Gennadius Library

Muhabbet is an initiative sponsored by the American College of Greece, the National Hellenic Research Institute and the Gennadius Library, aiming at bringing together scholars, students, and people interested in the shared social history and cultural heritage of the East Mediterranean. We wish to hold discussions about our common legacies in an informal and friendly environment, like that of the coffeehouses, which originated in the Ottoman East Mediterranean, where people used to come together to develop amicable conversations called muhabbet.

An exceptional sixteenth-century printed book has been donated to the Gennadius Library: a 1559 Zurich (Tiguri) folio edition of John Stobaeus’ "Sententiae." The book's arrival at the Gennadius Library brings to rest a book whose long journey across centuries and borders is written into its very pages.