Idryma Aikaterinis Laskaridi (Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation), Piraeus

The Foundation’s Historical Library is a “library of libraries”. Since its founding, in 2013, it collects, preserves and highlights the libraries of important scholars, scientists and collectors. It contains a very large volume of literature, mainly of Greek interest, with the aim of making it accessible to researchers as well as to the general public. The collections that make up the Historical Library maintain their unity, according to the research interests or collector focus of the former owners and each collection is catalogued independently. 583.132 books. In our collections you can find the whole corpus of ancient Greek and Byzantine literature in multiple editions, old (15th-16th century), as well as newer critical and even contemporary. These sources are complemented by scholarship about the ancient and Byzantine world, mainly of philological, historical, archaeological interest. Aspects of our country's more recent history are highlighted through selected collections of the Historical Library: Modern Greek Enlightenment, history of the Macedonian and Cypriot problems, issues concerning education and the evolution of the Greek language, history of the book and literary history. The Maritime Collection of the Foundation consists of individual collections related to the sea and shipping. Includes rare nautical instruments, medical instruments and items carried on ships of previous centuries, items recovered from shipwrecks, early 20th century divers’ uniforms, natural marine finds, paintings and artwork, navigation charts, maritime publications, as well as the archive of hydrobiologist Dr. Constantinos Laskaridis on ichthyology, oceanography and all fishing. The largest collection about the English Admiral and national hero Horatio Nelson outside the UK. It includes personal items, dozens of letters and documents relating to Lord Nelson, his wartime action and his turbulent life. The collection is accompanied and documented by an extensive library about the Admiral and his times. In winter 2022-2023, part of the Foundation’s Nelson collection was exhibited at the National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) at the Nelson Gallery, Portsmouth, England, under the title “Nelson in his own words”. These are personal letters and documents that were first presented to the general public, as very few had been published in the past. Through his correspondence, a unique insight emerges about the life and occupations of Vice-Admiral Nelson. The letters in the collection were written during the turbulent years in which Nelson’s fame had reached its peak: from the breaking news of the Battle of the Nile, from his relationship with Emma Hamilton to a few days before his death at the Battle of Trafalgar, which was his greatest victory. Some of the letters Nelson sent while at sea in the Atlantic and others from the Mediterranean, some were written while he was in a hurry to get his furniture to HMS Victory or as he chased the French Fleet. We can imagine them being signed and sealed, sent by boat, transported by boat and carriages to the houses of his friends and family. All together, they enliven thoughts and illuminate the character of the famous admiral, professionally and personally. An exquisit collection of ship models, built by French prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815), who were imprisoned in camps in England. Among them were artisans and apprentices experienced in working with ivory, who used their food leftovers, the bones, and made ship models in order to earn some money by selling them. Human or animal hair was used for the ships’ rigging. Not all models may be exact replicas of real ships, but the end result is quite often a masterpiece. ***PH***