Bessarion

Bessarion, Johannes, was born at Trebizond in 1395 (or 1389). He became archbishop of Nicaea in 1437, and went to Rome in order to negotiate for the union of the Eastern and Western churches. Pope Eugenius made him a cardinal, and gave him preferment and employment. Though raised to the nominal patriarchate of Constantinople in 1463, he spent his life chiefly in Italy, where he was one of the great promoters of the revival of letters, being a learned Greek scholar. He translated Aristotle's Metaphysics and Xenophon's Memorabilia, and endeavoured to reconcile the systems of Aristotle and Plato. He died at Ravenna in 1472, broken-hearted, it is said, by an insult received from Louis XI. of France, to whom he had been sent as an envoy.