Anthimos Gazis

Anthimos Gazis (or Gazes) was a scholar, a philosopher during the Greek Enlightenment, a cartographer and one of the heroes of the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. He was born in Milies (Thessalia) in Greece in 1758 and died in 1828.* His real name was Anastasios Gazalis.

Gazis studied in Greece and then he went to Constantinople where he was ordained priest.He became rector of the Greek Church of Vienna in 1797. In 1811 he received his Diploma from the “Philological Institute of Bucharest”. In 1813 Gazis was elected a Member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. His efforts were concentrated to the development of a higher education system in Greece. In 1821, he was the main figure of the Resurrection of Thessalia against the Ottomans.

He was the editor of the very first magazine in greek language, published in Vienna (The "Logios Ermis"). In 1799, he translated and published the Benjamin Martin’s “Philosophical Grammar”.

Gazis published in 1800 Vienna a map of Greece and the Balkans called "Pinax Geographikos tes Hellados".** It is a reduced edition of the famous map of Rhigas Feraios (the "Charta of Greece"). He edited also a worldmap called "Atlas e charte geographikes ton dyo Hemisphairion...,", owned today by the National Library of Australia ***

Fotis Vassileiou and Barbara Saribalidou published a book in 2006 concerning his contribution to the European higher education and lifelong learning.

References

* Vassileiou, F., Saribalidou B., "Greek and British Philosophy on Higher Education- The case Anthimos Gazis and links to Benjamin Martin", ISBN 960-631-076-0
** See the "Pinax Geographikos tes Hellados" at http://teca.bncf.firenze.sbn.it/TecaViewer/index.jsp?RisIdr=BNCF0003496582
*** National Library of Australia http://www.nla.gov.au/pub/gateways/archive/48/p15a01.html