On the occasion of the annual celebration of the International Day of the Greek Language (February 9) the department of Modern Greek Studies and the NGNS organize a lecture by Dr. Vivi Perraky on February 10, 2023.
Title: Korais’ two great friendships in Amsterdam: Daniel and Jeanne Wyttenbach
Speaker: Dr. Vivi Perraky, ass. researcher at the ANHIMA Laboratory (CRS-EHESS-EPHE-Université de Paris I, Sorbonne
Date and Time: 10 February, 3.30-4.30 p.m.
Location: University Library, (UB), Doelenzaal, Singel 425, Amsterdam
Language: English
Abstract
The intellectual Odyssey of Adamantios Korais (Smyrna 1748-Paris 1833), “Teacher of the Nation”, began in Amsterdam, where he spent six years (1771-1777) taking excellent care of his father’s business in Smyrna.
Having been introduced to the philology of ancient texts by Daniel Wyttenbach (1746-1820), professor of Greek in Amsterdam, Korais’ life in this cosmopolitan city symbolises what defined Greece throughout the ages, namely the combination of business with scholarship.
In the 1820s, Jeanne Wyttenbach (1773-1830), who corresponded with him in Paris, involved in the Dutch philhellenic movements, regularly sent financial support to the wounded enlisted men of the Greek War of Independence.
Overall, Korais’ interaction with Amsterdam, revealing in a micro level the triptych of “business-scholarship-independence”, constituted a fruitful political promise: that the country can achieve economic supremacy, that the long history of the Greek language is still alive, and that a new Greek state is to come.
Bio
Vivi Perraky, PhD in Economic History, (EHESS), affiliated to the (FMSH), associated researcher at the ANHIMA Laboratory (CRS-EHESS-EPHE-Université de Paris I, Sorbonne). Her research focuses primarily on nineteenth-century French academic history, as seen from the perspective of 1) mapping the attempts at the institutionalisation of Greek and 2) the social prosopography of their protagonists.
Publications on the academic history of the Greek language:
– “L’histoire britannique de Coray: une histoire des manuscrits (1789-1803)”, in P. Kitromilides (Ed.), Adamantios Korais and the Enlightenment, Voltaire Foundation, Oxford, SVEC (2012), pp 36-90.
– “De Villoison à Psichari: le pari du grec moderne dans l’enseignement supérieur à Paris (1801-1896)”, in La France et la Grèce au XIXe siècle, Fondation du Parlement Hellénique & l’Institut Français d’Athènes, Athens, 2013, pp. 110-132.
– “Psichari à l’EPHE. Le grec moderne dans l’orbite de Michel Bréal (1885-1915)”, in Céline Trautmann-Waller (Ed.), Les sciences humaines à l’EPHE (1868-1945), Champion, 2017, pp 185-208.
– “Resémantiser un intitulé fondateur? Les chaires de grec au Collège de France”, in Wolf Feurhahn (Ed.), La politique des chaires au Collège de France, Collège de France/Les Belles Lettres, 2018, pp 254-277.
– “Anciens Registres de prêt (1812-1837. Fenêtre sur la société des enseignants et bibliothécaires”, in Laurence Bobis & Boris Noguès, La Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne: 250 ans d’histoire, Editions de la Sorbonne, 2021.
– “La Bibliothèque nationale au temps de Van Praet et de Coray, Règlements, lettres inédites, listes et registres des livres prêtés (1799-1833)”, O Ερανιστής [Ο Eranistis], t.30/2021, pp 397-492.