Opening the imagination - expressing the heart

Gemistos Plethon was born in Constantinople sometime between 1355 and 1360, his father seems to have been chief secretary at the great church of Hagia Sophia, now an immense mosque in Sultanahmet, the old quarter of Istanbul. Some members of his family entered monastic service, one at Mount Athos, another perhaps at Chora. Gemistos himself had a singular distaste for monastic life, and in his later years in Italy and on the island of Mistra displayed a singular lack of interest in Christianity generally, quite in keeping with his adopted character as 'last of the Hellenes' and a living representative of the ancient Sun-cult. At Constantinople he would probably have entered a course of basic education at Hagia Sophia, perhaps under the general tutelage of the great Nikephoras Gregoras, or the eminent Demetrios Kydones. Gemistos Plethon is known to have excelled in the higher education provided, compiling text books for other students ranging from grammar to musical theory, and correcting numerous ancient manuscripts of the astronomical and geographical works of Claudius Ptolemy and of Strabo. Gemistos taught mathematical and literary subjects to many distinguished pupils, one of whom was later to become the immensely powerful Cardinal Bessarion.

Whilst still at Constantinople Gemistos sought out a private tutor, the Hellenized Jewish scholar Elissaeus. Plethos' adversary, the Patriarch Gennadios, lists amongst Elissaeus' influences the writings of the Arab philosopher Averroes (Abu Walid ibn Rushid), the Neoplatonists Iamblichus and Proclus, and the Persian mage Zoroaster. Exactly who Elissaeus was is hard to define, we know that Jews held administrative and teaching posts throughout the Byzantine empire, indeed the traveller Benjamin of Tudela wrote that already by 1168 two and a half thousand Jewish merchants and silk-workers lived in a ghetto across the Golden Horn. Gemistos Plethon could certainly not read Arabic, there is much evidence to suggest that he read nor spoke any significant amount of Latin, and that Hebrew was also unknown to him, as by his time much of the preserved writings and commentaries on ancient philosophy were preserved in these languages and not in the original Greek, we can suppose that Plethon resorted to a Jewish teacher who could provide him with texts.

Elissaeus must have been an unusually gifted and learned man, not only is he credited with producing Greek translations of the Old Testament books (preserved now in the library of St. Marks in Venice ) which he gave to Pletho or to his pupil Bessarion, he also introduced Plethon to the magical and occult writings of his own heritage. According to the Patriarch Gennadios "..this man (Elissaeus) also expounded to Gemistos the doctrines of Zoroaster and others. He was ostensibly a Jew, but in fact a pagan. Gemistos stayed with hjm for a long time, not only as his pupil but in his service, living at his expense, for he was one of the most influential men at the court.." Now we already know that the 'doctrines of Zoroaster' meant the Chaldaean Oracles to Gemistos Plethon, and that he is widely regarded as having himself invented this connection between the two; is it not equally possible, bearing in mind the statement of Gennadios, that the Jew Elissaeus impressed upon Plethos mind the Magian, or Zoroastrian origin of these verses, and that such an orientalizing view of them would be in keeping with a Jewish scholar? Certainly, Plethons selection of verses from the Chaldaean Oracles is briefer than that of the eleventh century occultist Michael Psellus, whose handwritten manuscripts remained in Plethons possession for most of his life, supplied either by Elissaeus, by his old tutor Nikephoras Gregoras who also showed an interest in the Oracles, or bought by Gemistos from one of the numerous dealers in manuscripts working in Constantinople.

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Last modified: November 09, 2003