Leontius Pilatus

Leozio Pilatus, or Leontius ("Leonzio Pilato"; d. 1366), one of the earliest promoters of Greek studies in Western Europe, was a native of Seminara, Reggio Calabria. According to Petrarch, he was a Calabrian, who posed as a Greek in the Italian peninsula, and as an Italian abroad.

In 1360, Pilatus went to Florence at the invitation of Boccaccio, by whose influence he was appointed to a lectureship in Greek at the "Studio", the first appointment of the kind in the west. After three years he accompanied Boccaccio to Venice on a visit to Petrarch, whom he had already met at Padua. Petrarch, disgusted with his manners and habits, dispatched him to Constantinople to purchase manuscripts of classical authors. Pilatus soon tired of his mission and, although Petrarch refused to receive him again, set sail for Venice. Just outside the Gulf of Venice he was struck dead by lightning.

His chief importance lies in his connection with Petrarch and Boccaccio. He made a bald and almost word for word translation of Homer into Latin prose for Boccaccio, subsequently sent to Petrarch, who owed his introduction to the poet to Pilatus and was anxious to obtain a complete translation. Pilatus also furnished Boccaccio with some of the material for his genealogy of the gods ("Genealogia deorum gentilium libri") which was, according to Edward Gibbon:"a work, in that age, of stupendous erudition, and which he ostentatiously sprinkled with Greek characters and passages, to excite the wonder and applause of his more ignorant readers." [Part 4, Ch. 66 [http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/roman/TheDeclineandFallofTheRomanEmpire-6/chap26.html online text] ]

ee also

* Byzantine scholars in Renaissance

References

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