Book excerpt: The first study that focuses on the extent of the knowledge of Latin and Roman culture by Post-Byzantine scholars (15th - 19th cent.)00This volume aims at filling a major gap in international literature concerning the knowledge of the Latin language and literature by Post-Byzantine scholars from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth centuries. Most of them, immigrants to the West after the Fall of Byzantium, harmoniously integrated into their host countries, practiced and perfected their knowledge of the Latin language and literature, excelled in arts and letters and, in many cases, managed to obtain civil, political and clerical offices. They wrote original poetic and prose works in Latin, for literary, scholarly and/or political purposes. They also translated Greek texts into Latin, and vice versa. The contributors to this volume explore the multifaceted aspects of the knowledge of the Latin language and literature by these scholars. Among the many issues addressed in the volume are: a) the reasons that urged Post-Byzantine scholars to compose Latin works and disseminate Ancient Greek works to the West and Latin texts to the East, b) their audience, c) the fate of their projects, d) their relations among them and with Western scholars. In the contents of the volume one can identify well known Post-Byzantine scholars such as Bessarion or Isidore of Kiev, as well as less known ones like Ioannis Gemistos, Nikolaos Sekoundinos and others. Hence, hereby is provided a canon of scholars who, albeit Greek, are considered essentially as representatives of Neo-Latin literature, along with others who, through their translations, contributed to the rapprochement - literary and political - of East and West.