Historical Library of Andritsaina

The Lyrical Poet

Pindar, Rome 1515

Pindar is the greatest lyric poet of antiquity. He was born in 522 BC and descended from the Cynoscephalae of Thebes. He was inspired by the bravery of the athletes and not by the military events of his time. He used to attend the great Pan-Hellenic games and had friendly relations with noble houses of all cities. Sometimes, he accompanied the athletes to their home country, conducting the winning procession himself. He wrote hymns, plays, dithyrambs, and victory odes. His work today preserves only the 4 books of victory odes, Pythia, Nemea, Olympia, and Isthmia. The reputation and respect to his face were maintained by his contemporaries even after his death. Arrian states that when Alexander the Great ordered the burning of the entire city of Thebes, he asked for the poet's home to be the only one excluded.

The Rare Collection

Nikolopoulos’s Letter

Today, one can admire in the Library the 3696 books of Nikolopoulos's collection, which make up the core of the Historical Library of Andritsaina, and which stand out both for their rarity and for their excellent bookbinding. Paperbacks, leatherbound, bound with gold and parchment, decorated with miniature sculpture and engraving on their cover, the collection's books carry notes, signatures and dedications of prominent personalities and prominent nobles of the time. Among them are editions of ancient Greek, Latin and French writers, as well as all sorts of textbooks, from literature, history and philosophy to law, medicine and geography. Among the treasures of the collection, you will find dictionaries, rare copies of the Bible, versions in various languages ​​such as Hebrew and Aramaic, as well as engravings and scores. It is noteworthy that the books of the Ancient Greek Secretariat come from Italian typographic centers as well as from major publishing centers in northern Europe.

One of the First of the Filiki Etaireia

Anagnostopoulos’s Manuscript

Panagiotis Anagnostopoulos was born in Andritsaina in 1790. His family will move to Smyrna and from there, he will go to Odessa to occupy himself with trading. In 1843, Xanthos, of the Society of Friends, sends a special report to the National Assembly -which is now kept in the National Library archives under number 9142 and is published in a book by Dim. Mpogdanopoulos- in which he mentions 4 founders of the Filiki Etaireia: “The leaders in Odessa in November 1814 were four: Nikolaos Skoufas from Arta, Athanasios Tsakalof from Ioannina, Panagiotis Anagnostopoulos from Peloponnese and Xanthos from Patmos”. Having taken into account the moral and political situation of the Nation, they drafted the rules and the teachings of the Society which they called that “of Friends”. Anagnostopoulos assumes leadership and is sent as the Patriarch's envoy to the areas along the Danube. He becomes Ypsilantis’s friends and is friendly with Kapodistrias as well. He takes part in major battles against the Turks and, as a pro-Russian, refuses the English subordination decree. He died of cholera in 1854, during an epidemic that plagued Athens.