Gemistus Pletho

Gemistus Pletho
Portrait of Gemistus Pletho, detail of a fresco by acquaintance Benozzo Gozzoli, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence, Italy
Born	1355 Constantinople
Died	1452/1454 Mystras
Era	Renaissance philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Neoplatonism
Main interests	Plato's Republic, Ancient Greek religion, Zoroastrianism
Influences Plato
Influenced Basilios Bessarion, John Argyropoulos, Cosimo de' Medici, Marsilio Ficino, Italian Renaissance

Georgius Gemistus (Greek: Γεώργιος Γεμιστός; c. 1355 – 1452/1454), later called Plethon (/ˈpliːθɒn, -θən/) or Pletho (/ˈpliːθoʊ/; Πλήθων), was a Greek scholar of Neoplatonic philosophy. He was one of the chief pioneers of the revival of Greek learning in Western Europe. In the dying years of the Byzantine Empire, he advocated a return to the Olympian gods of the ancient world.

He re-introduced Plato's thoughts to Western Europe during the 1438–1439 Council of Florence, a failed attempt to reconcile the East-West schism. Here Pletho met and influenced Cosimo de' Medici to found a new Platonic Academy, which, under Marsilio Ficino, would proceed to translate into Latin all Plato's works, the Enneads of Plotinus, and various other Neoplatonist works.