The donation of the library of Cleo Tripou-Bostanzoglou by her nephew Kitsos Tripou is one of the most recent acquisitions of the National Library of Greece.

It is a collection of about 5,000 titles spanning the late 18th century to the present day. It covers a wide range of fields in the humanities, mainly in Greek and French. Modern and contemporary Greek history, literature and art are the main themes of the collection, while there are also a significant number of geographical studies, travel texts and travel guides. Fewer but equally important are those books related to ancient Greek literature, philosophy or linguistics. Rare and valuable publications also stand out, such as A. Tacoetius’ Elements of Geometry, published in Vienna in 1805, or Aristotle’s Ethics Nicomachean, edited by Adamantios Korais and printed in Paris in 1822. Finally, there are early editions of important works, such as the setting of the National Anthem by Nikolaos Mantzaros, published by Clayton in London in 1873, or the Poems of C.P. Cavafy printed in Alexandria in 1935, with artistic editing by Takis Kalmouchos.

Apart from the printed books and periodicals, an important part of the donation is archival material that reflects the life and interests of Cleo Tripou-Bostanzoglou. Catalogues, programmes and invitations found in her collection testify to the way in which she followed cultural events and domestic book production. There is also a significant number of travel brochures, material that is quite rare as it is not distributed commercially and is therefore difficult to locate in print and is not systematically recorded. Finally, the archival material includes copies of her father’s manuscript entitled ‘Historical notes on the Tripou family’, the original of which was presented by her to the Benaki Museum in 2005. For the commentary on this particular one, she seems to have drawn from the family library’s publications, as the relevant bibliographical references show.

In summary, this is a very interesting collection that reflects the collector’s interest in family history and heritage, books and travel. The donated material is currently being processed and will soon be available to the research community.