Ambrose Traversari (1386-1439 )

[Steven Avery]

Ambrose Traversari - (1386-1439 )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Ambrose_Traversari
In 1424 he wrote to Niccoli of the powerful impression which his reading of the Greek text of Athanasius’ Contra gentiles, De incarnatione, and Disputatio contra Arium had made on him.
(All accepted as Athansius)
http://books.google.com/books?id=zIhpR5txgp0C&pg=PA60

No known direct usage, it would be interesting to see his translation and commentary on the Disputation.

 

[Steven Avery]

Even back in 1424 Traversari noted this work forcefully:

Humanism and the Church Fathers: Ambrogio Traversari (1386-1439) and the Revival of Patristic Theology in the Early Italian Renaissance (1977)
Charles L. Stinger
https://books.google.com/books?id=zIhpR5txgp0C&pg=PA60

More importantly it was the eloquence of the Greek Fathers which inspired Traversari’s translations. In 1424 he wrote to Niccoli of the powerful impression which his reading of the Greek text of Athanasius’ Contra gentiles, De incarnatione, and Disputatio contra Arium had made on him.

I turned to reading Athanasius, and I was so seized by admiration for this exceptional man that 1 could not tear myself away. I read his two books against the heathen. In the first he refutes heathen superstition; in the second he defends the ignominy of the Cross and the Incarnation with such forceful arguments and with such weighty thoughts, that though indeed this matter has been discussed by many, principally by our Lactantius, it does not seem, however, that it could have been done more worthily or divinely. I read next the first three books against Arius, for there are five books in all and large books at that. I was so refreshed by its fragrance of piety, nor can I remember having read anything that can be compared to this work. What is striking is a certain incomparable beauty in this man’s writing,