ABSTRACT
George of Trebizond and Cardinal Bessarion were two of the most consequential Greek emigres to Renaissance Italy. George translated perhaps more Greek patristic, philosophical, scientific, and literary texts than any other Renaissance humanist. George of Trebizond learned philosophy in Italy and was an enormous admirer of Latin scholasticism, especially of the Dominicans Thomas Aquinas and Albert the Great. Bessarion had more manuscripts and incunabula of Thomas in his library than he did of any other Latin author, including Cicero. Bessarion’s In Calumniatorem Platonis could continue to serve into the 1510s as a rich mine of translations, references, and arguments. But George’s Comparatio had already become something of a cultural anachronism unless one believed that Martin Luther was the ‘fourth’ and final Plato of apocalyptic history.
