George of Trebizond was a Byzantine Greek philosopher, scholar, and humanist.
George of Trebizond
Title page from a 1528 copy of Ptolemy's "Almagestum," translated to Latin from Greek by Trebizond
Page from Book X of George of Trebizond's Commentary on the Almagest. On the left, is a model of the planet Mercury, showing its closest approach to the earth; on the right, is information about Mercury and the beginning of his commentary on the planet Venus.
Renaissance humanism was a worldview centered on the nature and importance of humanity, that emerged from the study of Classical antiquity. This first began in Italy and then spread across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the term humanist referred to teachers and students of the humanities, known as the studia humanitatis, which included the study of Latin and Ancient Greek literatures, grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy. It was not until the 19th century that this began to be called humanism instead of the original humanities, and later by the retronym Renaissance humanism to distinguish it from later humanist developments. During the Renaissance period most humanists were Christians, so their concern was to "purify and renew Christianity", not to do away with it. Their vision was to return ad fontes to the simplicity of the Gospels and of the New Testament, bypassing the complexities of medieval Christian theology.
Medieval and Renaissance Italian writers portrayed by Giorgio Vasari in Six Tuscan Poets (1544). From left to right: Cristoforo Landino, Marsilio Ficino, Francesco Petrarca, Giovanni Boccaccio, Dante Alighieri, and Guido Cavalcanti.
Frontispiece depicting Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, and Francesco Petrarca with the coat of arms of the Medici–Toledo family on top.