Plethon

Plethon, GEORGIOS GEMISTOS, a Greek scholar, was most probably a native of Constantinople, and found employment in the Peloponnesus under the 'despots' Manuel and Theodore Palæologus. He was sent as a deputy to the council held at Florence in 1439, and here, if he did little for the union of the Eastern and Western Churches, he did much to spread a taste for Plato. He returned to Constantinople, and died there about 1455. See vol. i. of F. Schultze's Geschichte der Philosophie der Renaissance (Jena, 1874).