Ianus Lascaris

Ianus Lascaris or Janus Lascaris (1445–1535) was a Greek scholar in the Renaissance. He was known for his transmission of Greek learning to the Latins after the Fall of Constantinople (1453).

Quotes

I would contend that someone of Latin origin will find no other foster fathers, if the Greeks are excluded; after all, the Greek and Latin peoples could be considered to be one and the same, even though the former is older and the Latin younger, because it follows from the Greek. But surely the Greeks seem to have given the ripe fruits of physical and intellectual culture to all men and certainly to their Latin brothers. This alone is sufficient reason why they must be welcomed with general benevolence.
- Lamers, Hans (2015). Greece reinvented. Brill. p. 172.

If among almost all peoples it is a law that the greatest gratitude is owed to those by whom you are educated.
- Lascaris's argument that the Latins had a debt to the Greeks.
- Lamers, Hans (2015). Greece reinvented. Brill. p. 172.

Whoever neglects Greek literature will entirely lack this means of help which your ancestors used to draw from the Greek source so as to learn, preserve, and amplify their literature.
- Lamers, Hans (2015). Greece reinvented. Brill. pp. 170–171.

Especially you, seem to have approached antiquity more closely than the other city states of Italy regarding your descent, language, and culture to such a degree, that you can easily discern a colony of the Romans [in Florence], if you take into account, among other things, the very name of your city, as it is in my opinion not so much derived from the river as it is from the sacred name of the City.
- Lascaris addressing directly the Florentines.
- Lamers, Hans (2015). Greece reinvented. Brill. p. 173.

We derive the character of one man from the many, while you teach that you may know all from one.
- Lascaris refuting one of Vergil's anti-Greek lines
- Lamers, Hans (2015). Greece reinvented. Brill. p. 187.

[The Romans] were trained through the laws of the Greeks, through the customs of the Greeks. Through our disciplines, through our arts the Roman imperium was enlarged; over lands and seas Italian fame and Latin virtue reached the extreme borders of the earth through the travelling example of the Greeks.
- Lascaris on the similarities between Latins and Greeks
- Lamers, Hans (2015). Greece reinvented. Brill. p. 190.