1 Schol. Ad Raulem Oesem IV.477.2. Works by Scholarios are quoted according to the edition of Petit, L., Siderides, X. and Jugie, M. (eds.), Oeuvres complètes de George Scholarios, 8 vols. (Paris 1928-36)Google Scholar. The most comprehensive study of Gennadios Scholarios is by Blanchet, M.-H., Georges-Gennadios Scholarios (vers 1400-vers 1472): un intellectuel orthodoxe face à la disparition de l’empire Byzantin (Paris 2008)Google Scholar, offering a discussion of the clash between Scholarios and Plethon on 177-92. For the dating of Scholarios’ works I am following the suggestions by Blanchet, 482-7. See also Livanos, C., Greek tradition and Latin influence in the work of George Scholarios (Piscaway, NJ 2006)Google Scholar.

2 On Gemistos Plethon see Masai, F., Pléthon et le Platonisme de Mistra (Paris 1956)Google Scholar; Tambrun, B., Pléthon, le retour de Platon (Paris 2006)Google Scholar; Siniossoglou, N., Radical Platonism in Byzantium: illumination and Utopia in Gemistos Plethon (Cambridge 2011)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the question of Plethon’s religious confession and his paganism see also Pagani, F.,‘Filosofia e teologia in Giorgio Gemisto Pletone: La testimonianza dei codici Platonici’, Rinascimento 49 (2008) 3-45Google Scholar. For good accounts of the historical context see Woodhouse, C. M., George Gemistos Plethon: the Last of the Hellenes (Oxford 1986)Google Scholar and Neri, M., Pletone: Trattato delle virtù (Milan 2010)Google Scholar. It is hoped that two recently completed PhD dissertations on the philosophy of Plethon ( Hladky, V., Plato’s Second Coming: an outline of the philosophy of George Gemistos Plethon, PhD Diss. Prague 2007 Google Scholar) and his intellectual context ( Smarnakis, Y., #Άναγέννηση κα’ι Βνζόντιο. To παράδειγμα τοϋ Πλήθωνα, PhD Diss. University of Athens 2005 Google Scholar) will soon appear in print. Plethon’s Nomoi were edited by C. Alexandre, French trans. A. Pellisier. Paris 1858; repr. Amsterdam 1966; partial repr. with an introduction by R. Brague (Paris 1982). Plethon’s response to Scholarios (Contra Scholarii pro Aristotele obiectiones) was edited by Maltese, E. V. (Leipzig 1988)Google Scholar. For the manuscript tradition, editions and translations of Plethon’s works see M. Neri, Pletone, 196-225.

3 On the Memoranda see Garnsey, P., ‘Gemistus Plethon and Platonic political philosophy’, in Transformations of Late Antiquity: essays for Peter Brown, eds. Rousseau, P. and Papoutsaki, M. (Burlington 2009) 327-40Google Scholar, here at 334–5, 338-40 and Garnsey, P., Thinking about property: from Antiquity to the Age of Revolution (Cambridge 2007) 54-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I am following Morrison, D. R., ‘The Utopian character of Plato’s Ideal City’, in Ferrari, G.R.F. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Plato’s Republic (Cambridge 2007) 232-55CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here at 232, in applying the terms ‘utopia’ and ‘Utopian’ in the Platonic context in order to signify ‘a description of an imagined society put forward by its author as better than any existing society, past or present.’

4 Nomoi 198-9 (111.34,5.203-15); Masai, Pléthon 306.

5 Masai, Pléthon, 304 and 306, also brings to the foreground Scholarios’ serious allegation (Ad Raulem Oesem IV.477.15-39) that members of the brotherhood were previously engaged in the discussions regarding the Union of the Latin and Roman Orthodox Churches. For a different view, see Monfasani, J., ‘Platonic paganism in the fifteenth century’, in Cesare, M. A. Di (ed.), Reconsidering the Renaissance (Binghampton, NY 1992)45–61 Google Scholar. Monfasani doubted the association between the pagan cell and Plethon assumed by Scholarios. Still, Masai and further Medvedev, I. (#Ή ύπόθεση τοθ άποστάτη Ίουβεναλίου άπο την άποψη τσϋ δικαίου’, Βυζαντιναι Μελέται 3 (1991) 152-73Google Scholar have provided sufficient evidence for maintaining this association. Cf. Blanchet, Scholarios, 183, who also links the pagans in Scholarios’ epistle with Plethon’s circle.

