Life and intellectual identity of Cardinal's Bessarion (1403-1472)

The XVth Century was a century in which very important developments were experienced in terms of both Ottoman, Byzantine and Europe and the balance of power changed. The 1438 Ferrara-Florence Council and the 1453 conquest of Constantinople, which was a religious-looking political attempt to prevent the Turkish advance, were at the forefront of the important events that characterized the period. While the conquest policies of the Ottoman Empire constituted one of the political sides of this change, the cultural changes also laid the groundwork for the Renaissance. Bessarion, who was born in Trabzon in 1403, has been at the center of all these political and cultural changes. Bessarion, who spent the first years of his life in Trabzon, Constantinople and Morea, later went to Italy as a member of the 1438 Ferrara-Florence Council delegation. With its prominence in the council, IV. Bessarion, who was offered the cardinal status by Eugenius, engaged in political activities in order to stop the Turkish advance. Bessarion, who was at the forefront with his intellectual identity as well as his influence on the political life of the period, influenced Europe intellectually with his works. This study is an effort to understand why and how an important figure in The XVth Century, in the political and intellectual sense, was at the center of the events that characterized the period, how he influenced his period, and what kind of intellectual identity he had behind this political curtain, through Bessarion's life. Throughout the process, answers were sought to the questions of what kind of education he received from the first years of his life, how he carried out both religious and political activities against the Turkish progress, and how the intellectual side of his life affected the European world of thought.