The letters of George-Gennadios scholarios to members of the ruling elite in fifteenth-century Peloponnese: introduction, translation, and commentary

Abstract

George-Gennadios Scholarios (ca. 1400-ca. 1472) is a late Byzantine intellectual and a man of religion. He was born a Byzantine and died an Ottoman, which highlights his witnessing a crucial transition period. Scholarios held different positions throughout his life: he was imperial secretary, official sermonist, general judge, monk, and in the end the first patriarch under Ottoman rule. His last position itself is adequate to recognize his importance. Scholarios left abundant literary material that is compiled in eight volumes yet not fully translated into a modern language. This study aims at translating six of his letters that were sent to various members of the ruling elite in the Peloponnese in the first half of the fifteenth century, and evaluating the findings in light of fifteenth-century Peloponnesian politics; in a modest attempt to fill a gap in the relevant historiography. The addressees are Despot Theodore II, Alexios Laskaris, Despot Constantine, Despot Demetrios, and Manuel Raoul Oises. They are either people who could assist Scholarios leave Constantinople and start a new career in the Peloponnese, or anti- Unionists like him with whom Scholarios felt the need to cooperate against the Union. In the end he neither had the opportunity to leave Constantinople for the Peloponnese, nor hinder the eminent Union, which came about in 1452, months before the fall of Constantinople.