Gregory Choniades
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Gregory Choniades (Choniates, Chioniades) (d. 1302) was a Greek astronomer. He founded an astronomical academy at Trebizond.
Information about Choniades survives from some contemporary sources. In 1347, George Chrysococces (Chrysococcis) writes that "a certain Chioniades, who had been raised in Constantinople, fell in love with mathematics and other sciences. After he had mastered medicine, he wished to study astronomy; he was informed that, in order to satisfy his desire, he would have to go to Persia. He traveled to Trebizond, where he was given some assistance by the Emperor Comnenus, and thence proceeded to Persia itself, where he persuaded yet another Emperor to aid him. He eventually learned all that he wished to know, and returned to Trebizond, bearing away from Persia a number of astronomical texts which he translated into Greek."
Sixteen of Choniades' letters have survived, from which it can be confirmed that he did receive assistance from Alexius II and did indeed travel to Persia.
Choniades also visited Tabriz, at the time the Mongol capital, and served as Orthodox Bishop there. He seems to have been in Tabriz from 1295 to 1296 and returned to Constantinople. In 1302, he returned to Tabriz as Bishop. According to David Pingree, this may have been in connection with the Emperor Andronicus' attempt to form an alliance with Ghazan Khan in the summer of 1302.
He died at Constantinople.
[edit] Notes
[edit] Further reading
- Pingree, David, "Gregory Choniades and Palaeologan Astronomy," in Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 18, 1964, pp. 135-160.
