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2012
Gennadeion News A special insert to the newsletter of the american school of classical studies at athens
FROM THE ARCHIVES
Author Vangelis Raptopoulos Donates Papers
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haracterized as “the most creative, the most passionate writer of his generation,” Vangelis Raptopoulos is the first author from the 1980s literary generation who has trusted a significant part of his personal archive (“thirty years of creation,” as he said) to the Archives of the Gennadius Library. We are grateful to him for his generous decision. Vangelis Raptopoulos, born in 1959, is considered to be the pioneer of the “1980s generation.” He first published in 1979 (In Pieces or Κομματάκια), when he was only 20 years old, and established himself as one of Greece’s most promising authors. His next two publications, Toll Gates or Διόδια (1982) and The Cicadas or Τα τζιτζίκια, completed a trilogy-team portrait of his generation. The Cicadas also came out in English. To date, continued on page G4
Vangelis Raptopoulos
Exhibition of Early American Archaeological Photographs Debuts at Library
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he archaeological photographs of John Henry Haynes (1849–1910), the father of American archaeological photography, are being exhibited in the Basil Room of the Gennadius Library from November 27, 2012 to January 20, 2013 under the title “Picturing Anatolia: The Photographs of John Henry Haynes.” All but unknown today, Haynes served as photographer for the American excavations at Assos (1881–83) and at Nippur in Mesopotamia (1889–1900). In 1884 and 1887 he traveled across Asia Minor with a camera, photographing historical and archaeological sites, many for the first time.
The exhibit situates the photographic exploration of Anatolia within the context of the growing American cultural presence in the eastern Mediterranean marked by the foundation of the ASCSA in 1881; it concludes with the excavations of Colophon and Sardis in 1921–22, showcasing important material from the ASCSA Archives. The exhibition is curated by Robert Ousterhout and Maria Georgopoulou, with the support of Ioli Vingopoulou and Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan. An afternoon colloquium in Cotsen Hall introduced the exhibition to the public, culminating in a keynote address delivered by Robert
The Hittite shrine of Eflatunpinar (‘Plato’s Spring’), near Lake Beys¸ehir in central Anatolia (1884 –1887). Photograph by Haynes, Harvard University, Aga Khan Archive
Ousterhout of the University of Pennsylvania. Other speakers at the colloquium were Stavros Anestidis of the Centre for Asia Minor Studies, Anna Ballian of the Benaki Museum, Jack Davis of the University of Cincinnati, historian Ioanna Petropoulou, Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan of the ASCSA, Gennadeion Director Maria Georgopoulou, and Yiannis Papadopoulos of Panteion University. e
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GENNADEION NEWS
Samourka Maps in Three Dimensions
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digital presentation that enlivens the old maps of the collection of Margarita Samourka made headlines in the Greek press and attracted large crowds at the National Hellenic Research Foundation on November 5, 2012. George Tolias of the National Hellenic
Research Foundation introduced the project and Maria Konstantoglou of the University of the Aegean, head of the team that put together this imaginative endeavor, presented this unique technical achievement developed at the Samourkas Map Collection. e
Invitation to 3-D maps. Coasts of Syros from the map of ChoiseulGouffier (1782)
Fellows at the Gennadeion
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any fellows are making use of the Gennadeion this academic year and have presented their research in work-in-progress seminars. Stefania Costache, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is the Alison Frantz Fellow for 2012–13. She is researching nineteenth-century political history and is completing a project entitled “Men for All Seasons: Diplomacy, Government and European Enterprises in the Ottoman Empire, Romania and Greece, 1830–1880.” In October, Cotsen Traveling Fellow Dr. Pantelis Golitsis of the Freie Universität Berlin studied one of the Library’s philosophical manuscripts on Aristotelian logic, MS 43.
The second Papaioannou Fellow at the Gennadeion, Dr. Vaios Kalogrias, will be using the Papaioannou papers from the Gennadius Archives for his study: “Mihailovic-Zervas: A Comparative Study of Resistance and Collaboration in Serbia and Greece (1941–1944).” A fellow of the American Research Center in Sofia, Dr. Svetoslav Ribolov, Associate Professor at the Department of Theology at Sofia University, spent the summer and early fall of 2012 studying eighteenthcentury Orthodox theology. Associate Member James Rodriguez, a Ph.D. candidate from Yale University, has been using the Gennadius collections for his dissertation research on bilateral Byzantine icons of the Palaiologan period. e
From the Librarian
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everal new acquisitions have been added to the Gennadius Library collection. Twenty-five volumes of the rare periodical Ο αστήρ της Ανατολής were donated by the Greek Historical Evangelical Archive to complement a similar donation by the Philoi from last year. We bought the first book printed in America from Greek type, Xenophon’s De Cyri Institutione, libri octo, printed in Philadelphia in 1806; a rare concordance to the Greek New Testament begun by Robert Estienne and completed and printed Gennadeion News pages are compiled by Gennadius Library Director Maria Georgopoulou, Senior Librarian Irini Solomonidi, Administrative Assistant Maria Smali, and Archivist Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan, and edited by Sally Fay. This publication is produced semi annually. E-mail correspondence for Gennadeion News to ascsa@ascsa.org.
