Ambassador Christos Zacharakis delivered the Second Annual Margarita Samourkas Lecture on the History of Cartography on Wednesday, February 22nd entitled “Sacred Cartography and Greek Lands.”
The event was made possible thanks to the generosity of Gennadius Overseer Margarita Samourkas, who also curated a small exhibition of maps of her collection in the lobby of Cotsen Hall.
The Samourkas Map Collection is the largest and most complete collection of Greek cartography in the world. Especially important for its breadth in relation to the Aegean islands and Greece, the collection focuses on the cartographic tradition of the Geography of Ptolemy, but also on historical maps as well as the chronological evolution of Greek cartography. The exquisite catalog of the Samourkas collection is available in Greek and English.
Lawyer and diplomat Christos Zacharakis has received from the Academy of Athens, among many other honors and awards, a prize for his work on the printed cartography of Greece. The lecture presented the genesis, the historical evolution, and the goals of sacred or religious cartography. Ambassador Zacharakis discussed the different categories of religious maps as well as maps in early sixteenth-century Bibles relating to Jewish history and geography. He showed religious maps of Greek interest, maps of the Middle East, Cyprus, and the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as maps of the missionary journeys of Saint Paul the Apostle. The speaker explored the diachronic evolution of religious maps, and the various versions and variants. Finally, he talked on the geographical and artistic aspect of sacred maps.
Marinela and Margarita Samourkas in front of one of the maps presented in a small exhibition
Leonora Navari, Victor Melas and Maria Georgopoulou
Maria Georgopoulou, Christos Zacharakis, and Margarita Samourkas outside Cotsen Hall
