Interested visitors can enjoy some of the most important recent acquisitions of the Gennadius Library which are on display in the Reading Room.
Donations made in memory of Gennadius Library Overseer Ted Athanasiadis enabled the purchase of an extremely rare sole edition of a landmark of Greek printing: Ὡρολόγιον σύν Θεῷ, περιέχον τά κάτωθι γεγραμμένα. Venice: Zacharias Kallierges for Jacopo di Penzi, 23 Aug. 1509. This little book is one of the earliest books printed exclusively for the Greek expatriate community in Venice rather than humanist scholars (like the Aldine Greek productions).
The Horologion or Book of hours is a guide of the daily cycle of services in the Orthodox Liturgy. Its survival rate is particularly low because of its size (folios and quartos survive the generations far more frequently than small-format books) and everyday use. The present example is a fascinating copy of this highly important text, in its original binding à la Grecque and shows signs of heavy usage including manuscript annotations in Greek and in Ottoman Turkish – perhaps indicating its use by Early Modern Greek communities as far afield as Turkey.
A very rare first edition of the Geography of Samuel Bochart printed in Caen in 1646 in two volumes. It is considered to be one of the most important books of its era and a printing monument as it includes five different alphabets (Latin, Greek, Jewish, Arab and Ethiopian).
An interesting monument of the Modern Greek Enlightenment is the book of the Greek philosopher Iosipos Moisiodax (1725-1800) entitled Πραγματεία περὶ παίδων ἀγωγῆς ἢ παιδαγωγία, published in Venice in 1779 by Nikolaos Glykys. It is a Greek adaptation of the writings of Locke and Fénelon. This Pedagogy is an exposition of the pedagogical principles and methods that should be introduced to Greek schools according to Moisiodax.
Αn extremely rare textbook of modern and ancient Greek by Δ. Ιωαννίδης, which was published in Paris in 1833, was acquired recently in auction: Atlas de la Méthode analytique de la langue grecque ancienne et moderne, en 20 tableaux d’après Bacon, Rousseau, Condillac et sur le plan de l’atlas des sciences de M. le comte de Las Cases, approuvé par la Société grammaticale.
The most recent acquisition of the Library is related to the life of John Gennadius. It is a letter written in London by Stephen A. Ralli and addressed to the Archbishop of Syros. Dated August 15, 1870, the letter explains the reasons for the dismissal of young John Gennadius from the Rallis commercial house. It brings to mind the era of the assassinations in Dilesi and Gennadius’ attempt to defend his compatriots in this very sad incident.
