Theodore Kavalliotis

Background

Kavalliotis was born in the then important Ottoman town of Moscopole (now a tiny village, Voskopojë, in southeast Albania), where he also spent most of his life.

Education

Kavalliotis studied in Moscopole and later pursued higher studies in mathematical and philosophical sciences at the Maroutseios college in Ioannina (in 1732-1734), directed by Eugenios Voulgaris.

Career

He is also known for having drafted an Aromanian-Greek-Albanian dictionary. He was of Aromanian ancestry and with Greek identity. They were used extensively and hand-made copies were found even as far as Iaşi, Romania.

After the destruction of Moscopole at 1769, he probably went to Tokaj, Hungary, but returned at 1773.

In 1770, he published in Venice, at Antonio Bortoli"s printing press, a school textbook, called Protopeiria. Protopeiria is a 104 pages textbook which in pages 15–59 included a trilingual lexicon of 1,170 Greek, Aromanian, and Albanian words.

This work aimed at the Hellenization of the non-Greek-speaking Christian communities in the Balkans. The lexicon was re-published in 1774 by the Swedish professor Johann Thunmann, who taught at the University of Halle-Wittenberg.

Thunmann added a Latin translation to the words in Greek, Aromanian, and Albanian.

Besides Eugenios Voulgaris, he was also influenced by the work of Vikentios Damodos, Methodios Anthrakites, René Descartes, and medieval scholastics. Kavalliotis couldn"t manage to reestablish the destroyed New Academy. Kavalliotis died at August 11, 1789, aged 71.

Connections

teacher:

Nea Akadimia