Aurispa, Giovanni (1376–1459)

Sicilian-born teacher of Greek and collector of manuscripts. He played an important role in the development of Greek studies during the Renaissance and collected several rare manuscripts of classical Greek literature, including a version of Homer's Illiad and the works of the dramatists Aeschylus and Sophocles.

He made two trips to the Byzantium – 1405–13 and 1421–23 – principally to look for texts of Greek authors but also to take Greek lessons from Manuel Chrysoloras. He recovered over 300 manuscripts, among them works by Apollonius of Rhodes, and manuscripts of the Homeric Hymns and the Greek Anthology. As professor of Greek at Florence University, his lectures distinguished by the emphasis he placed on the literary rather than philosophical values in Greek literature.

In 1438 he was made a papal secretary by Eugenius IV.