The Ali-Pasha Collection of Papers at the Gennadius Library Archives: ‘The crowning gift of the year’ 1952-1953.
In his Annual Report for the academic year 1952-1953, the Librarian of the Gennadius Library Shirley W. Weber wrote: ‘The crowning gift of the year was received on the last day of March [1953].’ Weber was referring to Damianos Kyriazis’ valuable collection of books, manuscripts and paintings.
The Ali Pasha papers, which previously belonged to the Hotzi brothers, were part of this ‘crowning gift.’ Damianos Kyriazis, a wealthy banker of Athens and Geneva who died in 1948, left behind a rich collection of books, pictures and manuscripts. Five years after Kyriazis’ death his heirs decided, based on the ‘complicated will’ of the deceased, that part of the collection would go to the Benaki Museum and part to the Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. ‘We are getting about a thousand titles, works of travel, Greek, Turkish and Balkan history, early Greek paintings, most of them in beautiful bindings,’ reported Weber. ‘In addition, there is a large collection of manuscript letters of Ali Pasha, invaluable for the history of Epirus and the Greek revolution, and also a collection of autograph letters.’
The Gennadius Library is happy to announce the full publication of the Ali Pasha Papers in a four-volume catalogue, the product of a 30-year-long project, under the auspices of the National Research Foundation. Vasilis Panagiotopoulos with the collaboration of Dimitris Dimitropoulos and Panagiotis Michailaris are responsible for the masterful study and publication of the approximately 1500 documents of the collection, whether diplomatic, military, administrative, or private, documenting all aspects of Ali-Pasha’s 33-year rule of Jannina up to his death in 1822.
The publication is available for sale at the National Research Foundation (Εθνικό Ίδρυμα Ερευνών).
Entry added by Eleftheria Daleziou.