6 Scholarios refers to Plethon’s encounter with Elissaios twice, in the letter ‘to the exarch Joseph regarding the book by Gemistos and polytheism’ and in the letter ‘to the princess of the Péloponnese on Plethon’s Book on the Laws’. Cf. Schol. Ad principessam Pelop. IV.152.37-İ53.9; Ad exarchum Josephum, IV.162.8-11. Scholarios implicitly refers to Elissaios in his epistle regarding the Juvenalius affair: ‘if a Jew dares to distort Christian reasoning, he is liable to capital punishment.’ Cf. Schol. Ad Raoulem Oesem IV.487.31-4; Woodhouse, Plethon, 317.

7 Woodhouse, Plethon, 28. I return to the question of Elissaios’ death below.

8 Schol. Ad exarchum Josephum IV.155.30-156.1: ‘It was apparent to us for a long time what sort of man he really was, and we were also aware of his working on such a book at diverse times; for trustworthy witnesses had given us their accounts of it, and we obtained much and undisputed evidence, first when we were in the Peloponnese, and then in Italy’.

9 Pl. Contra Schol. 4.27-9.

10 Masai, Pléthon, 58.

11 Schol. Ad ţrincipessam Pelop. IV.153.1-3.

12 Masai, Pléthon, 60.

13 See Tardieu, M., ‘Pléthon lecteur des Oracles’, Mêtis 2 (1987)141-64Google Scholar, and Tambrun, Pléthon, 37, 91-4. In her recent article on Plethon in the Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, ed. Hanegraaff, W.J. (Leiden 2006,Google Scholar s.v. ‘Plethon, Georgios Gemistos’, 960-3, here at 960) Tambrun notes that: ‘From Elisha [Plethon] presumably learned some doctrines concerning Zoroaster’ (my emphasis).

14 Hladky, V., ‘B. Tambrun-Krasker on George Gemistos Plethon’, BSl 67 (2009) 372-80Google Scholar, here at 375: ‘There does not seem to be any doctrinal similarity between Suhrawardi and Plethon, but worse still, there is no evidence that Suhrawardi and his school esteemed Zoroaster in a particular way.’ Cf. Hladky, Plato’s Second Coming, passim.

15 Gardette, P.,‘Pour en finir avec Pléthon et son maître juif Elisée’, in Etudes imagologiques et relations interconfessionelles en zone byzantino-ottomane (Istanbul 2007) 147-64Google Scholar, here at 152-4. On the doctor Elisha, author of a Jewish-Byzantine medical encyclopedia, see the introduction to the edition of Plethon’s Manual to astronomy by A. Tihon and R. Mercier (Louvain-la-Neuve 1997) 7-8.

16 P. Gardette, ‘Pour en finir avec Pléthon et son maître juif Elisée’, 163.

17 Zakythinos, D. A., Despotat grec de Morée, II, rev. ed. Maltézou, C. (London 1975) 324 Google Scholar is one of the first scholars to cast doubts on the theory of a Zoroastrian connection. Berger, A., ‘Plethon in Italien’, in Konstantinou, E. (ed.) Der Beitrag der Byzantinischen Gelehrten zur abendländischen Renaissance des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt 2006) 79–89 Google Scholar, here at 80, notes that Plethon’s alleged stay in the court of the Ottomans might never have taken place, though, if it did, it should be placed before 1389.

18 On the question of the Jewish identity of this man and the edict of Yazid see Vasiliev, A. A., ‘The iconoclastic edict of the Caliph Yazid II, A. D. 721’, DOP 9 (1956) 23–17 Google Scholar, here at 28-30.

19 Masai, Pléthon, 57.

20 Cf. A. Akasoy, ‘Plethons Nomoi. Ein Beitrag zum Polytheismus in spätbyzantinischer Zeit und seiner Rezeption in der islamischen Welt’, Revista Mirabilia 2008, http://www.revistamirabilia.com/Numeros/Num2/akasoy.html; Täschner, F., ‘Georgios Gemistos Plethon, Ein Beitrag zur Frage der Übertragung von islamischem Geistesgut nach dem Abendlande’, Der Islam 18 (1929) 236-43Google Scholar.

