Calendar: 1927-1928 Page 480

SOME DEBTS TO BYZANTINISM xi seeking help against the Turks returned in 1395 to Florence and taught Greek with much enthusiasm both there and in the other Universities of Italy His Erotemata was the first grammar of the Greek language and was long in use The Council of Florence in 1439 established contact between the scholars of East and West and the aged Georgios Gemistos in particular attracted the Florentines with his Neo-Platonic philosophy Under the changed name of Plethon he promoted the appreciation of Plato at the expense of Aristotle and the work of popularizing Greek was carried forward by his pupil Bessarion afterwards Cardinal at Rome and by band of emigrant Greeks who gathered round him after the fall of Constantinople notably the Aristotelian Theodorus Gaza who became Professor of Greek at Ferrara and Georgios of Trebizond also an Aristotelian and later Papal Secretary Another Aristotelian was Argyropoulos of Constantinople who lectured on Greek at Florence under the patronage of the Medici Demetrius Chalcocondyles of Athens taught Greek at Padua and Florence and published the first printed editions of Homer Isocrates and Suidas towards the end of the fifteenth century Thus did captured Greece again make an intellectual capture of the West Do those who laud the ancient Greek Classics and pour scorn upon the Byzantines realize how much the Byzantine Empire did towards enabling them to read the Classics they enjoy It would not be right to pass over Byzantine architecture and art in complete silence in any survey of the benefits conferred by the Byzantine Empire upon modern civilization The influence of Byzan- tine architecture and church decoration upon the Slavonic peoples has already been touched upon and very brief estimate of Byzantine architecture and art as whole may be added Byzantine art was the outcome of many influences-Roman Oriental and Christian-but it may be said that that of Christianity was the most powerful We know comparatively little about palace and domestic architecture though there are of course many allusions to the different parts of the Great Palace at Constantinople but we know great deal about the Empire's church architecture The Roman architects had developed the arch the vault and the apse the Byzantines developed the dome which had of course been introduced by the Romans in concrete as in the case of the Pantheon The dome was probably popularized in Constantinople as the result of contact with the East and we know that Justinian rebuilt the Church of the Holy Apostles in this style In the most splendid example of dome-structure the cruciform church of St Sophia the peculiar Byzantine device of the pendentive for accom- modating the circle of the dome to the square plan of the supporting pillars is best exemplified It is significant that both the architects of St Sophia were drawn from Asia Minor The brilliant internal effects produced by coloured marbles and brightly coloured mosaics are also feature of these Byzantine churches and in the designing of the mosaics the artist worked in close alliance with the architect In the later Byzantine churches external colouring was introduced as well by