Cardinal Bessarion (1403-1472)

Cardinal Bessarion was a towering figure in the fifteenth-century Renaissance. His life spanned the century. In his sixty-nine years of life, he was a stellar student, a Basilian monk, a Greek Orthodox archbishop, a Roman cardinal, a papal diplomat, and an eminent humanist and scholar.

Cardinal Bessarion’s life and career were shaped by the tidal wave of the advance of the Ottoman Turks towards the West and by the centuries-old tension between the Orthodox East and the Latin West. He made a significant impact in both these areas. His long-term legacy is his contribution to the revival of classical learning in the Renaissance.

This biography presents Cardinal Bessarion in his time, exploring his personal perspective on his times and experience. It will be of interest to anybody with an interest in the European Renaissance and to specialists in Christian/Islamic relations in the period, the theological tensions between the Latin West and the Greek East, and the history of scholarship.

Author Biography

Michael Malone-Lee took an undergraduate degree in classics at Oxford University. He had a career of nearly thirty years in the British civil service where he served in senior positions in several departments of state. He later became Vice Chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University. In retirement he returned to classics and did a doctorate at Oxford University on Cardinal Bessarion and the transmission of Plato in the fifteenth century. Until recently he was teaching undergraduates Latin and Greek.