or GEORGIIUS PLETHO, one of the later and most celebrated Byzantine writers, lived during the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth century. His native place was probably Constantinople, though he spent most of his time in the Peloponnesus. In 1426 he held a high office under Manuel Palaeologus the emperor; and was one of the deputies of the Greek Church that were present at the Council of Florence held in 1438 for the purpose of effecting a union between the Latin and the Greek Churches. Gemistus was still more famous as a philosopher than as a theologian. Being disgusted with scholastic philosophy he made Plato the subject of earnest study; and henceforth the propagation of the Platonic philosophy became his chief aim. Having been introduced to Cosmo de' Medici during his stay at Florence, he persuaded this distinguished man of the superiority of the system of Plato over that of Aristotle, and became the leader of a new school of philosophy in the West. Gemistus wrote an immense number of scientific works, dissertations, treatises, compilations on divinity, history, geography, philosophy, and miscellaneous subjects. Several of them have been printed.