When did European Philhellenism truly originate? While traditional historiography tends to link this phenomenon exclusively to the Greek Revolution, thereby limiting its study to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Panagiotis Roilos’s groundbreaking monograph proposes a substantial revision of the chronological boundaries and methodological criteria of this field of research.

This book, which serves as a prelude to a broader study by the author on the origins of modern Hellenism, has two primary research aims:

• It highlights neglected aspects of German Philhellenism from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries. The discussion centers on the Philhellenic network of scholars in the Nuremberg region during the second half of the seventeenth and the early eighteenth centuries. Particular emphasis is placed on the fascinating and virtually unknown poetic work, written in Homeric Greek, Ἡ νῦν Ἑλλὰς ἐλεεινολογοῦσα διὰ τὴν ἐρήμωσιν, καὶ παρὰ τῶν ἀλλοδαπῶν, μάλιστα δὲ Τευτόνων, βοήθειαν αἰτουμένη (“Contemporary Greece Lamenting Her Desolation and Seeking Aid from Foreigners, especially the Teutons [Germans],” 1669), by the German scholar Johannes Wülfer of Altdorf.

• It redefines the phenomenon of Philhellenism, which is approached here as a distinctly cultural political movement or initiative, and shows that its roots are closely linked to the formation of modern Hellenism and extend much further back in time than existing research has previously assumed.

This is an exceptionally penetrating and thoroughly researched study that revises established paradigms and opens new avenues for historical inquiry.