- Gregory Choniades
Gregory Choniades (Choniates, Chioniades) (died 1302) was a Byzantine Greek
astronomer . He founded an astronomicalacademy at Trebizond.Information about Choniades survives from some contemporary sources. In 1347,
George Chrysococces (Chrysococcis) writes that "a certain Chioniades, who had been raised inConstantinople , fell in love withmathematics and other sciences. After he had masteredmedicine , he wished to studyastronomy ; he was informed that, in order to satisfy his desire, he would have to go to Persia. He traveled to Trebizond, where he was given some assistance by the EmperorAlexios II of Trebizond , and thence proceeded to Persia itself, where he persuaded yet another Emperor to aid him. He eventually learned all that he wished to know, and returned to Trebizond, bearing away from Persia a number of astronomical texts which he translated into Greek."Pingree, "Gregory Choniades", 141]Sixteen of Choniades' letters have survived, which confirm that he received assistance from Alexius II and traveled to Persia. Choniades translated a number of Arabic and Persian works on mathematics and astronomy, including the astronomical tables of his teacher
Sams-ud-Din , and introduced theastrolabe to Europe. He also translated the "Sinjaric Tables" byal-Khazini , an Islamic astronomer of Byzantine Greek descent, from Arabic into Greek. [David Pingree (1964), "Gregory Chioniades and Palaeologan Astronomy", "Dumbarton Oaks Papers" 18, p. 135-160.]Choniades also visited
Tabriz , at the time theMongol capital, and served as Orthodox Bishop there. He seems to have been in Tabriz from 1295 to 1296 and returned to Constantinople. In 1302, he returned to Tabriz as Bishop. According to David Pingree, this may have been in connection withAlexios II of Trebizond 's attempt to form an alliance withGhazan Khan in the summer of 1302.He died at Constantinople, probably in the second decade of the fourteenth century.
Notes
Further reading
*Pingree, David, "Gregory Choniades and Palaeologan Astronomy," in "Dumbarton Oaks Papers", 18, 1964, pp. 135-160.
* Fryde, Edmund Boleslaw "The Early Palaeologan Renaissance 1261 - C. 1360" 2000
* Leichter, Joseph (student of David Pingree). [http://www.archive.org/details/TheZijAs-sanjariOfGregoryChioniades "The Zij as-Sanjari of Gregory Chioniades: Text, Translation and Greek to Arabic Glossary". ]
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