National Library of Greece
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The National Library of Greece (Greek: Εθνική Βιβλιοθήκη) is situated near the center of city of Athens. It was designed by the Danish architect Theophil Freiherr von Hansen, as part of his famous Trilogy of neo-classical buildings including the Academy of Athens and the original building of the Athens University.
Contents |
[edit] History
The original idea for establishing a National Library came from the philhellene Jacob Mayer, in an August 1824 article of his newspaper Greek Chronicles, published at Messolonghi, where Mayer had been struggling alongside Lord Byron for Greece's independence. Mayer's idea was carried out in 1829 by the new Greek government of John Kapodistrias, who grouped together the National Library with other intellectual institutions such as schools, national museums, and printing houses. These were all placed in the Orphanage of Aegina, under the supervision of Andreas Moustoksidis, who thus became president of the committee of the Orphanage, director of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, and director of the National School.
At the end of 1830, the library, which Moustokaidis called the National Library, held 1,018 volumes of printed books, which had been collected from Greeks and philhellenes. In 1834, the Library moved to Athens, the new capital, and was at first temporarily housed in the public bath at the Roman Market and then later in the Church of St. Eleftherios, next to the Cathedral and other important buildings.
The collection grew rapidly. In addition to the purchase of books from private libraries, carried out under the supervision of Dimitris Postolakas (1,995 volumes), the Library accepted many large donations of books, like one from Christoforos and Konstantinos Sakellarios (5,400 volumes) and one from Markos Renieris (3,401 volumes).
In 1842, the Public Library merged with the Athens University library (15,000 volumes), and was housed together with the currency collection at the new building of Otto's University. George Kozakis-Typaldos was appointed as the first director of the newly enlarged institution, remaining in his post until 1863. At this time, the Library was enriched with significant donations and with rare foreign language books from all over Europe. With the royal charter of 1866, the two libraries merged, and were administered as the "National Library of Greece".
On March 16, 1888, the foundation stone for a neoclassical marble building was laid, financed by three Kefallonian-born brothers of the Diaspora, Panagis, Marinos and Andreas Vallianos. The Library remained in the University building until 1903, when it was moved to the new building which was designed by Theofil Hansen and supervised by Ernst Ziller.
Today, the Library is still housed at the Vallianos building, as well as at two other buildings, at Agia Paraskevi and Nea Halkidona. The valuable collections of their combined materials represent the written Greek cultural treasure.
[edit] Holdings
Among the library's holdings are a codex of the four Gospels attributed to the scribe Matthew; Flora Graeca Sibthorpiana by English botanist John Sibthorp; Rigas' Chart by Rigas Velestinlis; The Large Etymological Dictionary, a historic Byzantine dictionary; and the first publication of Homer's epics and hymns.[1]
