Pros mathematikous
Sextus Empiricus
copied by Isidore of Kiev
1438–45 CE
parchment; 269 leaves; Greek
Italy
Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries (LJS 380)
This book, Pros mathematikous, is a copy of an original text written by Sextus Empiricus, a Pyrrhonist philosopher and Skeptic. This book includes common disciplines such as grammar, rhetoric, geometry, and many others. The fifteenth-century scribe, Isidore of Kiev, was also a famed theologian and an accomplished orator, who had connections with the Palaiologos family. In 1434 CE, he was trusted with going to Basel as part of an embassy to open negotiations with the Council of Basel by John VIII Palaiologos, the current Byzantine emperor.
—Evan Morgans