GEMISTUS PLETHO

This article appears in Volume V11, Page 573 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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GEMISTUS PLETHO [or PLETHON), GEORGIUS (c. 1355-1450), Greek Platonic philosopher and scholar, one of the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

pioneers of the revival of learning in Western Europe, was a Byzantine by

birth

BIRTH (a word common in various forms to Teutonic languages from the root of the verb " to bear ")

who settled at Mistra in the Peloponnese, the site of ancient Sparta. He changed his name from Gemistus to the equivalent Pletho (" the full "), perhaps owing to the similarity of sound between that name and that of his master Plato. He invented a religious system founded on the speculative mysticism of the Neoplatonists, and founded a sect, the members of which believed that the new creed would supersede all existing forms of belief. But he is chiefly memorable for having introduced Plato to the Western world. This took place upon his visit to Florence in 1439, as one of the deputies from

Constantinople

CONSTANTINOPLE
CONSTANTINOPLE, COUNCILS OF

on occasion of the general council. Cardinal Bessarion became his disciple; he produced a

great

GREAT

impression upon Cosimo de' Medici; and though not himself making any very important contribution to the study of Plato, he effectually shook the exclusive domination which Aristotle had exercised overEuropean thought for eight centuries. He promoted the union of the Greek and Latin Churches as far as possible, but his efforts in this direction bore no permanent fruit. He probably died before the capture of

Constantinople

CONSTANTINOPLE
CONSTANTINOPLE, COUNCILS OF

. The most important of his published works are treatises on the distinction between Plato and Aristotle as philosophers (published at Venice in 1540); on the religion of Zoroaster (Paris, 1538); on the

condition

CONDITION (Lat. condicio, from condicere, to agree upon, arrange; not connected with conditio, from condere, conditum, to put together)

of the Peloponnese (ed. A. Ellissen in Analekten der mittel- and neugriechischen Literatur, iv.); and the Nboe (ed. C. Alexandre, Paris, 1858). In addition to these he compiled several volumes of excerpts from ancient authors, and-wrote a number of works on geography, music and other subjects, many of which still exist in MS. in various European libraries.
See especially F. Schultze, Geschichte der Philosophie der Renaissance, i. (1874); also A. Symonds, The Renaissance in Italy (1877), ii. p. 198; H. F. 'Tozer, " A Byzantine Reformer," in Journal of Hellenic Studies, vii. (1886), chiefly on Pletho's

scheme

SCHEME (Lat. schema, Gr. oxfjya, figure, form, from the root axe, seen in exeiv, to have, hold, to be of such shape, form, &c.)

of political and social reform for the Peloponnese, as set forth in the pamphlets addressed to Manuel II. Palaeologus and his son

Theodore

, despot of the Morea; W. Gass, Gennadius and Pletho (1844). Most of Pletho's works will be found in J. P. Migne, Pairologia Graeca, clx. ; for a complete

list

LIST (O.E.
lisle
- LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685)
, a Teutonic word, cf. Dut. lust, Ger. Leiste, adapted in Ital. lista and Fr.
lisle
- LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685)
)
FRIEDRICH
- FRIEDRICH, JOHANN (1836— )
_1789_1846_.html">LIST,
FRIEDRICH
- FRIEDRICH, JOHANN (1836— )
(1789-1846)

see Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca (ed. Harles), xii.

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