Which plaintext languages to try?

[Linda]

Yes, but I was thinking more in terms of how popular Greek was for creating manuscripts.

Emanuel Chrysoloras (c. 1350-1415), a teacher of Greek living in Constantinople, traveled to Venice in 1395. There he met Jacopo d’Angelo (Jacopus Angelus) da Scarperia, who became his student and went back to Constantinople with him. Two years later they returned to Italy, where in 1406 Jacobus Angelus finished his Latin translation of the Geographia from a Greek manuscript that has not survived. This translation, dedicated to Pope Gregory XII, was widely circulated in manuscript. 

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

From wiki

Georgios Gemistos Plethon (Greek: Γεώργιος Γεμιστὸς Πλήθων; Latin: Georgius Gemistus Pletho c. 1355/1360 – 1452/1454), commonly known as Gemistos Plethon, was a Greek scholar[4] and one of the most renowned philosophers of the Late Byzantine era.[5] He was a chief pioneer of the revival of Greek scholarship in Western Europe.[6] As revealed in his last literary work, the Nomoi or Book of Laws, which he circulated only among close friends, he rejected Christianity in favour of a return to the worship of the classical Hellenic gods, mixed with ancient wisdom based on Zoroaster and the Magi.[7]

In 1438–1439 he reintroduced Plato's ideas to Western Europe during the Council of Florence, in a failed attempt to reconcile the East–West schism. Plethon also formulated his political vision in several speeches throughout his life. The boast in one of the speeches that "We are Hellenes by race and culture" and his proposal of a reborn Byzantine Empire following a utopian Hellenic system of government centered in Mystras, have generated discussion about Byzantine and modern Greek identity.[8] In this regard, Plethon has been labelled both "the last Hellene"[9] and "the first modern Greek".[10]