The Konstantinos Staikos' book collection

The book collection of Konstantinos Staikos, henceforth “Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation Library” is centered on the intellectual, printing and publishing activity of the Greeks from the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the late 19th century. The aim of its creation was to collect and present relevant material from that time period. Editions of highly significant and rare books are continually being added to the original corpus of the collection.

The genesis of the formation regarding the book collection dates 1970s. At that time there was no specific reasoning behind it, and the books acquired during that period were of a varied content of subjects: historical, literary and encyclopaedic. However, from the middle of that decade, through associating with the people of the world of books – such as Maria Koutarelli, who inherited and accrued the collection of books and manuscripts of Spyros Loverdos – the bibliophilic interests of Konstantinos Staikos changed radically. In those years also, the Hellenic Bibliophile Society was established, founding members of which were eminent personalities of the intellect and the arts, bibliophiles and collectors, under the Honorary Presidency of Constantinos Tsatsos.

The exhibitions of books of the Society (1975) with travellers’ accounts: ‘Travellers in Greece from the fifteenth century to 1821’, or with printed material regarding the chronicle of Greek typography: ‘Outset of Greek typography’ (1976) radically altered Konstantinos Staikos interests as collector and from then on he consciously turned to the study and research of the pioneers of Greek printing and the relations they cultivated with the world of books in Venice and elsewhere.

His acquaintance with Georgios Ladas, who was profoundly conscious of the role played by printed books during the Ottoman domination and who, literally passionately, collected and documented the bibliographic identity of an enormous number of books that came into his hands, empowered Konstantinos Staikos intention to explore the chronicle of Greek typography in greater depth. An initial approach was to record printers’ marks and emblems characterizing printed Greek books, resulting in the planning of the Charta of Greek Printing. At the same time the collection began to take shape, with the purchase of books entirely compatible with the terms regulating the Hellenic Bibliography as recorded by É. Legrand, printed material, that is to say, testifying to the pains and labours of the printing workshops.

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