Revolutionary Lectures at the Onassis Library

How relevant is today the Greek War of Independence leaders’ vision? What did they envision regarding language, education, science, politics, and the rule of law? How much in need is today a new Enlightenment?

200 years since the Greek War of Independence started in 1821, the Onassis Foundation looks forward and brings to the forefront the Greece of tomorrow and the new ideals which are worth fighting for. We go through leading facts from the prerevolutionary period and follow their impact on today’s world and the future.

On the eve of the Greek Revolution outbreak, the printed book acted as a connecting link between the Greek-speaking people, and a means for shaping a national identity, introducing not only education and knowledge, but also revolutionary ideas.

Driven by selected early printed publications of the Onassis Library collections, we travel in time, just before the Greek Revolution outbreak, through 10 themed lectures. We reexperience the typographic adventures, prohibitions, censorship, and heroic sacrifices, but also the triumph and impact of the printed publications in a time when the Greek state would become a reality, transforming a utopian vision.

The lecture series showcases different approaches, intellectual conflicts, and revolutionary ideas, reflecting the Modern Greek Enlightenment scholars and like-minded merchants’ endeavor to improve the still-enslaved Greeks’ education and to foster the Struggle for freedom and independence.

From the Enlightenment to the ‘Enphotonment’

Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, Newton. With the Enlightenment’s advent, ideas and notions about the Universe changed radically. How much do we need a new Enlightenment?

‘Hellenic Nomarchy, a Discourse on Freedom,’ by an Anonymous Hellene, Italy, 1806

‘Hellenic Nomarchy…’ (e.g. ‘The Greek Rule of Law’) is a work full of memories of antiquity and the life of the Greeks during the Ottoman rule. But who was that ‘Anonymous Hellene,’ the author of this pamphlet?

‘Erotos Apotelesmata,’ Vienna, Austria. 1792

A lecture on ‘Erotos Apotelesmata, i.e. a moral-love story with political songs…’ (e.g. ‘The Consequences of Love…’), a text of great historical importance, which is considered as the first artistic prose creation of Modern Greek Literature.

Modern Greek Enlightenment – Education: The Schools of Ioannina through Testaments (17th to early 19th century)

The concept of education during the period of the Modern Greek Enlightenment, by evidence and by overcoming what is mentioned about the so-called Secret Schools (‘Krifo Scholio’).

Vienna, Intellectual Heart of the Modern Greek Enlightenment

How did Vienna become the center of the Greek book production? Since 1750, Greek and Austrian publishers-typographers released booklets focused on the Greeks’ intellectual rise, but also their awakening to the revolutionary Struggle.

Typography in the Service of the Greek Revolution and the Greek State’s foundation and organization

What was the typography’s role during the Greek War of Independence? How was the print chain created? A lecture on the importance of typography before and after the Revolution.

LECTURE SERIES

Athanasios Psalidas: Changing Greek Realities

How did people think during the era that gave rise to the Greek Revolution? The radical philosophical thought of Athanasios Psalidas, a key figure of the Modern Greek Enlightenment, presented through a lecture series.