Nikolaos Sophianos was a Greek

Greeks

The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....

 Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 humanist and cartographer chiefly noted for his Totius Graeciae Descriptio

Totius Graeciae Descriptio

Totius Graeciae Descriptio refers to an early regional map of Greece drawn by Renaissance humanist Nikolaos Sophianos that became a cartographical bestseller of the late 16th century.-Lost Editions:...

map and his grammar of Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

. He was born into the local nobility of Corfu

Corfu

Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...

 at the beginning of the 16th century and was educated at the Greek Quirinal College in Rome, co-founded by another Greek scholar, Janus Lascaris

Janus Lascaris

Janus Lascaris , also called John Rhyndacenus , was a noted Greek scholar in the Renaissance.After the fall of Constantinople he was taken to the Peloponnese and to Crete...

, who also became his teacher along with Arsenius Apostolius

Arsenius Apostolius

Arsenius Apostolius was a Greek scholar who lived for a long time in Venice. He was also bishop of Monemvasia in the Peloponnese.-Life:Arsenius Apostolius was a son of Michael Apostolius and brother of Aristobulus Apostolius...

. Sophianos did not return to live in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

; only briefly visiting in 1543. He spent the rest of his life in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 where he became a librarian

Librarian

A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...

, and Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 where he worked as a copyist. His cartographical work was published in 1540.

Known works

• He Grammatike tes Koines Ton Hellenon Glosses-a Greek grammar
• Totius Graeciae Descriptio
  Totius Graeciae Descriptio
  Totius Graeciae Descriptio refers to an early regional map of Greece drawn by Renaissance humanist Nikolaos Sophianos that became a cartographical bestseller of the late 16th century.-Lost Editions:...
  
  -a historical map of Greece

External links

• World Digital Library
  World Digital Library
  The World Digital Library is an international digital library operated by UNESCO and the United States Library of Congress.The WDL has stated that its mission is to promote international and intercultural understanding, expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the Internet, provide...
  
   presentation of Nicolai Gerbelij in descriptionem Graeciae Sophiani, praefatio or Preface of Nicolas Gerbelius to Sophianos’s Description of Greece. Library of Congress
  Library of Congress
  The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
  
  . Panoramic map image of Sophianos’s only known cartographic work of his native country.

See also

• Greek scholars in the Renaissance
  Greek scholars in the Renaissance
  The migration of Byzantine scholars and other émigrés from southern Italy and Byzantium during the decline of the Byzantine Empire and mainly after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 until the 16th century, is considered by some scholars as key to the revival of Greek and Roman studies and...