Jacopo d'Angelo
Giacomo or Jacopo d'Angelo, also surnamed De Scarperia,[2] (c. 1360–1411), better known by his Latin name Jacobus Angelus, was an Italian classical scholar, humanist, and translator of ancient Greek texts during the Renaissance.
[3] Coluccio Salutati wrote to urge Da Scarperia to search the libraries there, particularly for editions of Homer and Greek dictionaries, with the result that he translated Ptolemy's Geography into Latin in 1406.
[4] He also brought new texts of Homer, Aristotle, and Plato to the attention of Western scholars of philosophy and ancient Greek literature.
Jacopo d'Angelo was born in the town of Scarperia, located in the Mugello region of Tuscany, which at the time was part of the Republic of Florence.
Legal documents from this time show his full name to be "Iacobus Angeli Lippi Sostegni".
Also, it is very likely that Salutati advised d'Angelo to start school under the tutelage of Giovanni Malpaghini, a teacher at the Florentine Studio (University).
Much of his early life was spent in humble political offices where he read his favorite classics and composed Latin poetry.
[12] Salutati's admiration for ancient literature led him to read classical authors first hand and incentivized him to search for unknown works.
[16] Although not achieving the stature of some of Malpaghini's students, d’Angelo no doubt was influenced by his teacher's lessons in rhetoric and stylistic techniques.
De Rossi was also a student of Chrysoloars and Coluccio Saluati who was a key figure in Florentine humanists.
Chrysoloras, was originally sent to Italy by Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus in order to seek help from Christian nobles against the advancing Muslim Turks.
While in Constantinople, Jacopo met a scholar by the name of Manuel Calecas who was a well known theologian and "admirer of the patristic tradition and school of the Latin West.
"[23] Coluccio wrote to Jacopo about learning Greek, stating that it was important to know "the vocabulary and the grammar and provide, rather, in memorizing the largest possible number of words and idioms, paying attention to their uses and meanings.
"[23] Since the city and empire was collapsing, many Byzantine scholars fled Constantinople to Europe bringing with them different manuscripts from all periods of time.
After d’Angelo returned from Constantinople in 1396, he began translating Classical Greek works into Latin with the archbishop of Milan and Manuel Crysoloras.
[25] In late 1400, he had already left for Rome because he hoped to obtain employment in the court of Pope Boniface IX.
d’Angelo thought that due to his age and life experience, he would win against the much younger and less experienced Bruni.
The test was each of the candidates needed to write a letter that devised a solution to solve the Great Schism.
[30] With this new position, d'Angelo was responsible for recording important teachings and the diplomatic affairs during the Great Schism.
[31] Jacopo D’Angelo's translations of famous texts into Greek and Latin make him a semi-important figure during this period.
[33] His most famous translation, from its original Greek into Latin, is the Geographie de Ptolemee, which is criticized for being inaccurately translated by D’Angelo as well as being largely invalid as a critical text due to its numerous scientific inaccuracies as well as being subject to Ptolemy's exotification of global geography.
[35] D’Angelo as well as his teachers were considered influential in the world of geography due to the translations of Ptolemy's work.
