121-128

The proclamation of an award and the author of the study

• Μπαλόγλου, Χρήστος Π.

In 1928, the Academy of Athens proclaimed an award for the composition of a study referring to “The philosophical system of Plethon”; nevertheless the one and only essay submitted then was not considered to meet the Academy’s standards, so no prize was awarded. The following year, the essay was resubmitted, along with another one, and the two of them shared a commendation. In the frame of the International Congress held at Mystras in 2002 and dedicated to Plethon, Linos Benakis, ex-director of the Research Center for Greek Philosophy of the Academy of Athens, voiced his suspicion that the author of the aforementioned study (which, as it was the rule, was submitted anonymously) was the scholar Antonios Verveniotis. The author of the present article, after a thorough research into the matter, confirms that conjecture. This result is achieved by analyzing the internal structure of the essay, focused on the influence of Neoplatonism, Pythagoreanism and Zoroastrism on the philosophical thinking of the great Byzantine philosopher, and by comparing this analysis with the information given by Verveniotis’s brother, who was also his biographer, about his research in the major libraries of Europe during that period.

• Philosophy, Ethics and Religion

• Λογοτεχνία