21 Schol. Ad exarchum ļosephum, IV.162.7-11: #παρά rfj τών βαρβάρων αύλη παρεσιτοϋ την πατρίάα φνγα/ν.

22 Alexandre, C., Pléthon, Traité des lois (Paris 1853) vi, n.2 Google Scholar, identified the ‘barbarian’s court’ with Adrianople. So does Tambrun, Pléthon, 36. But see Zakythinos, D., ‘Mouvement intellectual dans le Despotat de Morée’, L’hellénisme contemporain 2.4–5 (1952) 339–66Google Scholar, here at 353 n. 1, for the candidacy of Bursa. Woodhouse (Plethon, 26), also appears to consider the latter city as Plethon’s ‘natural choice’ given its fame as ‘the city of the theologians’.

23 Gardette, ‘Pour en finir avec Pléthon et son maître juif Elisée’, 148, 161.

24 Balivet, M., ‘Église et clercs Byzantins dans l’épopée Turque’, BF 39 (2007) 49–78 Google Scholar, here at 56.

25 Zhukov, K., ‘Börklüce Mustafa, was he another Mazdak?’, in Veinstein, G., Syncrétisme et Hérésies dans l’Orient Seldjoukide et Ottoman (XlVe-XVIile siècle) (Paris 2005) 119-27Google Scholar, here at 119-20.

26 de la Broquière, B., The voyage d’Outremer by Bertrandon , ed. and trans. Kline, G. R., (New York 1988) 83-5Google Scholar. On the Castle of Bursa see further Lowry, H.W., ‘The role of the Bursa palace in preparing bread for the Ottoman Sultans’, in Tezcan, B. and Barbir, K. K. (eds) Identity and identity formation in the Ottoman world: a volume of essays in honour of Norman Itzkowitz (Wisconsin 2008) 43-9Google Scholar.

27 Fleischer, C. H., ‘Ancient wisdom and new sciences: prophecies at the Ottoman court in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries’, in Farhad, M. and Bagci, S. (eds), Falnama: the Book of Omens (London 2010) 232-43Google Scholar, here at 232.

28 Fleischer, C. H., ‘Seer to the sultan: Haydar-I Remmal and Sultan Süleyman’, in Cultural horizons: a Festschrift in honor of Talat S. Halman, ed. Warner, J. L. (Syracuse, N.Y. 2001) 290-9Google Scholar, here at 291-2.

29 Lowry, ‘The role of the Bursa palace’, 43-9.

30 Balivet, ‘Église et clercs Byzantins dans l’épopée Turque’, 50.

31 Fleischer, ‘Ancient wisdom and new sciences’, 232.

32 Gardette,’Pour en finir avec Pléthon et son maître juif Elisée’, 159.

33 On this incident see Miller, R. A., ‘Religious versus ethnie identity in fourteenth-century Bithynia: Gregory Palamas and the case of the Chionai’, in Tezcan, B. and Barbir, K. K. (eds), Identity and identity formation in the Ottoman world (Madison, Wis. 2007) 27–42 Google Scholar.

34 On the ideas of Hadji Bektach as a vehicle for converting Christian monks see Balivet, ‘Église et clercs Byzantins dans l’épopée Turque’, 70.

35 Gardette (‘Pour en finir avec Plethon et son maitre Elisse’, 150) notes that the combination of Zoroastrian-ism and Aristotelianism does not appear very coherent. Similarly, Hladky (‘B. Tambrun-Krasker on George Gemistos Plethon’, 375) notes the bizarre combination of Aristotelianism, Zoroastrianism and polytheism in Scholarios’ account.

36 M. Tardieu, ‘Pléthon lecteur des Oracles’, 142: ‘Ce que Ammonius Saccas avait été pour Plotin, Elisha le fut pour Plethon: aux mêmes âges, pour les mêmes raisons, par le même choix.’ On the Suhrawardi order from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, see Huda, Q., Striving for divine union: spiritual exercises for Suhrawardi Sufis (London 2003)Google Scholar passim. Cf. the classic work by Corbin, H., En Islam iranien; Aspects spirituels et philosophiques II, Sohrawardî et les platoniciens de Terse (Paris 1971)Google Scholar.

37 For one advocacy of the Zoroastrian aspect of the philosophy of Suhrawardi see Corbin, H., Les motifs zoroastriens dans la philosophie de Sohrawardi [sic] (Teheran 1946) 14–36 Google Scholar. Plethon attributes a prominent place to Zoroaster in various works, most notably in Summary of Platonic and Zoroastrian Doctrines, in his commentary on the Chaldean Oracles, and the prologue of the Nomoi. See here Nikolaou, T., ‘#Ό Ζωοράστρης εΐς xò φιλοσοφικον σύοτημα toc Γ. ΓεμιοιοΟ Πλήθωνος’, Πληθωνικά (Thessalonike 2004) 19–66 Google Scholar.

