Vissarion (one of the greatest Greek scholars to relocate to Italy) wrote in 1455: "while Constantinople was standing I did not care for the collection and preservation of Greek manuscripts. But now, after the Fall, I am occupied by a strong desire to acquire them for me and the remaining Greeks". This statement underlined the importance of the contribution of the Greek mind to the western Renaissance.
The Greeks of the "diaspora" established an educational system based on the ancient tradition and philosophy. Thousands of them (of all social strata-diplomats, scholars, artists, priests, artisans, etc) left Byzantium to find refuge to the west. The Greek community of Venice became the nucleus of philosophical and artistic exploration and in 1500 A.C. it counted 5.000 souls. An important period for the Greeks of Venice started after 1600 A.C. with their financial advancement.
The famous artist, Dominicos Theotokopoulos (El Greco) who was born in Crete, lived in the Greek community of Venice for a few years before going to Spain. Although the Renaissance started prior to the Fall of the Byzantine Empire and Humanism mainly concentrated on the Latin character rather than the Greek (Franciscan Humanitarianism-Trajan Column and other roman monuments-Vergil and Cicero), one can safely say that the study of Greek manuscripts unknown to the west came with those who fled the occupied east. The Byzantine scholars offered a substantial contribution to the development of the Italian Renaissance in the form of those ancient manuscripts and their byzantine transcriptions and hermeneutics thus turning the byzantine civilization into a cultural filter for the ancient Greek mind.
Constantine founded the new capital of the Roman Empire in a geographically strategic point as it was in the crossroads of east and west and close to the eastern territory, which was rich in produce.
The city of Byzantium was established (in 658 B.C.) on a bay controlling the Straits of Bosporus, by the city of Megara as part of the colonization process. In 480 B.C. it was burned by the invading forces of Darius and in 479 it was occupied by the Spartans.
Zagori is an area of great natural beauty and unique architecture in the Pindus Mountains in Epirus in Northwestern Greece. The area is of about 1.000 square kilometers and contains 46 villages. Zagoria villages is called by Greeks “Zagorochoria” meaning the villages behind the mountain.
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In 1989, Professor of Byzantine Studies, Helen Ahrweiler is appointed Chairman of the Cultural Centre Pompidou in Paris