The Negotiation of Greekness in Italy

Home , Byzantine Greeks, Francesco Filelfo

CHAPTER 2 Making the Best of It: The Negotiation of Greekness in Italy

This chapter traces the principal tensions between Latin and Byzantine perspectives on the Hellenes and their heritage. The very few previous case studies of Byzantine self-presentation paid little if any attention to Latin perceptions of the Byzantine Greeks. We need this perspective in order to under- stand why the Byzantine intelligentsia in Italy embraced the Greek identifiers in the first place (see Chapter 1, pp. 51–62) and in what ways they manipulated them to their advantage. Especially after 1453, the Byzantine Greeks in Italy were dependent on Latin support, not only financially, in terms of professional positions and career, but also in terms of what they wanted to achieve cul- turally and politically: the preservation of the Greek legacy and the liberation of their homeland. This means that they had to accept, at least to a certain degree, Latin perceptions of themselves, beginning with the name tradition- ally assigned to them in the Latin West (Graeci). Starting from the premise that names are not merely descriptive identifiers but also furnish evaluations, this chapter deals with the question of what it meant for the Byzantines to be called Greeks in Italy. After sketching how the Italian humanists adopted the medi- eval tradition of calling the Byzantines Greeks, it shows how they also infused Greekness with new meanings that the Greeks anticipated, manipulated, or tried to discard. Although Latin views of the Greeks have been mapped before, there has generally been less attention paid to their problematic relationship with the Byzantine Greek perspective.1

1 Previous discussions specifically devoted to fifteenth-century Italian views on the Byzantine Greeks are Marinescu (1935), regarding the attitude of Pope Nicholas V towards the Byzantine Empire; Hunger (1987), exploring prejudices associated with the Greeks and the names applied to them; Bisaha (2004: 118–134), explaining Italian perceptions of the Greeks and their crusade appeals (with attention to the views of, among others, Salutati, Poggio, Tignosi, and Filelfo); Agapiou (2007), examining the attitudes of Enea Silvio Piccolomini in particular; Mastrogianni (2013), focusing on the figure of the Graeculus barbatus as a com- mon humanist way of stereotyping the Greeks in the fifteenth century; and Lamers (forth- coming), exploring the notion of ‘cultural unease’ with Hellenism in Italian humanism with particular emphasis on the views of Francesco Filelfo. Wulfram (2012) moreover explores the ways in which Italian humanists represented Manuel Chrysoloras as a cultural icon and so deindividualised him. Bell (2011) offers an extensive discussion of the visual representations of the Greeks in Italian art (1438–72).

In discussions of how Byzantine Greek scholars in Italy either rejected or retained their ‘Greek identity’, Latin humanism has sometimes been regarded as an impediment to Greek identity or Greek patriotism. This view not only sees Greek patriotism and humanist cosmopolitanism as mutually exclusive phenomena,2 but also considers humanist rhetoric to be a serious impediment to the very articulation of Greek patriotism.3 Sharing the observation of Caspar Hirschi that Italian humanism catalysed the emerging competition among European humanists,4 I assume with him that Italian cultural hege- mony forced non-Italians to position themselves vis-à-vis the Italians and to seek means to be distinctive even without the close connection with Rome the Italians could claim for themselves.5 The Byzantine Greek intelligentsia in Italy entered the emergent national competition in a similar fashion, which helps explain why they embraced their Greek heritage to the point of eclipsing their traditional claims to Rome. This chapter also moves away from the idea that the transformation of Hellenism in the Italian diaspora, or the transformation from ‘Romans’ to ‘Greeks’, primarily resulted from opposition to the Ottoman Turks.6 Representing radical otherness for most Byzantine Greeks, the Turks indeed gave the classic dichotomy between barbarians and Hellenes new rel- evance and meaning and more generally helped to articulate a sharper idea of European civilisation.7 As this chapter shows, however, the Hellenism of the Byzantine intelligentsia in Italy was principally shaped, in multiple ways, by their interaction with Latin humanists.

The Imposition of Greekness

When the Byzantines arrived in Italy, they were welcomed as Greeks. What had been a daring experiment in later Byzantium had been the norm in the West

2 See, for instance, the series of contributions of Irmscher (1961, 1964, 1976), in which he asked whether three prominent Byzantine refugees (Theodore Gazes, George Trapezuntius of Crete, and Bessarion) cherished their Hellenism or turned their back on it after their emigration. 3 This idea especially resonates in Binner (1980), who offers the only more or less detailed discussion of late- and post-Byzantine crusade appeals. See also Binner (1971) for a synopsis. 4 This idea is expanded in Hirschi (2012: esp. 142–56). 5 The general importance of the humanist movement for the emergence of patriotism and early forms of nationalism has been stressed in several studies, most importantly Helmchen (2004), Hirschi (2005, 2012), and Munkler (1998). 6 This was suggested by Bisaha (2004: 133). 7 See here Hankins (1995).