Manuel Chrysoloras

Manuel Chrysoloras, who lived from about 1350 until his death on April 15, 1415, was a Byzantine Greek scholar and diplomat born in Constantinople who served as an ambassador for Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos and became renowned for introducing ancient Greek literature to Western Europe during the early Renaissance. Invited to Florence in the winter of 1397, he taught Greek language and literature there until 1400 before moving on to Bologna, Venice and Rome, translating works of Homer, Aristotle and Plato into Latin and training influential humanists including Leonardo Bruni, Guarino da Verona and Jacopo d'Angelo. His Erotemata, or Questions, became the first basic Greek grammar used in Western Europe after its publication in 1484, later studied at Oxford and Cambridge by figures including Thomas Linacre and Desiderius Erasmus, and he also wrote a comparison of ancient Rome and Constantinople. He undertook further diplomatic missions to Paris and Germany from 1408 onward and died in Constance while traveling to represent the Greek Church at a church council.