Johannes Crastonis

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

• 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

• Greek scholars in the Renaissance

References

1. Dizionario biografico degli italiani, Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1960-, vol. 30, pp. 578-580
2. 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
3. Jacques Charles Brunet, Léon d'. Ourches, Catalogue des livres rares, précieux et bien conditionnés du cabinet, 1811, p.83
4. 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
5. 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
6. Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 30, p. 578
7. 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
8. 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
9. Giorgio Galbiati, [Preface], in Terentianus Maurus, De litteris, syllabis et metris Horatii, Milan, Uldericus Scinzenzeler, 1497, sig. a iii r