Georgios Gemistos Plethon

Georgios Gemistos Plethon (c. 1355–1454) was among the last great philosophers of Byzantium. Born in Constantinople, he studied there and in Adrianople, and before 1410 Emperor Manuel II sent him to Mystra in the Morea, where he taught philosophy and advised the despot Theodore II.

At the Council of Florence in 1438–1439, convened to reconcile the Eastern and Western churches, he lectured on Plato, reintroduced Platonic thought to Western Europe and inspired Cosimo de' Medici's Platonic Academy. In his Book of Laws, circulated only among friends, he rejected Christianity for the worship of the classical Hellenic gods; he was later called the last Hellene.