AMBROSE THE CAMALDULIAN  , the common name of AMBROGIO TRAVERSAR1 (1386-1439), French ecclesiastic, born near Florence at the village of Portico . At the age of fourteen he entered the Camaldulian Order in the monastery of Sta Maria degli Angeli, and rapidly became a leading theologian and Hellenist . In Greek literature his master was Emmanuel Chrysoloras . He became general of the order in 1431, and was a leading advocate of the papacy . This attitude he showed clearly when he attended the council of Basel as legate of Eugenius IV . So strong was his hostility to some of the delegates that he described Basel as a western Babylon . He likewise supported the pope at Ferrara and Florence, and worked hard in the attempt to reconcile the Eastern and Western Churches . Though this cause was unsuccessful, Ambrose is interesting as typical of the new humanism which was growing up within the church . Voigt says that he was the first monk in Florence in whom the love of letters and art became predominant over his ecclesiastical views . Thus while among his own colleagues he seemed merely a hypocritical and arrogant priest, in his relations with his brother humanists, such as Cosimo de Medici, he appeared as the student of classical antiquities and especially of Greek theological authors . His chief works are: Hodoeporicon, an account of a journey taken by the pope's command, during which he visited the monasteries of Italy; a translation of Palladius' Life of Chrysostom; of Nineteen Sermons of Ephraem Syrus; of the Book of St Basil on Virginity . A number of MSS. remain in the library of St Mark at Venice .

He died on the 20th of

October 1439 See G . Voigt, Die Wiederbelebung des klass . Altertums (2 Vols., 3rd ed., 1893) ; his Epistolae were published by Cannato (Florence, 1759) with a life by Mehus; Bollandist Bibl. hag. lat . (1898), 63; A . Masius, Ober die Stellung des Kamaldulensers Ambrogio Txaversari zum Papst Eugen IV. and zum Basler Kanzil (Dobeln, 1888); Savigny, Geschichte rom . Rechts, Mittel . (185o), vi . 422-424 .