Late Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Thought

Τhe series of lectures will focus on philosophical currents in the Greek world of late Byzantium and after the fall of Constantinople to the Greek Revolution of 1821. Prima facie, it will examine the influences of certain Byzantine scholars, eminent humanists and political philosophers in Italy and, more importantly, their contribution to the movement of the Renaissance. The lectures will reflect on the case of Emmanuel Chrysoloras, a student of the Byzantine scholar Dimitrios Cydones, who taught Greek in Florence and disseminated influential classical Greek philosophical and literary works, for which the Latin world had acquired very little knowledge since then. Such works include Homer’s Odyssey, Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Politics.