Laskaris, Constantine

Konstantin Laskaris, portrait fantasy of the late 18th century

Konstantin Laskaris ( Greek Κωνσταντίνος Λάσκαρης , 1434 - 1501 ) is a Byzantine scholar and grammar, one of the initiators of the revival of teaching Greek in Italy.

Born in Constantinople in the noble Bethina clan of the Laskaris , to which several emperors belonged. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, he took refuge on the island of Rhodes , and then in Italy, where he was appointed as a teacher to the daughter of Francesco Sforza , Duke of Milan . Here in 1476 his famous “Greek Grammar” was published (Grammatica Graeca, sive compendium octo orationis partium); it was the first printed Greek book.

After leaving Milan in 1465, Laskaris taught in Naples , where he was invited by Ferdinand I to give a lecture course on Greece. The next year he settled in Messina on about. Sicily at the invitation of local residents. On the recommendation of Cardinal Vissarion of Nicaea, he was appointed to teach the Greek language of Basilian monks and continued to teach in Sicily until his death. Among his many students were Pietro Bembo , Francesco Gianelli, Nicolo Valla. Laskaris bequeathed his library of valuable manuscripts to the Senate of Messina; this collection was subsequently transported to Spain and is currently in the National Library of Madrid .

The grammar, which has often been reprinted, is an exceptionally significant work by Laskaris. His name was later known to readers of the novel by Abel-Francois Wilman "Laskaris, or the Greeks of the XV century" (1825).