From Byzantium to Italy

Which famous poet treasured his copy of Homer but could never learn Greek? What prompted diplomats to circulate a speech by Demosthenes - in Latin translation - when the Turks threatened to invade Europe? Why would enthusiastic Florentines crowd a lecture on the Roman Neoplatonist Plotinus but underestimate the importance of Plato himself? Having all but disappeared during the Middle Ages classical Greek would recover a position of importance - eventually equal to that of classical Latin - only after a series of surprising failures chance encounters and false starts.<br/><br/>This important study of the rediscovery and growing influence of classical Greek scholarship in Italy from the 14th to the early 16th centuries is brought up to date in a new edition that reflects on the recent developments in the field of classical reception studies and contains fully up-to-date references to aid students and scholars. From a leading authority on Greek palaeography in the English-speaking world here is a complete account of the historic rediscovery of Greek philosophy language and literature during the Renaissance brought up-to-date for a modern audience of classicists historians and students and scholars of reception studies and the Classical Tradition.