George Gemistos Plethon

Works

• 1439On the Differences between Aristotle and Plato (De differentiis)

  Treatise written in Florence during the Church council for Latin readers: Aristotle falls short of Plato because he makes God a mover rather than a creator, rejects the Forms and puts individual things before universals; it started a Plato–Aristotle controversy among Greek and Latin scholars.

• c. 1450Book of Laws (Nomoi)

  His last work, largely burned after his death on the orders of the patriarch Gennadios Scholarios: in the names of Greek gods it sets out a theology of an eternal order proceeding from Zeus as first principle, with an ethics, a calendar and hymns.

Position

Plethon is on the map as a Byzantine Platonist and as a link between Byzantium and the revival of Plato in the Italian Renaissance. In “On the Differences” he argued that Aristotle fell short of Plato: Aristotle made God the mover of the heavens rather than the creator of all things, rejected the Forms, ranked individual things above universals and left the immortality of the soul unclear. The treatise, written for Latin scholars who knew Aristotle well and Plato hardly at all, set off a controversy that lasted decades: Gennadios Scholarios defended Aristotle, George of Trebizond attacked Plato, and Bessarion defended him in “Against the Slanderer of Plato” (1469). The “Book of Laws” set out, under the names of Greek gods, a philosophical theology: Zeus as the first, uncreated principle, from whom proceeds an eternal order of gods that correspond to the Forms, then the world and the human soul; Plethon traced this wisdom back through Plato to Zoroaster and commented on the “Chaldean Oracles”, which he attributed to the Magi. Whether he meant it as a pagan religion or as a philosophy within Christianity is disputed (C. M. Woodhouse 1986; B. Tambrun 2006; V. Hladký 2014). Ficino wrote in 1492 that Cosimo de’ Medici had heard Plethon in Florence and had then conceived the plan of an academy; historians now treat this account with caution.

Life & context

George Gemistos, who later called himself Plethon, was born in Constantinople around 1355–60. Little is known of his education; according to his later opponent Gennadios Scholarios he studied with a Jewish scholar, Elissaios, at the Ottoman court, where he learned of Zoroaster. Around 1409 he settled at Mistra in the Peloponnese, the capital of the Byzantine despotate of the Morea, where he taught, held public office and received estates from the emperor. In memoranda to Emperor Manuel II and the despot Theodore II (c. 1416–18) he proposed reforms of the army, taxation and landholding. In 1438–39 he accompanied Emperor John VIII to the Council of Ferrara–Florence on the union of the Churches, where in 1439 he wrote “On the Differences between Aristotle and Plato”. Among his students was Bessarion, later a cardinal. He died at Mistra in 1452; some scholars argue for 1454. Around 1460 Scholarios, now patriarch, had most of the manuscript of the “Book of Laws” burned; in the 1460s Sigismondo Malatesta brought his remains to Rimini.

Further main works

• Memoranda to Manuel II and Theodore II on the Peloponnese (c. 1416–18)
• Reply to Scholarios’ defence of Aristotle
• Magical Oracles of the Magi, Disciples of Zoroaster, with commentary