New Academy (Moscopole)
| New Academy Νέα Ἀκαδημία |
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|---|---|
| Location | |
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Moscopole Ottoman Empire (now in Albania) |
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| Information | |
| Type | Academy |
| Established | 1744 |
| Status | destroyed |
| Closed | 1769 |
| Headmaster | 1744-1750 Sevastos Leontiadis 1750-1769 Theodore Kavalliotis |
 Early 20th-century picture of the now destroyed church of Saint John in Moscopole. The New Academy was built on the foreground. |
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The New Academy or Greek Academy was a renowned educational institution, operating from 1743 to 1769 in Moscopole, an 18th-century cultural and commercial metropolis of the Aromanians and leading center of Greek culture in what is now southeastern Albania. It was nicknamed the 'worthiest jewel of the city' and played a very active role in the inception of the modern Greek Enlightenment movement.
Moscopole, now Voskopojë, a small village in south Albania, was an 18th-century city inhabited predominantly by Aromanians. It became a center of Greek culture, with Greek being the language of education in the local schools, as well as the language of the books published by the local printing house, founded either in 1720 or in 1731. Seemingly it was the second printing press founded in the Ottoman Empire, after the also Greek printing press in Istambul. Education was so actively promoted, that the city emerged as a leading center of Greek intellectual activity.
An educational institution, called The Greek College, was active in the city as early as 1700. Its first director, Chrysanthos, was a monk from Zitsa, while, in 1724, Ioannina born scholar, Nicolaos Stigmis, became schoolmaster. After 1730 and for a short period, Ioannis Chalkeus an Aristotelian philosopher also taught in the school. During that time the teaching staff included scholars from various ethnic backgrounds: Aromanian, Greek and Albanian.
In 1738, Sevastos Leontiadis, a scholar and priest from Kastoria (now Greece), was put in charge. It was during his directorate that the school was upgraded and endowed with additional classes. In 1744 the school was named New Academy and in 1750 it was re-housed in a new, imposing building. In accordance to 18th-century Greek educational mores, a school could only acquire the title 'Academy' if it achieved a higher standard of educational quality and prestige. Similar educational insistutions this period were operating in a number of urban center in the Ottoman Empire: Bucharest, Iaşi, Ioannina, Istanbul (Constantinople).
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