In his esteemed work on Bessarion, the scholarly journalist and publisher A. Kyrou (1898-1950) composes the most comprehensive biography of Bessarion to date, the humanist of the Renaissance Greek.

Utilizing primary sources and conducting on-site visits to the places where Bessarion operated – Constantinople, Mystras, Italy – Kyrou provides a rich and well-researched text that can be comfortably read by the curious and literature-loving reader.

Bessarion embraced the West, which he considered to be the sole and unique ally in the prevention of Islam in the Balkans, and he attempted twice to be elected Pope. His failure to be elected was due to the fact that he always remained a Greek, with the beard of an Orthodox bishop and his gaze toward the East.

Kyrou manages to highlight the virtues of Bessarion in the political and diplomatic realm, while also emphasizing his groundbreaking geopolitical proposals for the salvation of the Nation.

What ultimately remains of "the Mouse to the race," born and bred from Trebizond, Bessarion? Undoubtedly, his love for Hellenism and his contribution to Letters with the collection of manuscripts of Greek classics and the establishment of a related Academy, a contemporary House of Letters.