ARGYROPOULOS, JOHANNES

(1415-1487)

   Byzantine scholar who became a respected teacher of Greek language, literature, and philosophy in Italy. He settled at Florence, where he taught at the university and helped a number of prominent Italian humanists, including Cristoforo Landino and Angelo Poliziano, perfect their Greek and study the Greek text of ancient philosophers. Although sometimes regarded as a precursor of the fashion for Plato that culminated in the Neoplatonism of Marsilio Ficino, his own teaching was based on Aristotle, whom he wanted to make available in improved Latin texts based on the original Greek.