The Library’s History  

          Contemporary Zosimaia Public Central Historical Library is the offspring of the Library of the “School of the Zosimades brotherhood”.  As significant national benefactors guided by avid patriotism, the Zosimades – Anastasios (1754-1828), Nikolaos (1758-1842), Theodosios (1760-1796) and Zois (1764-1828) – decided to generously bestow all their fortune for the flowering of the Greek Enlightenment namely, the spreading of education, the diffusion of the National Ideal, and in short, for the salvation of “Potnia Hellas” (the Greek Motherland).

            Since 1792, the Zosimades made regular donations to the well-known Balanaia School, in which the conservative Balanos family taught [Vasilopoulos Balanos (1723-1760), Kosmas Balanos (1760-1799), Constantinos Balanos or Balanidis (1799-1818), Anastasios Balanos (1818-1821)].  After the Venetian Republic’s decline and the subsequent currency deposit-holding of the Venetian Epirots in 1797, Zosimades exclusively supported the Balanaia School, enriched the School with the creation of a Library, and saw to the publication and the free distribution of books.

           In short, the Library was born in the era of the Neohellenic Enlightenment of Ioannina by 18^th century cultured wealthy Greek merchants, the Zosimades brothers, who held the conviction that “subjugation ends insofar as education is achieved. It is […] an axiom of Ethics and Politics, as absolute as mathematical axioms: Science and tyranny never walk hand in hand; and unless tyranny suffocates science first, science should expel tyranny at all costs”.

[“Touto ine aksioma tis Ithikis ke tis Politikis, toson veveon oson ke ta mathimatika aksiomata: ‘Epistime ke tirania pote den sigkatikisan omou; an I tirania den proftasi na tas dioksi, prepi eksapantos na dioxthi ap aftas’”].

The history of the School and its Library has been long, adventurous and turbulent ever since.

            Following the complete destruction of the Schools of Ioannina and their rich Libraries by the great fire of 1820-22, and the subsequent reconstruction of the town, Nikolaos and Zois Zosimas founded the Public General Hellenic School, which was the first Superior School of Ioannina. The newly-founded School also housed a Library that accumulated all the salvaged books from the two older libraries – Kaplaneion and Balanaia – as well as the books that had been published or purchased by the Zosimades. The School, which was later renamed as Zosimaia School, in honour of the benefactors, along with its Library were located in various buildings across Ioannina in the 19^th century, as the Library was constantly being enriched by Nikolaos himself, by means of new books that were mainly published on the expense of the Brotherhood.

            In 1839, the “bizarre attitudes” and the “schisms between” the Fiscal Committee of local authorities and the trustees of the Zosimades’s wealth resulted in the “ruining” of the School and the dwindling and plundering of the Library.

            The first General Catalogue of the Library of Zosimaia School, appears to have been conducted in September 1852, under the administration of Anastasios Sakellarios. All the books found in the beginning of his service were recorded along with the recovered books from the initial, old, mismanaged Library. Sakellarios’s acquaintance with the French publishing house Firmin Didot, resulted in the enrichment of the Library with a significant number of new books, rare publications and manuscripts.

            Under the administration of Spiridon Manaris (1862-1881), the Library was better organized. In a Special Article, the New School Regulation foresaw the appointment of a Bookkeeper and an annual fund for book purchases. What is more, the Library was complemented with important donations from Neofitos Doukas, Andreas Kompatis, Dimitris Anagnostopoulos, Vasilios Tsimas, P. Lazaras and the Bucharest Benefactor Dositheos Filitis.

            The 1897 Greek-Turkish War and “inclement weather conditions” brought about the suspension of Zosimaia School for about three weeks. In October of the same year, the Fiscal Committee of local authorities decided the generous allocation of 15.000 ottoman liras upon the “already organized” Library. In fact, Metropolitan Gregorios Kallidis urged everyone who held books to promptly return them under the impeding imposition of a religious sanction or/and an expulsion from the religious community (“ekklisiastikon epitimion”).

            After lengthy procedures, the new Zosimaia Schoolhouse was inaugurated on 14 February 1905. The School as well as about 1.500 books from the old Library were transferred in the new building. Despite the creation of this grand building, the greatest amount of the books of the School remained in the basements of G. Stavros Orphanage until 1912. During this time, the Library was uncontrollably plundered and the books were destroyed due to “…the rodents in the Orphanage basements that gnawed through thousands of Library volumes…”. Zosimaia School Professor, Stilpon Kiriakidis recovered the decumbent manuscripts of Zosimaia School and composed a relevant Catalogue that was published in 1912.

