Johannes Crastonis (Crastonus; Crastone) was an Italian renaissance humanist and scholar. Crastonus was probably born in Castel San Giovanni close to Piacenza.[1] He was a member of the Carmelites.[2] He studied in Constantinople but migrated to Modena (near Ferrara) in Italy. There he published a Greek-Latin dictionary about 1480.[3]
In Milan, together with Bonus Accursius, he edited various works to facilitate the learning of Greek. His collaboration with Bonus Accursius started no later than 1478.[4] Among these works were a bi-lingual Greek and Latin edition of the Psalms, dedicated to Ludovico Donà, published on 21 September 1481. This was the first printed version of the Greek Psalms.[5] While at Milan, he was friends with Ermolao Barbaro, Francesco Filelfo, Giorgio Merula and Iacopo Antiquari.[6] His Vocabulista, a Greek-Latin dictionary, was first printed probably in Milan and then re-printed twice before 1500 by Dionysius Bertochus.[7] A translation of Constantine Lascaris's Erotemata was published on 29 September 1480, which was reprinted in 1489.[8] Crastonus died after 1497, as is clear from a reference made to him in that year.[9]
Known works
edit- Lexicon graeco-latinum, printed not after 28 March 1478
- Lexicon latino-graecum or Vocabulista; no place [but probably Milan] or date; preface by Bonus Accursius
- [Bilingual edition of the Psalms], Milan, Bonus Accursius, 1481
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Dizionario biografico degli italiani, Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1960-, vol. 30, pp. 578-580
- ^ Giacomo Gherardi, Dispacci e letter di Giacomo Gherardi, nunzio pontificio a Firenze e Milano (11 settembre 1487-10ottobre 1490), ed. E. Caruso, Rome 1909, pp. 491-492
- ^ Jacques Charles Brunet, Léon d'. Ourches, Catalogue des livres rares, précieux et bien conditionnés du cabinet, 1811, p.83
- ^ C. Linde, 'Johannes Crastonus's 1481-Edition of the Psalms',in The Library. The Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, 7th series, 13.2, June 2012, pp. 147-163, p. 149
- ^ Johannes Crastonus, [Dedicatory letter to Ludovico Donà], in his [Bi-lingual edition of the Psalms], Milan: [Bonus Accursius], 1481; Paul Botley, Learning Greek in Western Europe, 1369-1529, (Philadelphia 2010), p. 64
- ^ Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 30, p. 578
- ^ Vocabulista, Vicenza, Dionysius Bertochus, c. 1483; and Reggio Emilia, Dionysius Bertochus and Marcus Antonius de Bazaleriis, 1497; see Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke, VII, cols 192-193
- ^ Ludwig Hain, Repertorium bibliographicum: in quo libri omnes ab arte typographica inventa usque ad annum MD typis expressi, ordine alphabetico vel simpliciter enumerantur vel adcuratius recensentur, II, Stuttgart and Paris 1831, p. 241
- ^ Giorgio Galbiati, [Preface], in Terentianus Maurus, De litteris, syllabis et metris Horatii, Milan, Uldericus Scinzenzeler, 1497, sig. a iii r
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