1. Birth - Family
Simone Atumano was born in the early 14th century in Constantinople. His mother was an Orthodox Greek woman, while his father a Turk, from whom it is presumed that Simone received the epithet Atumanos as a misspelling of the word Othomanos (Ottoman in Greek). In a young age he became monk in the monastery of St John of Stoudios in Constantinople. He knew Greek, Latin and Hebrew, an he put his knowledge into practice both as a teacher and as an author. 2. Activity
According to some of his handwritten notes describing his career, on 23 June 1348 Atumano was appointed bishop of Gerace in Calabria after the death of Barlaam. In 1363 he became bishop of Cassano in Calabria, a post he held until 1366. Having being converted to Catholicism, on 17 April of the same year he was appointed Latin archbishop of Thebes by pope Urban V. At the time he was not on good terms with the Catalans, who ruled the Duchy of Athens and Thebes and, after Thebes was taken over by the Navarrese Company in 1379, king Peter IV of Aragon accused the bishop that he had actively supported the Navarrese. On the grounds of this dispute, he wrote to pope Urban VI more than once, requesting the deposition of Atumano in favor of John Boyl, bishop of Megara. However, Atumano kept the archbishopric throne until his death.
Despite his alleged initial support to the Navarrese, Atumano's relations with them soon became difficult. Under these circumstances he preferred to settle in Rome, where he taught Greek and Hebrew. Among his pupils was Radulph de Rivo,the well-known dean of Tongres. It is also possible that Atumano was appointed teacher in the papal court by pope Urban VI himself, to whom he dedicated the trilingual edition of the Old Testament which he published. During the same period, having won the pope’s trust, he was sent to Constantinople on May 1383, on a mission which lasted for a year.
Before his ascension to the archbishopric throne of Thebes, Atumano had contributed to the development of the profession of copyists during the period of the Catalan occupation in Athens and Thebes. Of those copyists some names have survived, proving that they were of Greek, as much as of Catalan origin. After his appointment as archbishop he made sure a school was founded in the city of Thebes, where he himself taught Greek, thus proving his interest for the education of the Greek popultion. He was also a close friend of a similarly important scholar of his age, Demetrios Kydones, with whom he kept in correspondence.
3. Work
During his stay at the papal court, Atumano started writing a trilingual edition of the Old Testament (Biblia Triglotta). A part of the Greek translation has survived in one of his own manuscripts, which came later in the possession of Cardinal Bessarion and today is kept in the Bibliotheca Marciana in Venice. It is assumed that the Hebrew translation was made either to facilitate the missionary activity or for scientific reasons. He translated works of ancient authors from Greek to Latin, such as Plutarch's "On the Control of Anger". He also wrote commentaries on some of the works of Euripides, while he wrote some poetry himself, since he composed a poem for emperor John VI Kantakouzenos. 4. Assessment Historian K. Setton has characterized Atumano a remarkable person in the history of biblical and classical studies. He has recorded various testimonies by Atumano's contemporaries, from which we gather that Atoumanos enjoyed high esteem among the scholars of his era. From the very first moment he found himself in the papal court, he distinguished himself in the intellectual circles of Rome. As it has already been mentioned, Demetrios Kydones was his personal friend, while Francesco Bruni, private secretary of Urban VI, who had been taught Greek by Atumano, points out his good reputation, his excellent and pleasant manners, as well as the charm of his speech. For his character and his innate goodness he was praised by Friedrich III of Sicily, too. Coluccio Salutati, a humanist from Florence, also appreciated Atumano, since in a conversation with Petrarch he described him as a respectable man. |