by his son and grandson: Henri Estienne, Concordantiae Graecolatinae… [Geneva] 1600; and the Greek translation of John Bunyan’s famous 1678 work, The Pilgrim’s Progress, printed in 1824 by the American Printing House of Malta. More rare items were acquired in auction: a school book by Vassilios Papaefthymiou published in 1949, titled Το σχολείο μας γιορτάζει; an album about the Balkan Wars published in 1914 in Athens; a karamanlı book by Perry de Forest, titled Σηχχέτιν Σήρρη, published in Galata in 1912; and a typewritten 1952 article by Stratis Myrivilis signed in his own hand. The Akolouthies collection of Dory Papastratou arrived in the Library in the summer. It is now stored at the balcony of the Gennadius Reading Room. Full online access to this collection is being projected for December 2012.
ddd In June 2012 Senior Librarian Irini Solomonidi was invited to visit the Centre du Conservation du Livre in Arles, France, specializing in the conservation of paper and bookbindings. During her visit, she had the opportunity to explore firsthand the latest techniques the Centre uses in the conservation of books, manuscripts, and archives. The Centre undertakes the conservation and digitization of manuscripts, books, and archives of various institutions, creating an e-corpus, a collective digital library that catalogues and disseminates numerous documents, such as manuscripts, archives, books, journals, prints, audio recordings, and video. ddd Also in June, a team from the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts in
Xenophon, De Cyri Institutione, libri octo (Philadelphia, 1806) Plano, Texas, photographed six of our New Testament manuscripts, which are now available for browsing on their website (http://www.csntm.org/manuscript) and on our server. e
G E N N A D E I O N N E W S
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Walton Lecture About 1453
Upcoming Lectures & Exhibitions
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T
olly Greene (Prince ton University) deliv ered the 32nd Annual Walton Lecture, entitled “1453: How Important was it?” She reflected on the significance of the capture of Constantinople in 1453 as the moment when the Byzantine Empire came to an end and the Ottoman Empire
began. The date is problem atic because the Ottomans had firmly established themselves in Thessaly in the later fourteenth century and the process of Ot tomanization of the cities lasted until the sixteenth century. Her lively lecture attracted large crowds in Cotsen Hall. e
he Third Annual Samour kas Lecture on Cartogra phy is scheduled for Feb ruary 26, 2013. Artemis Skoutari will deliver a lecture on the Ptolemaic Maps of the Samourka Collection. Several of these maps will be exhibited in Cotsen Hall. ddd The generosity of Lloyd E. Cot sen and Margit Sperling Cotsen has funded another year of im portant lectures in the Cotsen Lecture Series: • George Mavrogordatos of the University of Athens and Ayhan T. Aktar of Istanbul Bilgi University will discuss “The 1923 Exchange of Popu lations. An Ongoing Debate” (January 15, 2013).
The invitation to the lecture featured a map of Constantinople by Braun & Hogenberg (1577) and a portrait of Mehmet II, attributed to Gentile Bellini (1480).
Demos Fellow Catalogues the Venezis Papers
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hanks to the generosity of the Demos Founda tion, the 2012 Demos Fellow, Dr. Demetra Papakon stantinou, processed and cata logued the papers of novelist Elias Venezis. An accomplished archaeologist, Papakonstantinou previously held the position of curator in the Department of Information Technology at the Benaki Museum. She catalogued some 1,500 letters of Greek and foreign correspondents from the years 1930–1964 and has moved on to the correspon dence for the years 1972–1974. The catalogue of the correspon dence will become available on the ASCSA website in March 2013 and the presentation of
• Annemarie Weyl Carr, Emerita Professor of Byzantine Art at Southern Methodist Univer sity, will talk on “St. Luke and the Icon of the Virgin Kykko tissa in Cyprus” (April 2, 2013). • Historian Maria Mavroudi of the University of California, Berkeley, will speak on “Greek
Philosophy at the Court of Mehmed II” (May 29, 2013). In addition to the Cotsen Se ries, Maria Georgopoulou, Direc tor of the Gennadius Library, will speak on “John Gennadius and the Fine Arts” on February 20, 2013, on the occasion of the Day of Joannes Gennadius, celebrated by the Philoi of the Library. ddd Thanks to Gennadeion Overseer Alexandra Vovolini, an exhibi tion on the archive of journalist and politician Constantine A. Vovolinis will explore the value of the archive for the social and political history of twentiethcentury Greece. Vovolinis col lected data on people active in Greek public life for his Great Greek Biographical Dictionary. Political scientist Stathis Kalyvas of Yale University, economic his torian Kostas Kostis of the Uni versity of Athens, and journalist Antonis Papagiannidis will mark the opening of the exhibition with a discussion on “Business and Intellectuals, 1920–1960” (March 11, 2013). e
Elytis Artwork Travels to Andros
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Aeolian Earth, first page the Venezis Archive is set in Cotsen Hall for April 9, 2013. e
ollowing the major success of the exhibit about poet Odysseus Elytis organized by the Vasilis and Marina Theocharakis Foundation in the fall of 2011, the School loaned, in early June, to the Vasilis and Elisa Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art at Andros a small number of watercol ors and collages by Odysseus Elytis for an exhibit entitled Approaching Surrealism. The loaned items included At the Piano (1977), The Angel of Astypalea (1966), Figure of Victory (Flying) (1969), and other works.