38 The priority of Hermes in Suhrawardi is noted by Hladky, ‘Tambrun-Krasker on George Gemistos Plethon’, 375, in order to undermine the theory of a connection between the philosophy of Suhrawardi and Plethon. However, this hardly means that Plethon was not acquainted with Iranian spirituality. Tambrun (‘Plethon, Georgios Gemistos’, 961) has plausibly observed that Plethon ‘passes over in silence the sage Hermes’ because in the tradition of Greek patristics ‘Hermes is coupled with Moses.’ In other words, the preference for Zoroaster may have appeared necessary in order to differentiate Hellenic theology from the evolution of Christian theology in the Byzantine context.

39 Suhrawardi, , The philosophy of illumination (Hikmat al-ishraq), ed. and trans. Walbridge, J. and Ziai, H. (Provo, Utah 1999) 2.15-16Google Scholar.

40 Nomoi 253 (IH.43.143-6).

41 Suhrawardi, The philosophy of illumination (Hikmat al-ishraq) 2.28-30.

42 Gardette,’Pour en finir avec Pléthon et son maître juif Elisée’, 152.

43 See Suhrawardi, The philosophy of illumination 107.25-108.7; 110.14-28. On the angelology of Suhrawardi see Razavi, M. A., Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination (Surrey 1997) 45-7Google Scholar, 81-7; Corbin, Les motifs zoroastriens, 14–36 and Corbin’s ‘Prolegomena’ to Suhrawardi, , Oeuvres philosophiques et mystiques, ed. Corbin, H. (Teheran 1952) 39–55 Google Scholar. On Suhrawardi’s theory of illumination as ‘a special form’ of Neoplatonist emanationism see Ziai, H., Knowledge and illumination (Atlanta 1990) 162-66Google Scholar. Cf.Corbin, , En Islam iranien, II, 104 Google Scholar.

44 Corbin, H., Suhrawardî d’Alep, fondateur de la doctrine illuminative (isbrâqî) (Paris 1939) 10 Google Scholar. On Suhrawardi and Neoplatonism see also H. Ziai, Knowledge and illumination, 162.

45 Corbin, Suhrawardî d’Alep, 11.

46 For the practical side of hikmah according to Suhrawardi and the Sufi aspect of his philosophy, see Razavi, M. A., Suhrawardi and the School of Illumination (Surrey 1997) xix, 58–77 Google Scholar.

47 Nomoi 246 (III.43.70-8). Even in Plethon’s appropriation of the ‘Chaldean Oracles’, philosophical discourse remains primary and non-negotiable. See the comment by Tambrun, in Oracles Chaldaïques. Recension de Georges Gemiste Pléthon, ed. Tambrun, B. (Athens, Paris and Brussels 1995) 63 Google Scholar.

48 Schol. Contra Pleth. IV.16.31-1 (trans. Woodhouse): ‘Plethon is reputed to deprecate all talk of ‘inspirations’ (ένθουοιασμοϋς) and ‘revelations’ (άποκαλύψεις) and to have declared them a deception (πλάνη) — further, to have proved in another work of his that truth can be found only by human discursive reason (ύπο τοΐ άνθρωπίνου λόγου) by means of philosophy (бю φιλοσοφίας).’ This work is none other than Book 1 of the Nomoi.

49 Siniossoglou, Radical Platonism in Byzantium, 171.

50 Pleth. Contra Schol. 9.1-3.

51 Woodhouse, Plethon, 27-8.

52 Nomoi 126 (III.31.83-5): ‘whoever among the sophists (=Christians) devises doctrines contrary to ours, he too should be burned alive’.

53 Juvenalius, a monk who converted to paganism and was associated with Plethon’s neo-pagan circle in Mistra, was put to death by Byzantine authorities. Scholarios was personally involved by providing in his letter to Oises the theological justification of the death penalty for pagan heretics. See here Siniossoglou, Radical Platonism in Byzantium, 134-8.

54 Medvedev, #Ή ύπόθεση τοΰ άποστάτη Ίουβεναλιου’, 166, 170-1.

55 Schol. Ad Raulem Oesem, IV.476.15-17.

56 On Hurufism in the early fifteenth-century Ottoman context see Fleischer, ‘Ancient wisdom and new sciences’, 234-5.

57 See Bausani, A., ‘Hurufiyya’, in Bearman, P., Bianquis, T., Bosworth, C. E., van Donzel, E. and Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.) Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (Leiden 2009)Google Scholar, Brill Online, Cambridge University Library (UK), 27 November 2009, <http://www.brillonline.nl/subscriber/entry?entry=islam_COM-0303>. According to one account Suhrawardi was dropped from the wall of a fortress and then burned. See Razavi, Subrawardi, 3.

