Ronchey, S. “L'ultimo bizantino. Bessarione e gli ultimi regnanti di Bisanzio.” L'eredità greca e l'ellenismo veneziano. Atti del XL Corso Internazionale di Alta Cultura della Fondazione Giorgio Cini, (Venice, 31 August - 12 September 1998). Ed. G. Benzoni. Florence: Olschki, 2002. 75-92.

The essay is devoted to the figure of “the oriental Bessarion,” i.e. the relationship between the young Bessarion and the last Byzantine court, the Palaiologian court at Mystras.  Bessarion’s politics on his debut as court official are outlined in an analysis of writings on the abdication and death of Manuel II and the early and untimely deaths of the “Western brides” of his sons and heirs Constantine and Theodore: Teodora Tocco and Cleopa Malatesta. The verse tombeau for the latter offers the starting point for a brief analysis of the figure of Cleopa, her role in the failed alliance between the Malatesta and Palaeologi, and the mystery surrounding her death and burial at Mystras.

 

REVIEWS

A. Decaria in Medioevo latino 25 (2004), p. 94.
G. Benzoni. Venezia Cinquecento [online, sito internet]. http://www.veneziacinquecento.it/(u.v. 27 gen 2016; u.a. gen 2016)
G. Benzoni. Fondazione Giorgio Cini Onlus [online, sito internet]. http://www.cini.it/(u.v 27 gen 2016)

 

CITED BY

G. L. Coluccia, Basilio Bessarione: lo spirito greco e l’Occidente. Firenze: Olschki, 2009, p. XXVII.