford University; Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections; Carolan, James M.; Watson, Robert (1984). Scholars, texts, traditions: the influence of classical antiquity in Western culture. Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries. p. 31. OCLC 11666932. Greek grammar of another influential Greek immigrant, Demetrius Chalcondyles of Athens (1424-1511), who also worked as a textual critic on a variety of Greek texts including Isocrates (1493). Chrysolaras' text was first published in 1484 and Chalcondyles' in 1493. The value of these grammars cannot be over-emphasized.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
6. Cubberley, Ellwood Patterson (2008). The History of Education Volume 1. BiblioBazaar, LLC. p. 264. ISBN 0554225239, 9780554225234. Another Greek of importance was Demetrius Chalcondyles of Athens (1424—1511), who reached Italy in 1447. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
7. Bisaha, Nancy (1997). Renaissance humanists and the Ottoman Turks. Cornell University. p. 125. OCLC 44529765. The Greek scholar Demetrius Chalcondyles (d. 1511), who taught Greek in Padua, Florence, and Milan
8. Hulme, Edward Maslin (2004). The Renaissance, the Protestant Revolution and the Catholic Reformation in Continental Europe. Kessinger Publishing. p. 91. ISBN 1417942231, 9781417942237. Another Greek who taught in Italy before the fall of Constantinople was Chalcondyles (1424-1511) of Athens. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
9. Bèze, Théodore de; Summers, Kirk M. (2001). A view from the Palatine: the Iuvenilia of Théodore de Bèze. Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. p. 442. ISBN 0866982795 9780866982795. Demetrius Chalcondyles (1423-1511), a Greek refugee who taught Greek at Perugia, Padua, Florence, and Milan. Around 1493 he produced a Greek textbook for beginners. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
10. Beckett, William à (1834). A universal biography: including scriptual, classical and mythological memoirs, together with accounts of many eminent living characters, Volume 1. Mayhew, Isaac and Co. p. 730. OCLC 15617538. CHALCONDYLES (DEMETRIUS), a learned modern Greek, and a native of Athens, came over into Italy about 1447, and after a short abode at Rome
11. Cubberley, Ellwood Patterson (2008). The History of Education Volume 1. BiblioBazaar, LLC. p. 264. ISBN 0554225239, 9780554225234. Another Greek of importance was Demetrius Chalcondyles of Athens (1424—1511), who reached Italy in 1447. In 1450 he became professor of Greek at Perugia, and of his lectures there one of his enthusiastic pupils wrote: A Greek has just arrived, who has begun to teach me with great pains, and I to listen to his precepts with incredible pleasure, because he is Greek, because he is an Athenian, and because he is Demetrius. It seems to me that in him is figured all the wisdom, the civility, and the elegance of those so famous and illustrious ancients. Merely seeing him you fancy you are looking on Plato; far more when you hear him speak. In 1463 Demetrius transferred to Padua as professor of Greek and was the first professor of Greek in a western European university to be paid a fixed salary. He also taught for a long time at Milan, and from 1471 to 1491 was professor of Greek at Florence. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Proctor, the Printing of Greek in the Fifteenth-Century, pp. 66-69.
• Vassileiou, Fotis & Saribalidou, Barbara, Short Biographical Lexicon of Byzantine Academics Immigrants to Western Europe, 2007.

See also

• Byzantine scholars in Renaissance

• 1423 births
• 1511 deaths
• People from Athens
• University of Perugia faculty
• Greek Renaissance humanists
• Byzantine writers
• Greek educators
• Renaissance writers
• Translators from Latin
• 15th-century Byzantine people