CONSTANTINE

See also:

• CONSTANTINE LASCARIS (d. 1493 or 1500)
• LASCARIS, JOANNES [JOHN], or JANUS (c. 1445-1535)

LASCARIS (d. 1493 or 1500)  , Greek scholar and grammarian, one of the promoters of the revival of Greek learning in Italy, was born at Constantinople . He was a member of the noble Bithynian family, which had furnished three emperors of Nicaea during the 13th century . After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, he took refuge first in Corfu and then in Italy, where Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan, appointed him Greek tutor to his daughter . Here was published his Grammatica Graeca, sive compendium octo orationis parlium, remarkable as being the first book entirely in Greek issued from the printing press . After leaving Milan, Lascaris taught in Rome under the patronage of Cardinal Bessarion, and in Naples, whither he had been summoned by Ferdinand I. to deliver a course of lectures on Greece . Ultimately, on the invitation of the inhabitants, he settled in Messina, Sicily, where he continued to teach publicly until his death . Among his numerous pupils here was Pietro Bembo . Lascaris bequeathed his library of valuable MSS. to the senate of Messina; the collection was afterwards carried to Spain and lodged in the Escurial . The Grammatica, which has often been reprinted, is the only work of value produced by Lascaris . Some of his letters are given by J . Iriarte in the Regiae Bibliothecae Matritensis codices Graeci manuscripli, i . (Madrid, 1769) .

His name is known to

modern readers in the romance of A . F . Villemain, Lascaris, ou les Grecs du quinzieme siecle (1825) . See also J . E . Sandys, Hist . Class . Schol., ed . 2, vol. ii . (1908), pp . 76 foll .