Leonzio Pilato

Leonzio Pilato, whom Boccaccio housed from 1360 to 1362 and whose nomination as reader in Greek at the Studio (the old University of Florence) he procured, made the rough Latin translation through which Petrarch and Boccaccio became acquainted with Homer’s poems—the starting point of Greek…

…secured a post there for Leonzio Pilato, whose rough Latin translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey introduced Homer to Italian scholars. In 1396 the first university chair in Greek was established there for the scholar Manuel Chrysoloras. The university later declined and in 1473 was transferred to Pisa. The…