{{Short description|Greek scholar (1423–1511)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}} {{Infobox writer | name = Demetrios Chalkokondyles<br /> {{nobold|Δημήτριος Χαλκοκονδύλης}} | image = Demetrios Chalkokondyles - Detail of Angel Appearing to Zacharias by Domenico Ghirlandaio.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Chalkokondyles,<ref>{{cite book |author= Sandys, John Edwin |title= A History of Classical Scholarship ...: From the revival of learning to the end of the eighteenth century (in Italy, France, England, and the Netherlands) |publisher= Cambridge : Univ. Pr |year= 1908 |pages=62–64 | oclc=312685884 |quote= MARSILIO FICINO, CRISTOFORO LANDINO, ANGELO POLIZIANO, and DEMETRIUS CHALCOCONDYLES. Reproduced (by permission) from part of Alinari's photograph of Ghirlandaio's fresco on the south wall of the choir in Santa Maria Novella, Florence (ep. p.64 n.6)… A fresco in Santa Maria Novella painted by Ghirlandaio (d.1498) represents an apparently friendly group of scholars who have been identified as Ficino, Landino, Politian and Demetrius. }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author= Festa, Nicola |title= Umanesimo: Ventisette tavole fuouri testo |publisher= U. Hoepli |year= 1935 |page=108 |oclc=3983429 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author= Riccardi, Palazzo Medici |title= Mostra Medicea: Palazzo Medici, Firenze, 1939-XVII. |publisher= Casa Editrice Marzocco |year= 1939 |page=109 |oclc=7123855 |quote= DEMETRIO CALCONDILA Ritratto: copia dall'originale di Domenico Ghirlandaio negli affreschi della cappella Tornabuoni in SM Novella (1490)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author= Geanakoplos, Deno John |title= Medieval Western civilization and the Byzantine and Islamic worlds: interaction of three cultures |publisher= D. C. Heath |year= 1979 |page= 463 |isbn=978-0-669-00868-5 |quote= This detail of a fresco by the painter Ghirlandaio in Santa Maria Novella, Florence.... Poliziano and Landino, and the Byzantine Demetrius Chalcocondyles, at the extreme right. The latter explained difficult passages in Plato to Ficino. }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Belloni, Gino |author2=Fantoni, Marcello |author3=Drusi, Riccardo |title= Il Rinascimento italiano e l'Europa, Volume 2 |publisher= [[Fondazione Cassamarca]] |year= 2007 |page= 596 |isbn= 978-88-89527-17-7 |quote= Demetrio Calcondila in un particolare dell'Apparizione dell'angelo a Zaccaria di Domenico Ghirlandaio, Firenze }}</ref> detail of ''Zachariah in the Temple'' by [[Domenico Ghirlandaio]]. Fresco. Santa Maria Novella, [[Cappella Tornabuoni]], Florence, Italy. 1486–1490. | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth-date|August 1423}} | birth_place = [[Athens]], [[Duchy of Athens]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1511|1|9|1423|8||df=y}} | death_place = [[Milan]], [[Duchy of Milan]] | nationality = [[Greek people|Greek]]<ref name="Bisaha, Nancy 1997 125">{{cite book |author= Bisaha, Nancy |title=Renaissance humanists and the Ottoman Turks |publisher=Cornell University |year= 1997|page=125 |oclc=44529765 }}</ref> | occupation = [[Scholar]], [[politician]], [[diplomat]], [[philosophy|philosopher]] | movement = [[Renaissance]] | relatives = [[Laonikos Chalkokondyles]] }}
'''Demetrios Chalkokondyles''' ({{langx|el|Δημήτριος Χαλκοκονδύλης}} {{lang|grc-Latn|Dēmḗtrios Chalkokondýlēs}}), [[Latinisation of names|Latinized]] as '''Demetrius Chalcocondyles''' and found variously as '''Demetricocondyles''', '''Chalcocondylas''' or '''Chalcondyles''' (1423{{snd}}9 January 1511),<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Armando |last=Petrucci |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/demetrio-calcondila_(Dizionario-Biografico)/ |title=CALCONDILA (Calcocondila, Χαλκονδύλης Χαλκοκανδύλης), Demetrio |encyclopedia=Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani |language=it |volume=16 |year=1973}}</ref> was one of the most eminent [[Greek people|Greek]] scholars in the West. He taught in Italy for over forty years; his colleagues included [[Marsilio Ficino]], [[Poliziano]], and [[Theodorus Gaza]] in the revival of letters in the Western world, and Chalkokondyles was the last of the Greek [[Renaissance humanism|humanists]] who taught Greek literature at the great universities of the Italian Renaissance ([[University of Padua|Padua]], [[University of Florence|Florence]], [[University of Milan|Milan]]). One of his pupils at Florence was the famous [[Johann Reuchlin]]. Chalkokondyles published the first printed publications of [[Homer]] (in 1488), of [[Isocrates]] (in 1493), and of the [[Suda]] lexicon (in 1499).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/157045/Demetrius-Chalcocondyles|title= Demetrius Chalcocondyles.|publisher= www.britannica.com |accessdate=25 September 2009}}</ref>
==Life== [[File:Academie des sciences et des arts, contenant les vies 1682 (8231666).jpg|thumb|Demetrios Chalkokondyles at the ''Academie des sciences et des arts'', 1682]]
Demetrios Chalkokondyles was born in [[Athens]] in 1423<ref name="Bisaha, Nancy 1997 125"/><ref name=ValerianoGaisser>{{cite book |author1=Valeriano, Pierio |author2=Gaisser, Julia Haig |title= Pierio Valeriano on the ill fortune of learned men: a Renaissance humanist and his world |publisher= University of Michigan Press |year= 1999 |page=281 |isbn= 978-0-472-11055-1 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Stanford University |author2=Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections |author3=Carolan, James M. |author4=Watson, Robert |title=Scholars, texts, traditions: the influence of classical antiquity in Western culture |publisher=Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries |year=1984 |page=31 |oclc=11666932 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author= Hulme, Edward Maslin |title= The Renaissance, the Protestant Revolution and the Catholic Reformation in Continental Europe |url= https://archive.org/details/renaissanceprote00hulm_517 |url-access= limited |publisher= Kessinger Publishing |year= 2004 |page=[https://archive.org/details/renaissanceprote00hulm_517/page/n98 91] |isbn=978-1-4179-4223-7 }}</ref> to one of the noblest Athenian families; he was the cousin of [[Laonicus Chalcocondyles]], the chronicler of the [[fall of Constantinople]]. He soon moved to the [[Peloponnese]], with his Athenian family who had migrated after its persecution by the [[Florence|Florentine]] dukes. He migrated to Italy in 1447<ref name=Cubberley-264>{{cite book |author= Cubberley, Ellwood Patterson |title=The History of Education Volume 1 |publisher= BiblioBazaar, LLC |year= 2008 |page=264 |isbn=978-0-554-22523-4 |quote= Another Greek of importance was Demetrius Chalcocondyles of Athens (1424–1511), who reached Italy in 1447. In 1450 he became professor of Greek at Perugia.}}</ref> and arrived at [[Rome]] in 1449 where [[Cardinal Bessarion]] became his patron.<ref name="EB1911">{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Chalcondyles, Laonicus |display=Chalcondyles, Laonicus s.v. Demetrios Chalcondyles |volume=5 |page=804}}</ref> He became the student of [[Theodorus Gaza]] and later gained the patronage of [[Lorenzo de Medici]], serving as a tutor to his sons. Afterwards Chalkokondyles lived the rest of his life in Italy, as a teacher of Greek and philosophy. One of Chalkokondyles' Italian pupils described his lectures at Perugia, where he taught in 1450:
{{Blockquote|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.<ref name=Cubberley-264/>}}
Among his pupils were [[Janus Lascaris]], [[Poliziano]], [[Leo X]], [[Baldassare Castiglione|Castiglione]], [[Giglio Gregorio Giraldi]], [[Stefano Negri]], and [[Giovanni Maria Cattaneo]].<ref name=ValerianoGaisser/>