58 Scholem, G., Von der mystischen Gestalt der Gottheit (Zurich 1962) 193–247 Google Scholar, 297-306.

59 Samuel, G., The Kabbalah Handbook: a concise encyclopedia of terms and concepts in Jewish mysticism (London 2007) 115-6Google Scholar.

60 Masai, Pléthon, 57 is one of the few to move in this direction by correcting the thesis of M. Täschner, who took Elissaios to represent Islamic lore. On the other hand, Gardette (‘Pour en finir avec Pléthon et son maître juif Elisée’, 163 n. 2) considers it unlikely that Elissaios introduced Plethon to the Kabbalah.

61 On the difference between theurgic and theosophical Kabbalah see Tirosh-Samuelson, H., ‘Philosophy and Kabbalah: 1200-1600’, in Frank, D. H., Leaman, O. (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Jewish Philosophy (Cambridge 2006) 218-57Google Scholar.

62 Fleischer, ‘Ancient wisdom and new sciences’, 235.

63 On the wordplay between Poseidon and eidos see Masai, Pléthon, 279.

64 From ancient classical times the Aeolians are regarded as ‘the most powerful and the most numerous of the Hellenic races’. See here Smith, W., Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (London 1854)Google Scholar s.v. Aeoles.

65 Theodoret, Interpretatio in Ezechielem PG 81.1077.15-24; Indicopleustes, Cosmas, Topographie chrétienne, ed. and trans. Wolska-Conus, W., 3 vols. (Paris 1968-1973) II Google Scholar, 26.12.

66 Flavius Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae, 1.127.1-3.

67 Zonaras, , Epitome historiarum, ed. Pinder, M. (Bonn 1841) I Google Scholar, 23.10-11: #Έλισάν бе Έλισαίων άρχηγέτης έγένετο, οΐπερ εΐσΐν ΑΙολεΙς.

68 Cf.Mavrokordatos, Alexandres, #Ίστορία ίερά: ήτοι, τά ΊονόαΙκά (Bucharest 1716)Google Scholar, κβ’, col. 2; Clinton, H. F., Fasti hellenici: the civil and literary chronology of Greece, from the earliest accounts to the death of Augustus, I (Oxford 1834) 98 Google Scholar.

69 Fleischer, ‘Ancient wisdom and new sciences’, 235.

70 Cf. Heller, ‘Yafith’, Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. Brill Online. Cambridge University Library (UK). 13 February 2010 http://www.brillonline.nl/subscriber/entry?entry=islam_SIM-7941. M. Seligsohn, ‘Alisa’ (or Alyasa’) Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.. Brill Online. Cambridge University Library (UK). 13 February 2010 http://www.brillonline.nl/subscriber/entry Pen try=islam_SIM-0547.

71 Fleischer, ‘Ancient wisdom and new sciences’, 234–5.

72 In Ad principessam Pelop. IV.153.1-6 Scholarios observes that Elissaios was anything but fascinated by the doctrinal and ritual aspects of Judaism and that he was only posing as a Jew: Μωσέως δε καί ών Ίουδαΐοι πισιεύονοιν ή θρησκεύουσι δι’ αιπσν ήκιοτα ήν φρονύζων. [...] Έκείνφ δή τω φαινομένφ μεν Ίουδαίφ, έλληνίοτη bt άκριβώς. The ostensible religious dissimulation of Elissaios comes to the foreground in Scholarios’ second reference to the man in Ad exarchum Josephum, IV.162.8-9: Elissaios created the impression that he is a Jew, while being a polytheist (ό τω δοκεΐν μεν Ίουδαΐος, πολύθεος δε Έλισσαΐος).

73 Zakythinos, Le Despotat, 354.

74 See here Méiikoff, I., Hadji Bektach: un myth et ses avatars: genèse & évolution du soufisme populaire en Turquie (Leiden 1998) 121-22Google Scholar.

75 On Bedreddin see Balivet, M., Islam, Mystique et Révolution armée dans les balkans Ottomans: Vie de Cheikh bedreddin le ‘Hall; des Turcs’ (1358/59-1416) (Istanbul 1995)Google Scholar.