            In the morning of 21 February 1913, Ioannina was finally free Greek soil, after almost five centuries of Ottoman rule.

            From 1912 to 1938, there is no clear idea of the books’ whereabouts. Αttempts made by some studious scholars “to salvage and collect all the borrowed books distributed across the basements of Zosimaia school” remained unfruitful.

            High School principal Christos Soulis’ interest in the organization, continuous enrichment and operation of the Library was significant. His aim was the systematic and scholarly classification of the Library books. Soulis himself recovered from the basements the books that were being destroyed, he cleaned them up, and placed them in suitable areas securing them from further destruction. Knowing that books had been lost, due to the lack of “proper attention”, Soulis considered it an imperative need to sort out, document and classify the books “by science in the lockers”, taking care of the book lending himself and composing a hand-written General Catalogue of the Library books of the Zosimaia School of Ioannina. He cooperated with the Managers of the National Library and the Library of the Greek Parliament and, at the same time, he submitted a Memorandum towards the Minister of Education and Religious Affairs “With reference to the Library of Zosimaia School of Ioannina” and a Draft Law “Concerning the Zosimaia School Library of loannina”.

            Soulis’ efforts resulted in the Binding Law 1161/38 “Over the founding of Zosimaia Epirus Library” (31/03/1938). Consequently, the independent Zosimaia Library, as Legal Entity of Public Law, was established, under the jurisdiction of the Educational Committee of Zosimades and the supreme governance of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs. The recently independent Library was housed in the newly constructed building of the Pedagogical Academy.

            During World War II, the books as well as other objects of the independent Zosimaia Epirus Library were transferred, due to the requisition of the Academy, to Georgios Stavros Orphanage and the residence of Bookeeper Eftihia Prinzou. They were ultimately rediscovered in 1943, in the Old People’s Nursing Home of Ioannina. On March 1944, the relocation of Zosimaia Library in the Old Synagogue Kahal Kadosh Yashan, after the sudden implementation of the “Final Solution” for the Jewish people of Ioannina, led to its salvation.

            The news of the return of the invaluable Zosimaia books, to the Greek Authorities, in April 1944, overwhelmed and occupied the era’s Press, both in Greece and abroad. The Library that showcased more than 6.000 books, of the “University of Zosimades”, was sheltered in an Ottoman house that functioned as a French Embassy (in the contemporary area of Alsos).  

            Postwar, since 1945, the tokens’ returned from their various “wandering” points to Zosimaia Pedagogical Academy, although we are unsure as to the precise number of the salvaged books and their condition. In 1949, the Library fell under the Ministerial Order 136/1949, “Concerning the founding, the rehabilitation and the general organization of Public Libraries”, the first Law regarding Public Libraries, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of National Education.

            The miskeeping of the “Zosimaia treasure”, namely of its tokens (manuscripts, palaetypes, books, etc.), without serving the purpose for which they were destined, the pressure from the local community to find a solution as well as the rivalry among the involved entities, carried on until 1953, when finally the Building of the National Bank of Greece was granted to house the Zosimaia Epirus Library as “…the minimum moral pay off of the Bank towards the town, from which Georgios Stavrou and the majority of the grand benefactors derived (among them were the Zosimades, who were shareholders of the National Bank themselves)”.

            The inauguration of the Zosimaia Epirus Library, in the former National Bank Building, took place on 21/02/1962. In 1978, under the law 1168/1978, the term “Public” is added onto the name of the Library resulting in the denomination Zosimaia Public Library of Ioannina. The Municipality’s continuous efforts, since 1957, to nullify the settlement of Zosimaia Library in the donated Building of the National Bank of Greece, in order to house the Municipal services, carried on and peaked in 1979. After many years of public consultations, it was suggested that Zosimaia Library is housed in a central area of Ioannina, in the junction of Markos Botsaris and Eleftherios Venizelos streets, in the building of the former Public Baths.

            On 25-04-1988 the grand opening of Zosimaia Public Central (resulting from the provision of a mobile library unit) Library took place, as a legal entity of public law supervised by the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, in the building that is currently housed.