Έλληνες λόγιοι

This paper aims to focus on the critical opinions on literature and literary translation expressed by Ioannis Donas Paschalis (1761-1839), a Corfiot doctor, in his book form apologetic epistle addressing Abbot Giuseppe Compagnoni. Donas Paschali's epistle, released under the alias of Marchese Francesco Albergatto Capacelli in Venice (1793) and then translated ‒most probably not by his writer‒ into Modern Greek (1802), participates in a double tradition. It is not only part of the apologiae that sprung after the publication of Compagnoni's paradoxical (in the context of this specific period) argument on the superiority of Jewish people over the Greeks (1792), but it also forms part of the narratives dealing with the cultural life and achievements of Modern Greeks. In the context of my doctoral research, aiming to result in a proposal for the first period of Modern Greek literary criticism, the most distinctive feature of Donas Paschali's narrative is the extensive review of Modern Greek literature and his subtlest (and comparatively informed) remarks on specific oeuvres, such as the masterpieces of Cretan Renaissance. Moreover the writer has developed a cohesive and robust theory on the Cratylic [organic] nature of poetry, presented through his exemplary translations of poems or verses by Homer, Petrarch and Tasso in comparison to their Italian translations and/or the original.

Postgraduate Colloquium on Multiculturalism from late Antiquity to Modernity organised at the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Bermingham, in June 2017 by Gemma Masson and Francisco Lopez-Santos Kornberger.

Forming part of my doctoral research, which aims to illuminate a rather neglected field of Modern Greek Studies, i.e. the early period of Modern Greek literary criticism, this paper discusses Niccolò Timoni, an obscure littérateur, coming from the island of Chios. After a brief reference to his family’s origins, I will provide some biographical information about him, before focusing on his critical activity. I am mainly interested in his contribution as an annotator in the second part of a book entitled "Componimenti di varii autori in lode di Caterina II" (Naples, 1771), aiming to classify both the function of his comments and his assumptions on poetry, in order to contextualise him within a certain critical tradition. His annotation will also give me the opportunity to examine his perception of national identity.

Κατά τον 16ο αιώνα και στο α΄ μισό του 17ου πολλές ήταν οι ζυμώσεις που γινόταν επάνω σε θρησκευτικά θέματα, με σαφείς όμως πολιτικές προεκτάσεις. Τα κράτη της Ευρώπης, στην προσπάθειά τους να αποσοβηθεί ο κίνδυνος της περαιτέρω οθωμανικής επέκτασης, ήδη από τον 15ο αιώνα, είχαν υιοθετήσει μία πολιτική συμβιβασμών και συμφωνιών με την Υψηλή Πύλη, προκειμένου να έχουν σύμμαχό τους τον Σουλτάνο και όχι αντίπαλο. Η αρχή έγινε από τις ισχυρές ιταλικές πόλεις με το ακμαίο εμπόριο, όπως η Βενετία και η Γένοβα, αλλά στη συνέχεια και πολλοί άλλοι, ανάμεσά τους η Γαλλία και η Αγγλία, διατηρούσαν στενές σχέσεις με την οθωμανική αυτοκρατορία, έχοντας αμοιβαία οφέλη.......