Georgius Gemistus Pletho

Background

George Gemistos was born some time after 1355, probably in Constantinople.

Education

As a young man he went to study at Adrianopolis, by now the Ottoman capital following its capture by the Ottoman Sultan Murad I in 1365. Adrianopolis was now a centre of learning modelled by Murat on the caliphates of Cairo and Baghdad. He admired Plato (Greek: Plátōn) so much that late in life he took the similar-meaning name Plethon.

Career

He maintained a school at Misithra in the Peloponnesos. Pletho is reported to have taken that name because of its similarity to that of his mentor Plato, whom he introduced to the West in 1439 during his visit to Florence to attend the council held there in the interest of reunifying the Greek and Roman churches. Here Cosimo de' Medici was attracted to him, and helped him found a Platonic academy; a Neoplatonic sect then sprang up under Pletho's promotion. His Religion of Zoroaster was published in Paris in 1538 and the Distinction Between Plato and Aristotle in Venice in 1540.

Achievements

• Many of Pletho's works still exist in manuscript form in various European libraries. Most of Pletho's works can be found in J. P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, collection.