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The basic Greek grammar of the great Humanists, written by the pioneer in spreading Greek literature in the West

CHRYSOLORAS, Manuel.
Erotemata. (In Greek). Latin text on the title: Erotemata Chrysolorae. De anomalis verbis. De formatione temporum ex libro Chalcondylae: Quartus Gazae de constructione. De encleticis. Sententiae monostichi ex variis poetis. Cato.

Small woodcut printer's device of a crowned mermaid within cartouche on title and the same (larger) device on the recto of the last leaf underneath the colophon.

Venice, Victor Raban, 1540. Small 8vo. Later half calf, spine with black title-label, red marbled edges. Small woodcut printer's device of a crowned mermaid within cartouche on title and the same (larger) device on the recto of the last leaf underneath the colophon. 270, (2, last blank) pp.

Early edition in Greek of this original grammar and vocabulary of the Greek language based on the question and answer method, written by Manuel Chrysoloras to teach the Florentines Greek. Chrysoloras was sent to Italy by the Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Palaeologus to solicit aid for the Greeks in their war against the Turcs. He was chosen for this mission because of his diplomatic skills and great intelligence. After his arrival in Italy he was invited to Florence to teach Greek and in this way he helped to revive the study of Greece in the Christian West. As he was the first to bring the people of Florence in contact with Greek, he had to start with the basics and for that purpose he wrote his Erotemata ('Questions'), an original Greek grammar and vocabulary text. As he insisted on very good, clear and exact translations he is also considered as the father of modern translation.
Chrysoloras translated the works of Homer and Plato's Republic into Latin. His own works, which circulated in manuscript in his lifetime, include brief works on the Procession of the Holy Ghost, and letters to his brothers, to L. Bruni, Guauni, Traversari, and to Pallas Strozzi, as well as two works which were eventually printed, his Epistolæ tres de comparatione veteris et novæ Romæ (Three Letters Comparing Ancient and Modern Rome), and this Erotemata Civas Questiones which was the first basic Greek grammar in use in Western Europe, first published in 1484 and widely reprinted, and which enjoyed considerable success not only among his pupils in Florence, but also among later leading humanists, being immediately studied by Thomas Linacre at Oxford and by Erasmus. Many of his treatises on morals and ethics and other philosophical subjects came into print in the 17th and 18th centuries, because of their antiquarian interest. He was also active in trying to arrange for a general council to consider union of the Greek and Latin churches. He was on his way to the Council of Constance, having been chosen to represent the Greek Church, when he died.

The Erotmata was first published in Greek in 1485. Victor Raban printed this version for the first time in 1531, our copy belonging to the second edition.
Chrysoloras taught at many universities. After being a professor at Florence till 1396 he was in Bologna till 1400 and later in Venice, Paris and Rome. He died in 1415 in Constance, Germany. It is supposed that he was at the age of 40-45 when he came to Italy and that he was born in Greece around 1353 in Constantinople as the son of a wealthy and powerful family.

Good copy with ms. signature on title-page (Sr. Nicolai de'Gualdo), and many ms. notes in margins.- (Recased: ms. notes in margins cut short, waterstained).

Cf. Ritter 476 (Strasbourg 4to edition 1516); STC Italian, p. 172; S. Mergiali-Sahas, 'Manuel Chrysoloras: an ideal model of a scholar ambassador', in: Byzantine Studies/Etudes Byzantines, 3 (1998), pp. 1-12; I. Thompson, `Manuel Chrysoloras and the early Italian Renaissance', in: Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 7 (1966), pp. 63-82; Lydia Thorn-Wikkert, Manuel Chrysoloras (ca. 1350-1415): Eine Biographie des byzantinischen Intellektuellen vor dem Hintergrund der hellenistischen Studien in der italienischen Renaissance (Frankfurt a/M, 2006).

Related Subjects: 16th Century Classical Antiquity Humanism

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