Geōrgiou Gemistou Plēthōnos Peri aretōn = Georges Gémiste Plethon Traité des vertus. Edition critique avec introduction, traduction et commentaire par Brigitte Tambrun-Krasker

Philosophy 02511. Gemistus Plethon, George, c. 1355/1360 – 1452/1454. Geōrgiou Gemistou Plēthōnos Peri aretōn = Georges Gémiste Plethon Traité des vertus. Edition critique avec introduction, traduction et commentaire par Brigitte Tambrun-Krasker. (Series: Corpus philosophorum Medii Aevi. Philosophi Byzantini; 3). Athēnai: Akadēmia Athēnōn; Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill, 1987, xcii, 127 pages, bib, indices. Hardcover volume, has blindstamp of collector on flyleaf, some minor inoffensive waviness on some pages. Overall, book is in very good condition. Book in French and Greek. $60.00 Box 45

Georgios Gemistos Plethon (Greek: Γεώργιος Γεμιστός Πλήθων; Latin: Georgius Gemistus Pletho c. 1355/1360 – 1452/1454), commonly known as Gemistos Plethon, was a Greek scholar and one of the most renowned philosophers of the late Byzantine era. He was a chief pioneer of the revival of Greek scholarship in Western Europe. As revealed in his last literary work, the Nomoi or Book of Laws, which he only circulated among close friends, he rejected Christianity in favor of a return to the worship of the classical Hellenic Gods, mixed with ancient wisdom based on Zoroaster and the Magi.

He re-introduced Plato's ideas to Western Europe during the 1438–1439 Council of Florence, a failed attempt to reconcile the East–West schism. There, Plethon met and influenced Cosimo de' Medici to found a new Platonic Academy, which, under Marsilio Ficino, would proceed to translate into Latin all of Plato's works, the Enneads of Plotinus, and various other Neoplatonist works.

Plethon has also formulated his political vision in several speeches throughout his life. The phrase that boasted in one of the speeches "We are Hellenes by race and culture", and also, the proposition of a reborn Byzantine Empire following a utopian Hellenic system of government centered in Mystras has generated a lively and fruitful discussion about Byzantine and modern Greek identity. In this regard, Plethon has been labelled both "the last Hellene" and "the first modern Greek".