born 0441; 1355, Constantinople
died 1450/52, Mistra, Morea
Byzantine philosopher and humanist scholar.
He served as lay theologian with the Byzantine delegation to the 143845 general council of Ferrara-Florence . His treatise On the Difference Between Aristotle and Plato revived interest in Plato and led to founding of the Platonic Academy of Florence by Cosimo I . His clarification of the distinction between Platonic and Aristotelian thought proved seminal in determining the philosophic orientation of the Italian Renaissance.