Chrysoloras, Manuel

Chrysoloras, Manuel

(krĭsəlôr`əs), c.1350–1415, Greek teacher and writer, b. Constantinople. Traveling to Italy on a diplomatic mission, he became celebrated for his teaching and introduced Greek literature into Florence and other Italian cities. Among his works were a Greek grammar, translations of Plato and Homer, and a Comparison of the Old and New Rome, an important source on the survival and placement of monuments in Rome and Constantinople. His pupils included a number of the finest early Renaissance scholars. Through Chrysoloras's teaching, the culture of classical Greece became the foundation of humanist studies in the West.