The New International Encyclopædia/Aurispa, Giovanni

AURISPA, ou-rē′spȧ, Giovanni (c.1369-1460). A distinguished Italian humanist of the Fifteenth Century, born at Noto, in Sicily, about 1369. In 1418 he went to Constantinople for the purpose of learning Greek; after some years he returned to Italy, bringing with him 238 manuscripts of ancient Greek authors, among them Pindar, Callimachus, Oppian, Æschylus, Sophocles, Plato, Plotinus, Xenophon, Lucian, Arrian, Dion Cassius, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and Procopius. On his return he lived at Venice, and later held the chair of Greek literature at Bologna. Niccolò de' Niccoli (q.v. ) was instrumental in calling him to Florence, where he replaced Guarino da Verona as teacher of Greek. But some disagreement cut short his stay in Florence, and he soon removed to Ferrara. In 1438, the Greek Emperor, John Palæologus, called him to assist in the council called by Pope Eugene IV.; the latter made Aurispa his secretary in 1441, which office he held for six years. He died at Ferrara in 1460. Of his many translations the following only have been published: Hierocles' Liber in Pythagoræ Aurea Carmina, Latinitate Donatus (Padua, 1474); Philisci Consolatoria, etc. (Paris, 1510). Many other translations remain in manuscript in Italian libraries. Consult: Voigt, Die Wiederbelebung des klassischen Alterthums, Vol. I. (Berlin, 1893); Symonds, Renaissance in Italy, Vol. II. (London, 1877).