National Library of Greece

National Library of Greece

Εθνική Βιβλιοθήκη της Ελλάδος Ethnikí Vivliothíki tis Elládos
The facade of the main building of the library
Established	1832 (189 years ago) (1832)
Location	Athens
Coordinates	37°58′52″N 23°43′59″E / 37.98111°N 23.73306°E / 37.98111; 23.73306
Branches	2 (Αγία Παρασκευή/Agía Paraskeví & Νέα Χαλκηδόνα/Néa Chalkidóna)
Collection
Items collected	books, journals, newspapers, magazines, multimedia and manuscripts
Criteria for collection	Material that is produced in Greece as well as Material that is produced abroad, but is connected with Greece in any language and form.
Other information
Director	Fillipos Tsimpoglou (Φίλιππος Τσιμπόγλου), general director.[1]
Website	www.nlg.gr
Map
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap

The National Library of Greece (Greek: Εθνική Βιβλιοθήκη) is situated near the center of city of Athens. It was designed by the Danish architect Theophil Freiherr von Hansen, as part of his famous Trilogy of neo-classical buildings including the Academy of Athens and the original building of the Athens University. It was founded by Ioannis Kapodistrias. The mission of the National Library of Greece is to locate, collect, organize, describe and preserve the perpetual evidence of Greek culture and its uptake over time, as well as important representative evidence of human intellectual production. EBE ensures equal non-access to these items based on the freedom of knowledge, information, and research. ^[2] There is one general manager who serves a four-year term. A board of trustees has seven members with a three or four-year term. ^[3]

History[]

The original idea for establishing a National Library was from the philhellene , in an August 1824 article of his newspaper Ellinika Chronika, published at Missolonghi, where Mayer and Lord Byron had been promoting Greece's independence. Mayer's idea was implemented in 1829 by the new Greek government of Ioannis Kapodistrias,^[4] who grouped together the National Library with other intellectual institutions such as schools, national museums, and printing houses. These were all placed in a building (then being used as an orphanage) on the island Aegina and supervised by Andreas Moustoxydis, who thus became president of the committee of the Orphanage, director of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, and director of the National School.

At the end of 1830, the library, which Moustoxydis named the National Library, had 1,018 volumes of printed books, which had been collected from Greeks and philhellenes. In 1834, the Library was relocated to Athens, the new capital, and was at first housed temporarily in the public bath in the Roman Agora of Athens and then later in the Panagia Gorgoepikoos church.

The collection increased rapidly. In addition to the purchase of books from private libraries, supervised by (1,995 volumes), the Library accepted many large donations of books, like one from Christoforos and (5,400 volumes) and one from (3,401 volumes).

In 1842, the Public Library merged with Athens University's library (15,000 volumes), and was housed together with the currency collection at the new building of Otto's University. The first director (then-called "president") was ^[5] of the newly enlarged institution, retaining the job until 1863. At this time, the Library was enriched with significant donations and with rare foreign language books from all over Europe. With the royal charter of 1866, the two libraries merged, and were administered as the "National Library of Greece". From 1877 to 1910, its director was Michael Deffner.

On 16 March 1888 the foundation stone for a new neoclassical marble building was laid. The building was financed by three Kefallonian-born brothers of the Diaspora, Panagis, Marinos and Andreas Vallianos. It was designed by Baron Theophil von Hansen and its construction supervised by Ernst Ziller. The Library remained in the older University building until 1903, when it was relocated to the new Vallianos building, which still partly houses the Library in addition to two other buildings, at Agia Paraskevi and Nea Halkidona.

Holdings[]

The library has 4,500 Greek manuscripts which is one of the greatest collection of Greek scripts. There are also many chrysobulls and archives of the Greek Revolution.

Among the library's holdings are a codex of the four Gospels attributed to the scribe Matthew; uncial codex with a fragment Gospel of Matthew from 6th century (Uncial 094), Flora Graeca Sibthorpiana by English botanist John Sibthorp; by Rigas Velestinlis; The Large Etymological Dictionary, a historic Byzantine dictionary; and the first publication of Homer's epics and hymns.^[6]

Some other manuscripts: Uncial 075, Uncial 0161, Minuscule 798.

In their general collection, they have approximately 570,000 titles. ^[7]

Relocation to Phaleron Bay[]

New Building of National Library of Greece in Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center

The present building has long been inconvenient due to limited space and technology demands. Although the Vallianos building will continue to house some of its current functions, the bulk of the library in 2018 was relocated to a new 22,000-square meter building at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center on the Phaleron Bay "Delta". The 20-hectare Delta is a seafront area that used to host the Athens horse race track, which was replaced by the Markopoulo Olympic Equestrian Centre for the Athens 2004 Olympics. Italian architect Renzo Piano proposed a radical new plan for the National Library and the National Opera of Greece, and the project was funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and donated to the Greek state. The twin buildings are integrated within a landscaped park with indigenous Mediterranean flora, and feature extensive renewable energy facilities and a central plaza around a 30-m wide seawater channel. Work on the project started in 2012 with completion due for 2016.^[8]

Library Associations[]

Greece has one national library association, The Association of Greek Librarians and Information Scientists (AGLIS).^[9] The AGLIS is a member of The European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA). ^[10]

See also[]

• List of national libraries

References[]

Sources[]

• Brock, Sebastian P. (1966). "The Syriac Manuscripts in the National Library, Athens". Le Muséon. 79: 165–185.

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to National Library of Greece.

• Εθνική Βιβλιοθήκη της Ελλάδος (in Greek)