In 1463 Chalkokondyles was made professor at [[University of Padua|Padua]], and later, at [[Francesco Philelpho]]'s suggestion, in 1479 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]].<ref name="EB1911"/> Chalkokondyles composed several orations and treatises calling for the liberation of his homeland [[Greece]]<ref>{{cite book |author= Bisaha, Nancy |title=Renaissance humanists and the Ottoman Turks |publisher=Cornell University |year=1997 |page= 29 |oclc=44529765 }}</ref> from what he called “the abominable, monstrous, and impious barbarian Turks.”<ref name=Bisaha>{{cite book |author= Bisaha, Nancy |title=Creating East and West: Renaissance humanists and the Ottoman Turks |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2006 |pages=113–115 |isbn= 978-0-8122-1976-0}}</ref> In 1463 Chalkokondyles called on [[Republic of Venice|Venice]] and "all of the [[Catholic Church|Latins]]" to aid the Greeks against the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]], he identified this as an overdue debt<ref name=Bisaha/> and reminded the Latins how the [[Byzantine Greeks]] once came to Italy's aid against the [[Goths]] in the [[Gothic War (535–554)|Gothic Wars]] (535–554 AD)
{{blockquote|Just as she [Greece] had empended in their behalf [the Latins] all of her most precious and outstanding possessions liberally and without any parsimony, and had restored with her hand and force of arms the state of Italy, long ago oppressed by the Goths, they [the Latins] should in the same way now be willing to raise up prostrate and afflicted Greece and liberate it by arms from the hands of the barbarians.<ref name=Bisaha/>}}
[[File:7277 - Milano - S. Maria della Passione - Corridoio sagrestia - Lapide Demetrio Calcondila (+1511) - Foto Giovanni Dall'Orto, 26-Feb-2008.jpg|thumb|Gravestone in Milan.]]
It was during his tenure at the Studium in Florence that Chalkokondyles edited [[Homer]] for publication, which, dedicated to [[Lorenzo de' Medici]], is his major accomplishment. He assisted Marsilio Ficino with his Latin translation of [[Plato]]. During his tenure at Florence, the German classical scholar [[Johannes Reuchlin]] was one of his pupils.<ref name="EB1911"/> He also taught [[Alessandra Scala]], the Florentine Greek and Latin poet.<ref name=":1">{{cite book|last=Robin|first=Diana|title=Encyclopedia of women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2007|isbn=978-1-85109-772-2|editor-last=Robin|editor-first=Diana|location=Santa Barbara, CA|pages=332–333|editor-last2=Larsen|editor-first2=Anne R.|editor-last3=Levin|editor-first3=Carole}}</ref>
Chalkokondyles married in 1484 at the age of sixty-one and fathered ten children.<ref name=ValerianoGaisser/> Finally, invited by [[Ludovico Sforza]], he moved to Milan (1491/1492), where he taught until he died.
== Works == He wrote in [[Ancient Greek]] the grammar handbook ''Summarized Questions on the Eight Parts of Speech with Some Rules'' ({{lang|grc|Ἐρωτήματα συνοπτικὰ τῶν ὀκτὼ τοῦ λόγου μερῶν μετὰ τινῶν κανόνων}}).<ref>{{cite web |title=All Scholars: Chalkokondyles, Demetrius |url=https://dbcs.rutgers.edu/all-scholars/chalkokondyles-demetrius |website=Database of Classical Scholars |publisher=Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences}}</ref> He translated [[Galen]]'s ''Anatomy'' into Latin.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Park |first=Katharine |date=2006 |title=Secrets of Women: Gender, Generation, and the Origins of Human Dissection |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bJvuAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Zone Books |pages=300 |isbn=978-1-890951-67-2 |language=en}}</ref>
