108 Berthold of Regensburg or Ratisbon
CULTURAL PATRONAGEJohn of Berry had established for himself a reputation as
an inept military leader, a spendthrift, but a famous and
enlightened patron and a lover of finely illustrated
manuscripts. His overtaxed subjects likely remembered
his luxurious overspending. One hundred manuscripts of
the 300 in his library have survived to this day, the
famous Très Riches Heures and the Très Belles Heures,
among others.
See alsoBOOKS OF HOURS;HUNDREDYEARS’WAR;LIM-
BOURGBROTHERS.
Further reading: Millard Meiss, French Painting in the
Time of Jean De Berry: The Late Fourteenth Century and the
Patronage of the Duke,2d ed., 2 vols. (London: Phaidon,
1969); Marcel Thomas, The Grandes Heures of Jean, Duke
of Berry(New York: Braziller, 1971).
Berthold of Regensburg or Ratisbon(ca. 1210–1272)
innovative German Franciscan preacher
Born about 1210, Berthold focused his main concentra-
tion on his SERMONS, preaching especially in German. He
drew huge crowds in BAVARIAand HUNGARY. Berthold was
among the first to use anecdotes, exempla, proverbs,
puns, and dialect words, employing them in learned
rhetorical techniques. Berthold’s sermons were effective
and seemingly inspired the conversion of many listeners.
They moreover constitute a remarkable mine of informa-
tion reflecting popular culture of the time. Pope Urban IV
(r. 1261–64) employed him to preach a Crusade with
ALBERTUSMAGNUS. He died on December 14, 1272.
See alsoPREACHING.
Further reading: Debra L. Stoudt, “Berthold von
Regenburg (ca. 1210–1272),” in John M. Jeep, ed.,
Medieval Germany: An Encyclopedia(New York: Garland
Publishing, 2001), 52–53.
Bertran de Born (ca. 1140–ca. 1215)viscount of Haute-
fort, remembered as a warmongering troubadour
He was born between Limousin and Périgord in France
about 1140 and later married and produced two children,
but little information about his actual life has survived. In
his lyrics, Bertran claimed in his writing that the active life
was to be lived only fully on a battlefield. He was a quar-
relsome figure in personal and political relationships,
fighting his brother for possession of family property,
going on Crusade, and assisting RICHARDI Lionheart in
his rebellions against his father, the king. At the same time
Bertran was also a benefactor of the church and became a
Cistercian monk at Dalon for the last 20 years of his life.
Throughout his poetry, he upheld the virtues of war, espe-
cially of courage and generosity. As a warrior with such a
literary persona, he tried to promote the knightly values
that he viewed to be absent among his contemporaries. He
died between 1212 and 1215 in the abbey of Dalon.
See alsoTROUBADOURS.
Further reading:Bertran de Born, The Poems of the
Troubadour Bertran de Born,ed. and trans. William D.
Paden, Tilde Sankovich, and Patricia H. Stäblein (Berke-
ley: University of California Press, 1986); Karen Wilk
Klein, The Partisan Voice: A Study of the Political Lyric in
France and Germany, 1180–1230(The Hague: Mouton,
1971).Bessarion, John Cardinal (Basil)(ca. 1403–1472)
bishop of Nicaea, theologian, collector of Greek manuscripts
He was born to a poor family at Trebizond in northern
Anatolia on January 2, 1403. The talents of the young
Bessarion so impressed a local church official that he took
him to CONSTANTINOPLE in about 1415. He studied
RHETORICand PHILOSOPHYunder some of the best teach-
ers of the era. Having become an Orthodox monk under
the name Bessarion in 1423, he was ordained a priest in- From 1431 to 1436, he lived at MISTRAin the Pelo-
ponnese in Greece, where he continued his study of Plato
with the famous philosopher Gemistus Plethon (ca.
1360–1452).
CAREER AND ADVOCACY OF
ECCLESIASTICAL UNION
The emperor John VIII Palailogos (r. 1425–48) sent him
to the council of FERRARA-FLORENCEand appointed him
bishop of Nicaea in 1437. He was one of the most promi-
nent Greek advocates of the union of the Eastern and
Western Churches, at the very least for political reasons
to obtain help against the OTTOMANthreat. He returned
in 1440 to Constantinople, where he learned of his eleva-
tion by the pope as a cardinal on December 18, 1439. He
returned to Florence a year later and continued to pro-
mote the union of the two churches. Moving to the city
of Rome with Pope EUGENIUSIV in 1443, he built a house
near his titular church of the Twelve Apostles, which
became an important center of humanist activity and fel-
lowship, especially that of the Neoplatonist school. He
also worked with GEORGE of Trebizond and Lorenzo
VALLAto promote the study of Greek, copy Greek and
Latin manuscripts, and translate important Greek
authors. As part of that effort he assembled one of the
largest and best libraries of the time. It later became the
original core of the Bibliotheca Marciana at Venice.CRUSADING
After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottoman
Turks, he promoted calling the ultimately unsuccessful
Congress of Mantua in 1459–60 to retake the city and
protect the Greek Church. In 1463 after the capture of
TREBIZOND, the last bastion of the Byzantine Empire, he
was appointed the Latin patriarch of Constantinople. He
worked to encourage VENICEin particular to lead a cru-
sade to protect its threatened colonies in the eastern
Mediterranean. With the untimely death of Pope PIUSII