Nicolaos M. Panayotakis (1935-1997)

Assembled and translated by A. Lily Macrakis and Michael S. Macrakis

M. was born in Iraklion, Crete in 1935; he graduated from the gymnasium there. From 1953 to 1959 he studied in the School of Philosophy at the University of Athens on a fellowship. It is noteworthy that he began publishing when still a gymnasium student, at which time he was fortunate to be associated with Andreas Kalokairinos, the archeologist N. Platon, Menelaos Parlamas, and N. Stavrinidis (the circle of the Society of Historical Cretan Studies) and also to be able work in the library of Xanthudidis in the Archeological Museum of Iraklion, where he met Stelios Alexiou. While still a university student he published in well-known professional journals of Crete (, ) and of Athens (). He continued publishing throughout his student days. The two poles of his interests were already clear: Byzantium on the one hand, sixteenth-century Cretan literature and history on the other. A sign of his professional maturity and breadth was that upon receiving his degree he immediately submitted his thesis to the University of Athens on the subject «» (Iraklion 1960). This is a brilliant piece of work in which the poem is published and edited with exhaustive commentaries; it relates to a poetic encomium that constitutes a basic source for the history of the reconquest of Crete from the Arabs by Nikiforos Fokas in A.D. 961. Forty years later this work has lost none of its freshness and authoritativeness. It remains a basic document for studies of tenth-century Byzantium.

In 1962 Panayotakis went to London for graduate study on a fellowship from the Foundation of State Fellowships. There he remained for three years, searching for Byzantine manuscripts in the British Museum and other libraries in preparation for his critical edition of the tenth-century Byzantine historian Leon the Deacon. Part of this work was submitted to the University of Athens as a thesis to qualify him for a position there. When students first listened to his lectures, they immediately felt a fresh breeze blowing in the university—something that filled them with optimism.

This optimism was destroyed by the dictatorship of the colonels. When Panayotakis was unanimously elected Professor of Medieval Greek Literature at the University of Ioannina in 1968, the government annulled the election. Forced to leave Greece, he was subsequently appointed professor at the University of Texas and a guest researcher at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington D. C. In 1970 the University of Ioannina reelected him unanimously and he returned to Greece to teach.

From very early on it was clear that Panayotakis's interests centered on the late medieval and Renaissance periods—areas not yet covered by Greek scholars. His pioneering article «. Stragavanti », published in the journal (nos. 27-28, 1966), provided Cretological studies with an innovative perspective since it connected that field with corresponding studies of sixteenth and seventeenth-century Italian—and, more generally, European—history. In his lengthy article «» ( 5 [1968]:45-118), which is now a classic in its field, he refuted many of the beliefs then prevailing with regard to the society and intellectual life of Crete during the last period of Venetian rule. His lecture «», which he delivered at the fourth Cretological Conference (Iraklion, 1976), became the subject of extensive discussion and set the stage for a scientific approach to the identity of Vizenzo Cornaro. A large number of studies followed that revealed his strong points—level headedness, sharpness and clarity of thought, an excellent understanding of sources and of bibliography, a brilliant writing style, and wide-ranging scholarship. His basic interests revolved around the Cretan years of Dominicos Theotocopoulos (the famous professor of philosophy at the University of Geneva and friend of Calvin), Francesco Portos (the sixteenth-century Cretan composer), Francesco Leontaritis (a figure whom he literally unearthed from Venetian archives), and others. Thus his election by the Academy of Athens to the post of Director of the Istituto Ellenico di Venezia as the successor to M. I. Manoussakas was both deserved and widely anticipated.

The Istituto Ellenico profited from Panayotakis's research and also from his administrative skills, which led to continuous publications, international...