76 Fleischer, ‘Ancient wisdom and new sciences’, 234.

77 Balivet, Islam, Mystique et Révolution armée, 43-53.

78 For these journeys and associations, see Balivet, Islam, Mystique et Révolution, 63-5. Cf.Balivet, ,‘Deux partisans de la fusion religieuse des Chrétiens et des Musulmans au XVe siècle: le Turc Bedreddin de Samavna et le Grec Georges de Trébizonde’, Byzantina 10 (1980) 363–400 Google Scholar.

79 Balivet, Islam, Mystique et Révolution armée, 66-9.

80 Mélikoff, Hadji Bektach, 122-3.

81 Balivet,’Deux partisans de la fusion religieuse’, 367-8; cf. Doukas, Historia Turco-Byzantina 149-153.

82 Balivet, M., Pour une concorde islamo-chrétienne: démarches byzantines et latines à la fin du Moyen-Age (de Nicolas de Cues à Georges de Trébizonde) (Rome 1997) 12 Google Scholar; ‘Deux partisans de la fusion religieuse’, 370, 392; Gardette, ‘Pout en finir avec Pléthon et son maître juif Elisée’, 154. Cf. Plethon, Oratio ad Manuelem Palaeologum, ed. Lampros, Παλοαολόγεια κα’ι Πελοποννησιακά 3.260.1-12.

83 Balivet, M. ‘Culture ouverte et échanges inter-religieux dans les villes Ottomanes du XlVe siècle’, in Zachariadou, E. (ed.) The Ottoman Emirate, 1300-1389 (Rethymnon 1993) 1–6 Google Scholar, here at 5.

84 Balivet, Pour une concorde islamo-chrétienne, 12 and 72, n. 33. On George, Islam and Plato see Todt, K. P., ‘In Calumniatorem Piatonis: Kardinal Johannes Bessarion (c. 1403-1472) als Vermittler und Verteidiger der Philosophie Piatons’, in Konstantinou, E. (ed.), Der Beitrag der Byzantinischen Gelehrten zur abendländischen Renaissance des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt 2006) 149-68Google Scholar.

85 Schol. Ad Kaoulem Oesem, 482.4-5.

86 In the monody composed by the monk Gregory (#Μονωδία τοϋ υοφοϋ δώασχάλσν Γεμιοτοϋ, PG 160.817) Plethon is called ‘protector of the laws of our fathers’ and ‘protector of the court of the Hellenes’ (PG 160.817). See also Hieronymus Charitonymus, Encomium Plethonis, PG 160.908C.

87 Fleischer, ‘Seer to the sultan’, 293.

88 On Plethon’s parting from late antique Neoplatonism see Tambrun, B., ‘L’Être, l’un et la pensée politique de Pléthon’, in Benakis, L. and Baloglou, C. P. (eds.), Proceedings of the International Congress on Plethon and his Time (Mystras, 26-29 juin 2002) (Athens and Mistra) 67–93 Google Scholar.

89 On the polarity between esoteric and exoteric religion in Neoplatonisra see Siniossoglou, N., ‘From philosophic monotheism to imperial henotheism: esoteric and popular religion in late antique Platonism’, in Mitchell, S., van Nuffelen, P. (eds.) The concept of pagan monotheism in the Roman Empire (Louvain 2009) 127-48Google Scholar.

90 Balivet, Pour une concorde islamo-chrétienne, 13.

91 Nomoi 230 (III.36.11-13).

92 Quoted in Balivet, Islam, Mystique et Revolution armée, 35.

93 Zhukov,’Börklüce Mustafa’, 119.

94 Balivet,’Deux partisans de la fusion religieuse’, 372.

95 Pleth. Consilium ad despotam Theodorum de Peloponneso, 125.3-12. Cf. Plato, Laws 885b4-9.

96 Schol. Dial, process, spirit. 2, III.33.20-1.

97 See George of Trebizond, Comparatio 3.21, quoted in Hankins, J., Plato in the Italian Renaissance, 1 (Leiden 1990) 172 Google Scholar: ‘I heard him myself in Florence (he was there at the Council with the Greeks) asserting that within a few years the entire world, with one mind and one preaching, would adopt the same religion. I asked him, “Christ’s or Mohammed’s?” “Neither”, he replied, “but one that does not differ from paganism (gentilitas).” I was shocked by these words, and have hated and feared him ever after as a poisonous viper.’