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How did the fall of Constantinople in 1453 affect Greek scholarship in Italy?

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Leonardo da Vinci: Last Supper — Renaissance *Last Supper*, wall painting by Leonardo da Vinci, 1495–98, after its restoration was completed in 1999; in Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.

The fall of Constantinople in 1453 is often cited as a pivotal moment for Greek scholarship in Italy, but the arrival of Greek learning and manuscripts in the West was already well underway long before the city's capture.12

By the early 15th century, Italian scholars such as Francesco Filelfo and Giovanni Aurispa were already importing large quantities of Greek manuscripts from Constantinople. The formal study of Greek in Italy had been established decades earlier, notably in 1397 when the Byzantine scholar Manuel Chrysoloras began teaching in Florence. Additionally, figures like John Bessarion, who attended the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438–1445), had already settled in Italy, converted to the Western church, and contributed significantly to the preservation of Greek texts by donating important collections to Venice.13

While the 1453 conquest by the Turks marked a definitive end to the Byzantine Empire, the intellectual migration of Greek scholars and the influx of classical literature were part of a broader, ongoing process of cultural exchange that had been active throughout the 14th and early 15th centuries.12