Jacopo d'Angelo

Jacopo d'Angelo's Latin translation of Ptolemy's Geography (c. 1411–1427); scan from the Nancy Library.
Manuel Chrysoloras, renowned professor of Greek in medieval Italy,[1] portrayed by Paolo Uccello in 1408. Drawing currently preserved in the Louvre Museum, Paris.

Giacomo or Jacopo d'Angelo, also surnamed De Scarperia,[2] (c. 1360–1411), better known by his Latin name Jacobus Angelus, was an Italian classical scholar, humanist, and translator of ancient Greek texts during the Renaissance. Named for the village of Scarperia in the Mugello in the Republic of Florence, he traveled to Venice where the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos' ambassador Manuel Chrysoloras (c. 1350–1415) was teaching Greek, the first scholar to hold such course in medieval Italy.[1]

Da Scarperia returned with Chrysoloras to Constantinople—the first Florentine to do so—along with Guarino da Verona. In the Byzantine Empire, he studied Greek literature and history under Demetrios Kydones.[3] Coluccio Salutati wrote to urge Da Scarperia to search the libraries there, particularly for editions of Homer and Greek dictionaries, with the result that he translated Ptolemy's Geography into Latin in 1406. He first dedicated it to Pope Gregory IX and then to Pope Alexander V in 1409.[4] He also brought new texts of Homer, Aristotle, and Plato to the attention of Western scholars of philosophy and ancient Greek literature.

  1. ^ a b Arabatzis, George (2011). "Manuel Chrysoloras". In Lagerlund, Henrik (ed.). Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy: Philosophy between 500 and 1500. Dordrecht: Springer Verlag. pp. 709–711. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-9729-4. ISBN 978-1-4020-9729-4. Manuel Chrysoloras (c. 1350–1415) was a Byzantine writer and scholar better known as professor of Greek language in Florence after 1397, the first one to hold public teaching office of Greek in Italy. His audience included famous Italian humanists like Guarino da Verona (his most loyal pupil), Jacopo Angeli da Scarperia, Coluccio Salutati, Roberto Rossi, Niccolò Niccoli, Leonardo Bruni, Carlo Marsuppini, Pier Paolo Vergerio, Uberto Decembrio, Poggio Bracciolini, and others. After 1400, Chrysoloras left his teaching position and carried out mainly diplomatic missions in the service of the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos.
  2. ^ His name is variously given as Giacomo Angeli da Scarperia, Giacomo d'Angelo da Scarperia, Jacopo Angeli, Jacopo d'Angelo da Scarperia, Jacopo di Angelo da Scarperia, Jacopo Angeli de Scarperia, Iacopo Angeli da Scarperia, &c.
  3. ^ John Edwin Sandys, A History of Classical Scholarship 1908:II, 19.
  4. ^ Thorndike 1923:81f

© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search