Bessarione a Padova ai tempi di Francesco Della Rovere? Nota sulle fonti e il metodo di Niccolò Comneno Papadopoli

An early biographical tradition portrays Bessarion as a student in Padua in the years immediately following the Council of Ferrara-Florence, a period during which the Franciscan conventual Francesco della Rovere was also residing in the city. According to this account, Bessarion studied Latin and the vernacular under Giovanni Sclengia, a Cretan member of the Canons Regular of San Giorgio in Alga, and learned from the professors of the Paduan Studium how to interpret Aristotle in continuity with Christian doctrine, without relying on Platonic mediation. This contribution traces the origins of this tradition to Niccolò Comeno Papadopoli's Historia Gymnasii Patavini and examines the evidentiary basis of Papadopoli’s biographical reconstruction. The analysis shows that, as in other instances, Papadopoli fabricated a Paduan episode in Bessarion’s life, grounding his narrative on non-existent sources in order to lend credibility to his account. The study also addresses the related question of Bessarion's alleged residences in Padua.