Dionysios A. Zakythinos or Zakythenos ( el, Διονύσιος Α. Ζακυθηνός; 1905 in

Lixouri Lixouri ( el, Ληξούρι) is a town and a municipality in the island of Kefalonia, the largest of the Ionian Islands of western Greece. It is the main town on the peninsula of Paliki, and the second largest town in Kefalonia after Argostoli a ...

Kefalonia Kefalonia or Cephalonia ( el, Κεφαλονιά), formerly also known as Kefallinia or Kephallenia (), is the largest of the Ionian Islands in western Greece and the 6th largest island in Greece after Crete, Euboea, Lesbos, Rhodes and Chios. It ...

– 18 January 1993, in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

) was a leading

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Byzantinist Byzantine studies is an interdisciplinary branch of the humanities that addresses the history, culture, demography, dress, religion/theology, art, literature/epigraphy, music, science, economy, coinage and politics of the Eastern Roman Empire. T ...

. Zakythinos was born in

in 1905. After graduating from the

University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; el, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, ''Ethnikó ke Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the Univers ...

in 1927, he went to the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

, which at the time was a major center of Byzantine studies with scholars like

Charles Diehl Charles Diehl (; 19 January 1859 – 1 November 1944) was a French historian born in Strasbourg. He was a leading authority on Byzantine art and history. Biography He received his education at the École Normale Supérieure, and later taught cl ...

and

Ferdinand Lot Ferdinand Victor Henri Lot ( Le Plessis Piquet, 20 September 1866 – Fontenay-aux-Roses, 20 July 1952) was a French historian and medievalist. His masterpiece, '' The End of the Ancient World and the Beginnings of the Middle Ages'' (1927), ...

. His first major work was a detailed study of the late Byzantine

Despotate of the Morea The Despotate of the Morea ( el, Δεσποτᾶτον τοῦ Μορέως) or Despotate of Mystras ( el, Δεσποτᾶτον τοῦ Μυστρᾶ) was a province of the Byzantine Empire which existed between the mid-14th and mid-15th centu ...

, published in French (''Le despotat grec de Morée (1262–1460)'') in two volumes, one in 1932 and the other, delayed by

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, in 1953. From 1939 to 1970 he taught Byzantine and Modern Greek History in the

(among his students there were

Angeliki Laiou Angeliki E. Laiou ( el, Αγγελική Λαΐου; Athens, 6 April 1941 – Boston, 11 December 2008) was a Greek-American Byzantinist and politician. She taught at the University of Louisiana, Harvard University, Brandeis University, and Rutgers ...

Nikolaos Oikonomides Nikolaos or Nikos Oikonomides ( el, Νικόλαος Οικονομίδης, 14 February 1934 – 31 May 2000) was a Greek Byzantinist, and one of the leading experts in the field of Byzantine administration. Biography Oikonomides was born in A ...

and Chryssa Maltezou), while in 1937–1946 he directed the Greek State Archives. He also taught modern Greek history in the

Panteion University The Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences ( el, Πάντειον Πανεπιστήμιο Κοινωνικών και Πολιτικών Επιστημών), usually referred to simply as the Panteion University, is a university loc ...

from 1951 to 1965, served as vice-chairman of the National Research Foundation in 1958 and was the first director of the Byzantine Research Institute from its foundation in 1960 to 1975. The Academy of Athens elected him as a full member in 1966, and Zakythinos went on to serve as its president in 1974. Zakythinos was also a Foreign Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

. In 1971–76 he served as chairman of the

International Association of Byzantine Studies International Association of Byzantine Studies (french: Association Internationale des Études Byzantines, AIEB) was launched in 1948. It is an international co-ordinating body that links national Byzantine Studies member groups. Background and A ...

(AIEB), and thereafter as its honorary president. Zakythinos also served briefly as Minister to the Prime Minister in the interim 1963–64 government of

Ioannis Paraskevopoulos Ioannis Paraskevopoulos ( el, Ιωάννης Παρασκευόπουλος) (25 December 1900 – 8 April 1984), was a Greek banker and politician who served twice as interim Prime Minister of Greece during the 1960s. He was born in Lavda, Elis ...

, while after the

fall Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southe ...

of the

Regime of the Colonels In politics, a regime (also "régime") is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. According to Yale professor Juan Jo ...

, he was elected to the

Greek Parliament The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule of the Hellenes, label=none), also known as the Parliament of the Hel ...

in the November 1974 elections, on the list of the conservative

New Democracy New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in Chinese Communist Revolution, post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path ...

party, serving until 1977. He died on 18 January 1993 in Athens.

Sources

External links

List of publications
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zakythinos, Dionysios 1905 births 1993 deaths National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni Greek Byzantinists People from Paliki Greek MPs 1974–1977 Members of the Academy of Athens (modern) 20th-century Greek historians Academic staff of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Scholars of Byzantine history