Greek scholars in the Renaissance

These émigrés brought to Western Europe the relatively well-preserved remnants and accumulated knowledge of their own (Greek) civilization, which had mostly not survived the Early Middle Ages in the West.

The main role of Byzantine scholars within Renaissance humanism was the teaching of the Greek language to their Western counterparts in universities or privately, together with the spread of ancient texts.

[7] After the peak of the Italian Renaissance in the first decades of the 16th century, the flow of information reversed, and Greek scholars in Italy were employed to oppose Turkish expansion into former Byzantine lands in Greece, prevent the Protestant Reformation spreading there and help bring the Eastern Churches back into communion with Rome.

[citation needed] The flourishing of philosophical writings in the 15th century revealed the impact of Greek philosophy and science on the Renaissance.

The resonance of these changes lasted through the centuries following the Renaissance not only in the writing of humanists, but also in the education and values of Europe and western society even to the present day.

Demetrios Chalkokondyles (brother of Laonikos Chalkokondyles ) (1424–1511) was a Greek Renaissance scholar, [ 1 ] Humanist and teacher of Greek and Platonic philosophy. [ 2 ]
John Argyropoulos (1415–1487) was a Greek Renaissance scholar who played a prominent role in the revival of Greek philosophy in Italy. [ 3 ]
One of Georgius Gemistus (Plethon) 's manuscripts, in Greek, written in the early 15th century.
Cardinal Bessarion (1395–1472) of Trebizond , Pontus was a Greek scholar, statesman, and cardinal and one of the leading figures in the rise of the intellectual Renaissance. [ 4 ]
Manuel Chrysoloras
El Greco (literally 'the Greek') the nickname for the Cretan painter Dominikos Theotokopoulos.