Theodorus Gaza was born a
Greek in an illustrious family in
Thessaloniki,
Macedonia in about c. 1400 when the city was under its first period of
Turkish rule (it was restored to Byzantine rule in 1403). On the final capture of his native city by the Turks in 1430 he escaped to
Italy. In December 1440 he was in
Pavia, where he became acquainted with
Iacopo da San Cassiano, who introduced him to his master
Vittorino da Feltre. During a three years' residence in
Mantua where Vittorino held the celebrated humanistic school "La Giocosa", he rapidly acquired a competent knowledge of
Latin under his teaching, supporting himself meanwhile by giving lessons in
Greek, and by copying
manuscripts of the ancient classics. In 1447 he became professor of Greek in the newly founded
University of Ferrara, to which students in great numbers from all parts of Italy were soon attracted by his fame as a teacher. His students there included
Rodolphus Agricola. He had taken some part in the councils which were held in
Siena (1423),
Ferrara (1438), and
Florence (1439), with the object of bringing about a reconciliation between the Greek and Latin Churches; and in 1450, at the invitation of
Pope Nicholas V, he went to
Rome, where he was for some years employed by his patron in making Latin translations from
Aristotle and other Greek authors. In Rome, he continued his teaching activities: it was reported that on one occasion
Pope Sixtus IV commissioned Gaza to translate Aristotle's works into Latin, with the pay of a number of gold pieces; however on receiving the pay Gaza was insulted at the amount paid, and furiously cast the money into the
Tiber river. Amongst his students were fellow Byzantine Greeks
Demetrius Chalcondyles, a leading scholar of the
Renaissance period and
Andronicus Callistus, a cousin of Theodore Gaza's. After the death of Nicholas (1455), being unable to make a living at Rome, Gaza moved to
Naples, where he enjoyed the patronage of
Alphonso the Magnanimous for two years (1456–1458). Shortly afterwards he was appointed by
Cardinal Bessarion to a
benefice in
Calabria, where the later years of his life were spent, and where he died about 1475 and was buried in the Basilian monastery of
San Giovanni a Piro. in the "Adoration of the Magi" in the Uffizi Gallery of
Florence,
Italy.After Gaza's death he was remembered by renaissance writers and praised for his skills; a letter written to
Pope Sixtus IV by
Ermolao Barbaro in 1480 includes a detailed appraisal of Gaza's translating abilities: In the campaign waged by
Plethon against Aristotelianism he contributed his share to the defence. His influence on humanists was considerable, in the success with which he taught Greek language and literature. At Ferrara he founded an academy to offset the influence of the Platonic academy founded by
Plethon at
Florence. ==Works==