As a scholar, Chalkokondyles published the ''[[List of editiones principes in Greek|editio princeps]]'' of Homer (Florence 1488), [[Isocrates]] (Milan 1493) and the [[Byzantine]] ''[[Suda]]'' 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]] * [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10722775p/f5.image.r=DEMETRIUS%20Chalcondylas/ Ἡ τοῦ Ὁμήρου ποίησις ἅπασα], 1488, ''[[editio princeps]]'' of Homer's ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'', edited by [[Bernardus Nerlius]] and Chalkokondyles, appeared in Florence, not before 13 January 1489, in two folio volumes. It was the first Greek book to be printed in Florence.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Homer Editio Princeps |url=https://library.chethams.com/collections/101-treasures-of-chethams/homer-editio-princeps/ |access-date=7 January 2021 |website=Chetham's Library}}</ref> The Greek type used to print the 1488–1489 Homer is believed to have been cast by the [[Crete|Cretan]] [[Demetrius Damilas]] from the type that he had used to print [[Constantine Lascaris]]' ''[[Erotemata]]'' (Milan, 1476), the first book to be printed entirely in Greek, based upon the hand of Damilas's fellow scribe [[Michael Apostolis]].<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=Corinne Ondine |editor-last=Pache |chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-guide-to-homer/homer-in-renaissance-europe-14881649/D1F4F1EB61E6F6B565B28EFEE8D5D341 |title=The Cambridge Guide to Homer |date=February 2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |chapter=Homer in Renaissance Europe (1488‒1649) |pages=490–504 |doi=10.1017/9781139225649 |isbn=9781139225649 |s2cid=212932139 |url=https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/8b665ada-1c19-4ebc-9183-f3e5c8753ee2 }}</ref>
[[File:Page from the first printed edition (editio princeps) of collected works by Homer.jpg|thumb|center|upright|Page from the first printed edition ([[editio princeps]]) of collected works by [[Homer]] edited by Demetrios Chalkokondyles. Florence, 1489. [[Bibliothèque Nationale de France]]]]
==See also== * [[Chalkokondyles|Chalkokondyles family]] * [[Greek scholars in the Renaissance]]
== Citations == {{Reflist}}
== General and cited references== * Bisaha, Nancy. ''Creating East and West: Renaissance Humanists and the Ottoman Turks'', University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006, pp. 113–15. {{ISBN|978-0-8122-1976-0}}. * Geanakoplos, Deno J. "The Discourse of Demetrius Chalcocondyles on the Inauguration of Greek Studies at the University of Padua", ''Studies in the Renaissance'', 21 (1974), 118–44 and in Deno J. Geanakoplos, ''Interaction of the 'Sibling' Byzantine and Western Cultures in the Middle Ages and Italian Renaissance (330–1600)'', New Haven and London, 1976, pp. 296–304. * Harris, Jonathan. ''Greek Émigrés in the West, 1400–1520'', Camberley: Porphyrogenitus, 1995. {{ISBN|978-1-871328-11-0}}. * Proctor, Robert. ''The Printing of Greek in the Fifteenth-Century'', London, 1930, pp. 66–9. * Vassileiou, Fotis, & Barbara Saribalidou. ''Short Biographical Lexicon of Byzantine Academics Immigrants to Western Europe'', 2007. * Wilson, N. G. ''From Byzantium to Italy: Greek Studies in the Italian Renaissance'', London, 1992. {{ISBN|978-0-7156-2418-0}}.
== External links == {{Commons category|Demetrios Chalkondyles}} * {{MathGenealogy|id=131576}} * "[http://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2019/12/15/heres-where-you-can-buy-a-real-first-edition-copy-of-the-iliad/ The 'First Edition' of the ''Iliad'']", article about the textual history the ''Iliad''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chalcocondyles, Demetrius}} [[Category:1423 births]] [[Category:1511 deaths]] [[Category:15th-century Byzantine writers]] [[Category:15th-century Greek educators]] [[Category:15th-century Greek writers]] [[Category:15th-century writers in Latin]] [[Category:16th-century Greek educators]] [[Category:16th-century Greek male writers]] [[Category:16th-century Greek writers]] [[Category:Academic staff of the University of Perugia]] [[Category:Byzantine writers]] [[Category:Chalkokondyles family|Demetrius]] [[Category:Greek Renaissance humanists]] [[Category:Greek–Latin translators]] [[Category:Renaissance writers]] [[Category:Writers from Athens]]