Odysseus Elytis, Figure of Victory (Flying) [1969]
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G E N N A D E I O N N E W S
Papaioannou’s Papers Presented in Cotsen Hall
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arge crowds filled Cotsen Hall on May 16 to cel ebrate the completion of the cataloguing of the papers of Georgios Papaioannou that came to the Archives in 2010. Stathis Kalyvas of Yale Uni versity, Georgios Antoniou of the International University of Greece, and Alexis Malliaris of the American School of Classi cal Studies joined Papaioannou’s daughter, Mrs. Nadia Tzevelek ou, to present various aspects of the collection and its research value for the history of WWII in Greece, the Civil War, and post war Greece. A doctor by training and a member of the Greek parliament since 1933, Georgios Papaio annou (1900–1986) was the leader of the Trichonis subdivi sion of EDES (the prefecture of Trichonis is located in the area of Aetoloacarnania). After the end of the Greek Civil War, he served as mayor of Agrinion and member of the Greek Par liament. His daughters Olga
Save the Date! On March 18, 2013, the Library will celebrate Clean Monday in New York City. Contact jgoble@ ascsa.org for more information. Mark your calendars!
Overseers Travel to Malta
From left to right: Panagiotis D. Tzevelekos, Maria Georgopoulou, Stathis Kalyvas, Georgios Antoniou, Nadia Tzevelekou, and Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan. Patsiou, Demetra Papaioannou, and Nadia Tzevelekou donated the papers to the Gennadius and also established a fellowship to facilitate research on their fa ther’s papers. Georgios Antoniou was the recipient of the inaugu ral Papaioannou Fellowship in 2011–12; this year’s fellowship
was awarded to historian Vaios Kalogrias. Finally, the catalogue of the archive processed by historians Alexis Malliaris and Vasilis Spanos is available on the School’s website (http://www. ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/archives/ george-papaioannou-paperscatalogue). e
Philoi Events Scheduled for 2012–13 Various activities in Athens are planned for 2012–13 by the Association of the Philoi of the Gennadius Library, including visits to the Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika Gallery of the Benaki Museum and the Art of Bookbinding Exhibition of the Byzantine and Christian Museum. In May, the Day of Flor ence/Anthi Gennadius will be celebrated with the Sixth An nual Bookfair in the gardens of the Gennadius Library. A full schedule of Philoi events can be found on the website at http://www.ascsa. edu.gr/index.php/gennadius/ friends-of-the-gennadeion.
The Fall Bookfair, held on October 20, brought large crowds to the gardens of the Gennadius Library, and its great success boosted the spirits of the Philoi.
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bout thirty Gennadeion Overseers and friends spent four glorious days in Malta in June 2012. Originally led to the island because of the several years that John Genna dius spent there as a schoolboy, the group explored the rich Neolithic archaeological sites and caves as well as the three cities of the Knights of Malta, all with good cheer, great food, and delightful company. e
Raptopoulos Papers continued from page G1
Raptopoulos has published 20 books, including The Incredible Story of Pope Joan (2000), a medieval novel about the only woman in history that became a pope (inspired by Emmanuel Rhoides’ Pope Joan [Πάπισσα Ιωάννα], written in 1866); My Own America or Η δική μου Αμερική (2002), detailing his “journey” to contemporary American pulp literature; and The Great Sand or Η Μεγάλη Άμμος (2007), a novel about a Greece that is disappearing and changing. The Bachelor or Ο Εργένης (1993) was adapted for Greek cinema, and Toll Gates for television. His twenty-fourth book, entitled Η πιο κρυφή πληγή, a love story during the civil war of December 1944, has just been published by Ikaros Editions. e