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What role did Leonzio Pilato play in Giovanni Boccaccio’s study of Homer?
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Giovanni Boccaccio
Italian poet and scholar Giovanni Boccaccio, detail of a fresco by Andrea del Castagno; in the Cenacolo di Sant'Apollonia, Florence.
Leonzio Pilato played a pivotal role in Giovanni Boccaccio’s study of Homer by serving as the essential bridge for accessing Greek literature. Boccaccio actively supported Pilato, housing him in Florence from 1360 to 1362 and securing his appointment as a reader in Greek at the University of Florence.12
Pilato produced rough Latin translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey, which provided the foundational texts through which Boccaccio and Petrarch were able to acquaint themselves with Homer’s work. This collaboration marked the starting point of Greek studies for the early humanists, significantly advancing the movement to recover and understand classical antiquity.12