JOHN PLOUSIADENOS

253 Pages·2020·2.471 MB·English

O R I E N TA L I A
L OVA N I E N S I A
A N A L E C TA
John Plousiadenos
(1423?-1500)
A Time-Space Geography of his Life
and Career
by
ELEFTHERIOS DESPOTAKIS
PEETERS
JOHN PLOUSIADENOS
(1423?-1500)
Questi sono gli huomini et religiosi di Candia, ritratti dal suo naturale
(Houghton Library, MS Riant 6, 15th c.)
ORIENTALIA LOVANIENSIA
ANALECTA
————— 284 —————
BIBLIOTHÈQUE DE BYZANTION
21
JOHN PLOUSIADENOS
(1423?-1500)
A Time-Space Geography of his Life and Career
by
ELEFTHERIOS DESPOTAKIS
PEETERS
LEUVEN – PARIS – BRISTOL, CT
2020
A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
© 2020, Peeters Publishers, Bondgenotenlaan 153, B-3000 Leuven/Louvain (Belgium)
All rights reserved, including the rights to translate or to
reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form.
ISBN 978-90-429-3787-1
eISBN 978-90-429-3788-8
D/2020/0602/13
To Polyvios & Zoi

CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IX
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XI
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XIII
1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
I. The ecclesiastical state in Crete after the Fourth Crusade . . . 1
II. Crete and the Union of the Churches: Uniate trends and anti-Uniate
resistance in the first half of the 15th century . . . . . . . 6
2. THE FIRST STEPS OF CAREER PLANNING . . . . . . . . . . 13
I. The Cretan background of his education . . . . . . . . 13
II. The establishment of Bessarion’s Bequest . . . . . . . 24
III. The codex Ambrosianus H 41 sup. (Martini-Bassi 429) . . . 29
3. PERCEPTIONS AND REALITIES IN THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF CHANDAX. . . 41
I. The encyclical monitory letter to the Orthodox priests of Chandax 41
II. The letter of Bessarion in 1465 and the Uniates’ everyday life . 44
III. Fifteen years of contest for the office of vice-protopapas . . . 50
4. INTELLECTUAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL LANDSCAPE . . . . . . . . 61
I. Crete, Rome and the “codices Marciani” . . . . . . . 61
II. The project of the Castle Montauto and the Greek community of
Venice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
III. The hegoumenìa at St Demetrios’ de Perati monastery and the
ascension to the bishopric throne of Methone . . . . . . . 87
APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
I. The Prayer to the Holy Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
II. The Pattern for the Catholic confession . . . . . . . . 115
III. Manuscripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
IV. Archival documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
V. Tables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
INDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
I. Index of manuscripts cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
II. Index of names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am indebted to numerous teachers, colleagues and friends who have gener-
ously given off themselves to advice, support and encourage me during this
project. First and foremost, I owe my deepest debt of gratitude to Antonio Rigo
who has patiently and kindly directed the development of this work during my
postdoctoral fellowship at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. I am also
profoundly grateful to Thierry Ganchou, who has so generously given of his
time and shared his erudition at every stage of my research and at this book in
particular. This work is also a product of my research fellowship at the Hellenic
Institute of Byzantine and Post-byzantine Studies in Venice where I benefited
of the supervision of Chryssa Maltezou who first inspired my interest in the
archival research and supported me with consistent care and quality. For all of
her contributions, I express my warmest gratitude. My sincere gratitude also
goes to my academic supervisor at Athens, Anastasia Papadia-Lala, for guiding
me through my Ph.D. dissertation on the Uniates of Crete (15th c.) and offering
me several very helpful suggestions. Last but not least, I would like to thank
Peter Van Deun for his careful reading of the manuscript and for his valuable
comments and corrections. Finally, I want to thank all those who have facili-
tated my work and supported the conclusion of this book: Panagiotis Athana-
sopoulos, Olivier Delouis, Marina Detoraki, Paolo Eleuteri, Christian Förstel,
Ciro Giacomelli, Ottavia Mazzon, Brigitte Mondrain, Symeon Paschalidis and
Arnold Van Gemert.